PROCEEDINGS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 455 



chain stitch. This machine is a single thread one, and is simple, compact, 

 durable, and cheap. The price of the one here is $45, including hemmer 

 and feller. Allow me here to read an abstract from a very interesting 

 paper by Edwin P. Alexander, Esq., C. E., read before the " Society of Arts 

 and the Institutions in Union," at the one hundred and ninth session, April 

 5th, 1863. (Published in the April number of the Journal of the Society of 

 Arts, London.) 



ON THE SEWING MACHINE ; ITS HISTORY AND PROGRESS. 



"Impressed with the national and social importance of the sewing 

 machine as one of the most valuable of the numerous labor-saving 

 machines of the nineteenth century, I approach the subject with some diffi- 

 dence and regret, for your sakes, that abler hands than mine have not 

 been deputed to bring it before the Society. 



"Such information, however, as I possess on the subject, I gladly place 

 at your disposal, and if I shall succeed in throwing light upon the nature and 

 merits of this indefatigable little seamstress, I shall consider that my labors 

 have not been in vain. I appear before j^ou this evening, not the champion of 

 any one in particular of the numerous varieties of sewing machines, but 

 rather as an humble exponent of their general construction and modus 

 operandi. 



"I propose, firstly, to trace the origin of the Sewing Machine ; secondly, 

 to explain the leading features of those varieties most generally adopted ; 

 and thirdly, to lay before you a few statistical returns, showing the rapid 

 development of the art of machine sewing, and its important bearing upon 

 the social well-being of a large portion of the community. * * * 



"The various sewing machines now in use maybe divided into two 

 classes : 



"Class 1. — Comprising all machines using a single thread. 



" Class 2. — Those machines employing two or more threads. 



" The only machines of any practical utility, under Class 1, are the Wil- 

 cox & Gibbs Machine, and the wax thread machines for stitching boot and 

 shoe soles, harness, and other strong leather work. ♦ * k 



" Many attempts have been made at the production of a good single 

 thread sewing machine, the idea having evidently struck inventors that, if 

 a secure seam could be produced from one thread in place of two, an 

 undoubted advantage would be gained, since the fewer the threads and 

 tensions to be regulated and looked after, the simpler and cheaper the 

 machine. In 1849, Morey and Johnson first brought the chain-stitch sew- 

 ing machine into something like a practical form, and since that period a 

 host of inventors have worked upon the same idea, but without much suc- 

 cess, till, in 1851, Mr. Gibbs, of Mill Point, Virginia, without having seen 

 a sewing machine, and knowing nothing of what had been done in that 

 direction, constructed a rude model of a machine which has proved itself 

 the best of its class. Having been improved and modified by Mr. Wilcox, 

 this machine is now known as tlie Wilcox & Gibbs Sewing Machine. The 

 sewing is produced by the combination of a straight eye-pointed needle, 

 •with a peculiar rotating looper in the form of a double hook, having its points 

 in reverse directions. On the stem of the hook is formed a flattened spur, 



