SEWELL 



SEWING-MACHINE 



347 



delicate, especially in view of the attitude of the 

 governments of France and Britain. In the 

 ' Trent ' affair he was obliged, in opposition to 

 popular clamour, to admit the justice of England's 

 claim and to advise the president that the Con- 

 federate envoys should be given up. He protested 

 against the fitting out of the Alabama and similar 

 vessels in British ports, and 'declared that the 

 United States would claim from the English 

 government indemnities for damages resulting 

 from this breach of the obligations of a neutral 

 power. On the subject of the French invasion 

 of Mexico he maintained a prudent reserve, until 

 the conclusion of the war enabled him to insist on 

 the withdrawal of the French troops. On April 

 14, 1865, while confined to his bed with a broken 

 arm and jaw, the results of a carriage accident, 

 he was attacked and severely cut on the face and 

 neck by an accomplice of J. Wilkes Booth. He sup- 

 ported President Johnson's reconstruction policy, 

 thereby placing himself in opposition to the majority 

 of his own party and incurring much bitter censure. 

 In 1867 he negotiated with Russia the treaty for 

 the purchase of Alaska. After leaving office be 

 travelled in 1S69 to California and Alaska, return- 

 ing through Mexico, where he was warmly wel- 

 comed as the guest of the nation ; and in 1870-71 

 he made a tour round the world, his narrative of 

 which was edited and published (1873) after his 

 death by his adopted daughter, Olive Kisley Seward. 

 He died at Auburn, October 10, 1872. Without 

 being a creative statesman, Mr Seward had great 

 practical ability controlled by sound notions of 

 truth and justice; always a party man, he was 

 never an extreme partisan, and rattier made public 

 opinion than followed it. Strong convictions joined 

 to a conciliatory disposition rendered him a fitting 

 representative of the moderate anti-slavery senti- 

 ment and a worthy fellow-worker with Lincoln in 

 preserving the Union. 



See his Autobiography, continued in 1846 in a memoir 

 by his son (1877), and to 1872 in his Life and Letter , by 

 the same (2 vois. 1891 ) ; the Life by the same (3 vols. 

 1896) ; also Charles F. Adams's Address on his Life, &c. 

 (1873), and the memoir by George E. Baker published 

 with his Workt (3 vols. 1853 ; 2 other vols. 1862-44). 



Sewell, ELIZABETH MISSING, author of a long 

 series of High Church novels, the daughter of a 

 Newport solicitor, was born in the Isle of Wight 

 in 1815. Her first novel, Amy Herbert, was anony- 

 mous, and edited like three or four more of her 

 early works by her brother, the Kev. William 

 Sewell, vicar of Yaxley. She has produced more 

 than forty volumes, including novels and devotional 

 works. There is an edition of her works in 1 1 vols. 

 (1886). She has been a frequent contributor to the 

 Monthly Packet. 



Sewellel. See HAPLODON. 



Sewing-machine, a machine for sewing and 

 stitching upon cloth, leather, and other fabrics. 

 It is one of the most important 

 labour-saving inventions of the 

 age, and is extensively used for 

 domestic and manufacturing purposes throughout 

 the civilised world. By its use the labour of doing 

 the family sewing has been reduced to a minimum, 

 a new and profitable article of merchandise, to wit, 

 ' ready-made clothing,' created, the manufacture of 

 shoes and various articles of merchandise greatly 

 facilitated, and the processes of their manufacture 

 revolutionised. 



There are at the present time a large variety of 

 sewing-machines manufactured, each adapted to 

 the kind of work it is intended to perform, as 

 the Family Sewing-machine, for general domestic 

 or family purposes; the Manufacturing Machine, 

 for manufacturing purposes; the Cylinder 



Coprnht ISM. 1897. mud 

 1900 ID the U.S. bj J. B. 

 Llpplnoott Company. 



Machine, for the vamping of shoes, stitching of 

 water-hose, water-buckets, mail and travelling 

 bags and satchels, and for leather- work generally; 

 the ' Universal Arm Feeder Machine,' used largely 

 in the manufacture of gloves and repairing of shoes ; 

 the Over-seaming Machine; the Carpet Sewing- 

 machine; the Jacquard Pattern -stitching Machine ; 

 the Stay-stitch Machine; the Basting and Quilting 

 Machine; the Button Sewing-machine; and the 

 Button-hole Machine. Indeed the sewing-machine, 

 in the present stage of development, is adapted 

 to all kinds of plain or fancy sewing required, 

 alike upon the finest and the heaviest goods. A 

 notable specimen is the Goodyear Welt Machine, 

 by which shoe-manufacturers are enabled to pro- 

 duce by machinery footwear as good as that made 

 by hand, if not better. 



The familiar family sewing-machine, as made 

 by Wheeler & Wilson, is worked with the foot 

 by a treadle motion, and, with its various attach- 

 ments of 'hemmers,' 'fellers,' 'corders,' 'binders,' 

 'quilting-gauge,' &c., is adapted to all kinds of 

 family sewing. The same machine, without the 

 stand, is fitted up with a crank, to be operated 

 by the hand. Sewing-machines are also run by the 

 spring or electric motor for home use, or by steam- 

 power in factories. Sewing-machines may be 

 divided into classes, according to the stitch made, 

 as the ' chain-stitch,' the 'double-loop stitch,' the 

 ' lock-stitch , ' and the ' bu ttpn -hole stitch ' machines. 



The 'chain-stitch ' machine uses but one thread, 

 looped upon itself, by means of a curved needle 

 or liook, beneath the cloth, which catches the 

 thread as it is carried through the cloth in the 

 eye of the vertical needle, and holds it until the 

 second descent of the needle, this time through the 

 loop thus made, which is drawn up upon the under 

 side of the cloth as the vertical needle again rises, 

 and so mi thus making a chain of stitches which 

 is easily unravelled. Machines of this class are of 



Fig. 1. 



limited application, being better adapted for em- 

 broidering and basting than for manufacturing 

 purposes or for general domestic use. Fig. 1. repre- 

 sents this stitch. The Wilcox & Gibbs is an 

 illustration of this class of machine. 



The ' double-loop stitch ' is a machine using two 

 threads, one upon each side of the fabric the 

 upper thread in the eye of the vertical needle above 

 the cloth, the other in the circular needle which 

 vibrates immediately beneath the cloth. By the 

 descent of the vertical needle the upper thread is 

 carried down through the cloth, where it becomes 

 looped and interlooped with the under thread, form- 

 ing a stitch which, being interlooped with the 

 adjacent stitch, presents the appearance of three 

 threads interlooped upon the under side of the 

 cloth, and upon the upper side the single thread 

 as in the 'single chain-stitch.' The 'Grover and 

 Baker stitch' makes a strong and durable seam, 

 but consumes a large quantity of thread, and is 

 easily unravelled. The Grover & Baker machine, 

 upon which this stitch was originally made, is no 

 longer manufactured ; the ' stitch ' has, however, 

 been retained in some of the more modern machines. 



The ' lock-stitch ' class of machines, sometimes 

 called the ' double lock-stitch ' machines, comprises 

 fully four-fifths of all the machines now in use, and 

 is admirably adapted for domestic and manufactur- 

 ing purposes. Like the ' double-loop stitch ' the 

 ' lock-stitch ' machine is a double-threaded machine, 

 having one thread upon either side of the fabric. 



