Sewing machine day (13/06)

June 13 is Sewing Machine Day – is an unofficial holiday, but celebrated by experts, and inextricably linked with the history of the appearance of this invention, which became part of the industrial revolution and made it possible to revolutionize not only the light industry, but also the life of most housewives.

Disputes about what date to consider the birthday of a sewing machine do not subside among specialists and lovers of the history of technical inventions even today. The fact is that there is no such date, and it cannot be if we want to speak unequivocally. Even during the period of the first sewing machines, disputes about the right to be considered an inventor reached the point of litigation. Note – we are talking about them in the plural, since the invention appeared in different countries around the same period of time. The difference lay in the operating principle and technical features of sewing machines, which were born during the late 18 – period of the mid-19th centuries. Many inventors have shown their creativity along the way. The most famous of them were those about whom we will talk further.

Prototypes of the first sewing machines appeared as ideas in the 15th century. And they belong to Leonardo da Vinci. Although there are allegations that a century earlier in Holland, a certain inventor, whose name remains unknown, made devices that simplified the work of sewing sails. Well, then time takes us to the 18th century.

In 1755, Karl Weisenthal patents the design of a sewing machine that follows the operating principle of hand sewing, that is, copying stitches when sewn by hand. In England, inventor Thomas Saint (or Saint) received a patent on June 13, 1790 for the design of the first sewing machine, which, however, was not widespread, but was intended for sewing leather and canvas. This date became the basis for the unofficial celebration of Sewing Machine Day. However, the image of a sewing machine that most people who have ever seen this unit imagine was still far away.

It is known that the Austrian tailor and inventor Joseph Madersperger designed a machine in the early 19th century that used a needle with an eye at the sharp end (an idea partly taken from Weisenthal), and the machine could make up to 100 stitches per minute. In 1830, the French inventor Barthelemy Timonier created a more or less convenient and practical sewing machine. His brainchild already made up to 200 stitches per minute, and the resulting patent and successful design made it possible to create a sewing manufactory. However, this manufactory did not last long, as it was destroyed and burned during a protest by indignant workers who feared for the loss of their jobs as a result of simplification and automation of production.

During the same period (the first half of the 19th century), examples of sewing machines by Hunt, Fisher, Gibbone, etc. appeared. But the breakthrough in the field of sewing machines occurred in 1845 along with the invention of the American Elias Howe. This machine was already making 300 stitches per minute and using a shuttle stitch. However, it also had its own features and shortcomings: horizontal movement of the needle, vertical arrangement of stitchable materials, etc., which caused certain problems when bringing the product to market (even Howe sells the right to use his invention in England, and not in the USA).

Although all subsequent examples of sewing machines were modernizations of Howe's ideas, a company founded by another « inventor Isaac Merritt Singer in 1851 became a trendsetter and »brand in this area. Essentially, his sewing machine became a deeply modernized version of Howe's machine. However, the innovations that this inventor managed to introduce into its design allow us to call his brainchild a new invention.

Thanks to these improvements and modernization, Singer was able to overcome a lot of «child diseases of sewing machines of that time, as well as make his product reliable, convenient, repairable and relatively affordable. It was Singer's machines that became the dream of all housewives, as well as an indicator of prosperity, since the sewing machine was not a cheap product at first. The end of the 19th century was a real boom in the spread of sewing machines, and the further history of their development is a topic that deserves special attention.



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