4SO 



SKYFFARTH. 



factories, M the Singer, the TVheeler * \Vilson, 

 and the Howe, are of great extent, and turn out an- 

 nually vast numbers of machines. AH to the nnral>er 

 of sewing-machines made, we have no record pre- 

 yionsly to the "Albany agreement" of 18, r >r,, l.ut 

 from that year to 1869 tlie sales amonnted to 1,500,- 

 000 machines. From 1869 to 1878 the sales were 

 4,800,000, making a total of 6,300,000 machines, 

 worth $360,000,000, produced in the United States 

 in 2*2 years. In 1880, as per the census returns, there 

 were '106 establishments in operation, with a total 

 capital of $12,501,830, and an annual product of ma- 

 chines rained at $13,868,188, and of cases valued at 

 $2,064,837. This is below the average of the 22 

 years preceding, bnt is based on a fall iu price of 

 nearly 50 per cent., so that the number of machine.s 

 sold must nave been considerably above that average. 

 In the manufacture of sewing-machines only the 

 finest material and the best workmanship are em- 

 ployed, and the interchangeable system is carried 

 out to the fullest extent, the parts of the cases and 

 the smallest partsof the machine being made exactly 

 of the same size and pattern, so as accurately to fit 

 in all work turned out from the same factory. This 

 interchangeable system of parts is an American idea 

 which is now widely adopted, and saves vast labor 

 and expense in repairing tire-arms, watches, sewing- 

 machines, etc., there being no longer occasion to re- 

 turn a broken instrument to the factory for repair, 

 as of old. Some of the large factories perform the 

 whole process of making cases, needles, and ma- 

 chines, even owning their own forests, and getting 

 out the raw material of their operations. They have 

 also extensive transportation facilities, and ramifica- 

 tions of sales agencies throughout the world. 



The work on sewing-machines, at first, was com- 

 paratively coarse, bnt there has been a continual im- 

 provement in this respect, and these machines now 

 rival fire-arms in accuracy of workmanship. Family 

 machines are manufactured " which will make over 

 2000 stitches a minute, which will sew 600 stitches a 

 minute with No. 60 cotton, using the same cotton as a 

 driving belt for the machine, and which will sew either 

 the finest gauze and tissue-paper or many thickne 

 of the heaviest goods, such as leather, heavy dunk, 

 beaver, and even tin, and will execute other work re- 

 quiring a combination of delicacy, accuracy, easy ac- 

 tion, strength, and speed probably uuapproached by 

 any other class of ordinary machines." Sewing-ma- 

 chines are ordinarily tested, both by sewing muslin 

 and by sewing several thicknesses of duck or beaver. 

 As to their accuracy, it is said that " cams, which in 

 1870 were machined with a variation from exact- 

 of .0015 inch, are not now allowed a discrepancy of 

 .0005 inch," and that the work which was formerly 

 coarse, as compared with gun work, is now sometimes I 

 the more accurate of the two, this being the result of 

 many improvements, not only in the design of the 

 mechanism bnt in the accuracy of the machine tools. 

 The development of the sewing-machine, in fact, in 

 one of the most remarkable achievements of Ameri- 

 can inventive genius. (0. M.) 



SEYITAKTII, (irsrvros (1796-1885), a noted 

 Egyptologist, passed the hist twenty-nine years of 

 hi.s life in the United States, and was during these 

 years probably the most conspicuous representative 

 of his department in America. He was born at 

 Uebigan, near Torgaa (then in the electorate of 

 Saxony), July 13, 1796, the son of a Lutheran clergy- 

 man. Having received a thorough classical training 

 at the famous " FQrstenschule " of St. Afra, at 

 Meissen on the Elbe, he entered the University of 

 Leipzig. Besides divinity, he studied not only 

 philology and philosophy bnt acquired wide knowl- 

 edge in various scientific departments. He gained the 

 dAgree of Ph. D and later of D. D. Having finished 

 hi* academic course, he fitted himself for the career 



of an academic teacher, and in 1S2.T received permis- 

 sion to lecture as yrivat-docent. Oneof his earlier .Ul.- 

 orate works, De Sonis I.ilfrnrum (I'riK-iirini 

 (ls - J4), was honored with u>i introduction written l.\- 

 the renowned Got (fried Hermann. The only I 

 tologist of note at Leipzig in those days was F. A. W. 

