This raised the question whether Saint had built even 

 one machine. Nevertheless, the germ of an idea was 

 there, and had the inventor followed through the 

 sewing machine might have been classed an 18th- 

 century rather than a 19th-century contribution. 



1800-1820 



There is no doubt that the successful late- 18th- 

 century improvements in spinning and weaving meth- 

 ods, resulting in increased production of fabrics, had a 

 great effect in spurring inventors to ideas of stitching 

 by machinery. Several efforts were made during the 

 first two decades of the 19th century to produce such 

 machines. 



On February 14, 1804, a French patent was issued to 

 Thomas Stone and James Henderson for a "new me- 

 chanical principle designed to replace handwork in 

 joining the edges of all kinds of flexible material, and 

 particularly applicable to the manufacture of cloth- 

 ing." " The machine used a common needle and made 

 an overcast stitch in the same manner as hand sewing. 

 A pair of jaws or pincers, imitating the action of the 

 fingers, alternately seized and released the needle on 

 each side of the fabric. The pincers were attached to 

 a pair of arms arranged to be moved backward and 

 forward by "any suitable mechanism." 8 This machine 

 was capable of making curved or angular as well as 

 straight seams, but it was limited to carrying a short 

 length of thread, necessitating frequent rethreading. 

 The machine may have had some limited use, but it 

 was not commercially successful. 



On May 30 of the same year John Duncan, a Glas- 

 gow manufacturer, was granted British patent 2,769 

 for "a new and improved method of tambouring, or 

 raising flowers, figures or other ornaments upon mus- 

 lins, lawns and other cottons, cloths, or stuffs." This 

 machine made the chainstitch, using not one but 

 many hooked needles that operated simultaneously. 

 The needles, attached to a bar or carrier, were pushed 

 through the vertically held fabric from the upper right 

 side, which in this case was also the outer side. After 

 passing through it, they were supplied with thread 

 from spools by means of peculiarly formed hooks or 

 thread carriers. The thread was twisted around the 



Figure 4. — Weisenthal's two-pointed needle, 1755. 



needle above the hook, so as to be caught by it, and 

 drawn through to the outer surface. The shaft of the 

 needle was grooved on the hook side and fitted with a 

 slider. This slider closed upon the retraction of the 

 needle from the fabric, holding the thread in place and 

 preventing the hook from catching. The fabric was 

 stretched between two rollers set in an upright frame 

 capable of sliding vertically in a second frame ar- 

 ranged to have longitudinal motion. The combina- 

 tion of these two motions was sufficient to produce any- 

 required design. The principle developed by Duncan 

 was used on embroidery machines, in a modified 

 form, for many years. Of several early attempts, his 

 was the first to realize any form of success. 

 A type of rope-stitching machine, which might be 



1 Sewing Machine News ( \i 

 « Ibid. 



),vol. l,no. 8, p. 2. 



Figure 5. — -Saint's sewing machine, 1790. 

 (Smithsonian photo 42490-A.) 



