530 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE, 



tions of the needlework. It has also created a saving in the 

 manufacture of bags in the United States to the amount of 

 $233,280 ; on shirts, in the United States, $14,400,000. 



Mr. Woods exhibited a diagram illustrating the shoemaker's 

 stitch, the lock stitch, the running stitch, the single thread chaia 

 stitch, and the double thread chain stitch. He also produced a 

 "board showing the three great modes of stitching. He left out 

 a stitch in each illustration to show the effect of dropping one. 

 The machine for making the shoemaker's stitch, he said, was 

 never of any practicable value. A machine was patented in 

 1843, by Mr. B. W. Bean, for making the running stitch. The 

 cloth was corrugated by means of small geared wheels, and 

 through the doubles thus produced a common sewing needle was 

 thrust, carrying the thread. The Robinson & Roper machine 

 made several of the stitches usually made by hand. In regard 

 to the lock stitch invented by Mr. Howe, he said that of all the 

 stitches invented the lock stitch only commended itself to his 

 (Mr. Howe's) favor. It is formed by two threads, one upon each 

 surface of the fabric sewed, and interlocked with each other in 

 the centre of it. It forms an elastic seam that cannot be ravelled, 

 and presents the same appearance on each surface. From two 

 and a half to three yards of thread are required for one yard of 

 seam. This stitch resembles the ordinary weaving, and seems to 

 be very appropriate to woven goods. It has been used for four- 

 teen years on every species of goods, from the heaviest harness 

 and upholstery to the finest gossamer. These stitches when 

 formed lie slightly below the surface, so that they cannot be 

 ironed out, and are as firm and elastic as the fabric sewed, 

 whether subject to lateral or longitudinal pressure. The single 

 thread chain, or crochet stitch, is in use as long as can be re- 

 membered, and was used for ornamenting cloth. The stitch is 

 formed with a single thread as follows : a loop of thread is thrust 

 through the fabric to be sewed, and held open until the thread 

 is again looped and thrust through the fabric, and through the 

 first loop. This second loop is held open until a third has been 

 formed and thrust through it. A succession of these loopings forms 

 the seam. The facility with which seams formed by this stitch 

 may be ripped, and their liability to ravel, render them valueless 

 for the general purposes of sewing. He produced a sample of 

 magic ruffle sewed with the lock stitch, and said it rips as easily 

 as it ravels. Suppose these two threads of the lock stitch do not 