 Spolin. and when he died, in 1829, Seyffarth was in- 

 trusted by the university with the continuation of 

 his researches. This commission suggested to him 

 the necessity of going more deeply into the subject. 

 Consequently, in 1826-28, he made a tour of tho 

 princi]>al museums and collections of Europe, to 

 study and copy on the spot the most important 

 Egyptian pupyri and kindred archieological remains. 

 He visited Berlin, Vienna, Munich, Turin, Milan, 

 Venice, Leghorn, Florence, Rome, Naples, Paris, 

 London, Leyclen, Amsterdam ; he filled fourteen 

 folios with copies of exquisite perfection (which he 

 subsequentlv bequeathed to the Historical Society 

 of New York). His method of interpreting hiero- 

 glyphs was fundamentally different from that of 

 Champollion. Seyffurth held that the hieroglyphs 

 designated the consonant elements of a syllable 

 Mil (sacrifice), might be designated by a basket (ktiltl), 

 the image of an owl (mvlak) could be read as melek 

 (king), whereas Champollion taught that the hiero- 

 glyphs were symbols standing for definite letters of 

 the alphabet. A few years after his tour, Seyffarth 

 was made professor extraordinarius of archaeology 

 (at Leipzig), and held this position from 1830 to 

 1854. He did not succeed, however, in gaining 

 academic followers of distinction, for Lepsius, 

 Brugseh, Miiller of Gottingen, Ebers, and others 

 followed the system of Champollion. Uhlemann and 

 Wuttke were the most noted of his own adherents. 

 After 1840 he began to experience great difficulty in 

 finding avenues for publication. Academic advance- 

 ment also seemed to be cut off. 



As a Biblical scholar Seyffarth was uncompro- 

 misingly conservative, and undertook in all chrono- 

 logical questions to fix dates to the day. He had 

 developed the idea that all the chief deities, not 

 only of the Greek Olympus bnt also of other pagan 

 systems, were to be derived from the seven planets 

 and the twelve constellations of the zodiac, and that 

 the position of the planets at certain dates was 

 designated on many monuments of antiquity, thus 

 affording data for chronological computation. He 

 taught also that the Hebrew alphabet of twenty- five 

 letters was not only the invention of Noah, that it 

 contained a representation of the zodiac and of the 

 seven planets, but also that the Hebrew was tho 

 mother tongue of human speech. Vast as was the 

 erudition of Sevflarth, these extreme chronological 

 speculations and assertions, coupled with the abstruse 

 and involved character of his presentation, as well as 

 his uncompromising hostility to Champollion's sys- 

 tem, tended to isolate him more and more from kin- 

 dred scholars. Finally he took a step which he had 

 contemplated for a number of years he resigned 

 his position at the University of Leipzig in 1854, 

 and two years later came to the United States. For 

 three years he was professor in a Lutheran theologi- 

 cal seminary, the Concordia College at St. Louis. 

 In 1859 he severed his connection with this institu- 

 tion, induced in part by his uncompromising hos- 

 tility to slavery. Thereafter, with the exception of 

 a few years' sojourn at Dansville, N. Y., where he 

 made a vain effort to establish a Lutheran theologi- 

 cal seminary, he made New York City his residence, 

 determined largely by the desire to avail himself of 

 the Astor library and other literary facilities. He 

 wrote very many papers and larger works during 

 this period, largely relating to biblical chronology. 

 Of these many were published in Lutheran period- 

 icals, others in the Trantactirmg of the St. Lonis 

 Academy of Science ; be was also an active member 



