Figure 6. — Chapman's sewing machine, first eye-pointed needle, 1807. (Smithsonian photo 33299-K.) 



considered unimportant to this study, must be in- 

 cluded because of its use of the eye-pointed needle, 

 the needle that was to play a most important part 

 in the later development of a practical sewing ma- 

 chine. The earliest reference to the use of a needle 

 with an eye not being required to be passed completely 

 through the fabric it was stitching is found in a 

 machine invented by Edward Walter Chapman, for 

 which he and William Chapman were granted 

 British patent 3,078 on October 30, 1807. The 

 machine (fig. 6) was designed to construct belting or 

 flat banding by stitching together several strands of 

 rope that had been laid side by side. Two needles 

 were required and used alternately. One needle 

 was threaded and then forced through the ropes. 

 On the opposite side the thread was removed from 

 the eye of the first needle before it was withdrawn. 

 The second needle was threaded and the operation 

 repeated. The needles could also be used to draw 

 the thread, rather than push it, through the ropes 

 with the same result. W hile being stitched, the ropes 

 were held fast and the sewing frame and supporting 

 carriage were moved manually as each stitch was 

 made. Such a machine would be applicable only 

 to the work described, since the necessity of re- 

 threading at every stitch would make it impractical 

 for any other type of sewing. 



Another early machine reported to have used the 

 eye-pointed needle to form the chainstitch was 



invented about 1810 by Balthasar Krems, 9 a hosiery 

 worker of Mayen, Germany. One knitted article 

 produced there was a peaked cap, and Krems' 

 machine was devised to stitch the turned edges of 

 the cap, 10 which was suspended from wire pins on 

 a moving wheel. The needle of the machine was 

 attached to a horizontal shaft and carried the thread 

 through the fabric. The loop of thread was retained 

 by a hook-shaped pin to become enchained with 

 the next loop at the reentry of the needle. Local 

 history reports that this device may have been used 

 as early as 1800, but the inventor did not patent his 

 machine and apparently made no attempt to com- 

 mercialize it. Xo contemporary references to the 



9 Erich Luth, Ein Mayener Strumpjwirker, Balthasar Krems, 

 1760-1813, Erfinder der Nahmaschine, p. 10, states that the ma- 

 chine used an eye-pointed needle. Wilhelm Renters, 

 Praktisches wissen von der Nahmaschine, p. 4, states that Krems used 

 a hooked needle. Renters probably mistook the hooked re- 

 taining pin for the needle. 



10 Dr. Dahmen, Burgermeister of Mayen, stated in a letter of 

 October 8, 1963, that the original Krems machine was turned 

 over to the officials of Mayen by Krems' descendants about 

 the turn of the century. He verified that the machine used an 

 eye-pointed needle. About 1920 the machine was placed in 

 the Eifelmuseum in Genovevaburg ; some of the unessential 

 parts were restored. The machine now at this museum is the 

 one pictured in Luth's book. A replica of the machine is in the 

 Deutsches Museum, Munich, Germany. 



