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Detail from front cover.
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM
BULLETIN 254
WASHINGTON, D.C.
1968
THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION PRESS
The Invention
Of the Sewing Machine
Grace Rogers Cooper
CURATOR OF TEXTILES
Museum of History and Technology
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION · WASHINGTON, · D.C. 1968
Publications of the United States National Museum
The scholarly and scientific publications of the United States National Museum include two series, Proceedings of the United States National Museum and United States National Museum Bulletin.
In these series, the Museum publishes original articles and monographs dealing with the collections and work of its constituent museums—The Museum of Natural History and the Museum of History and Technology—setting forth newly acquired facts in the fields of anthropology, biology, history, geology, and technology. Copies of each publication are distributed to libraries, to cultural and scientific organizations, and to specialists and others interested in the different subjects.
The Proceedings, begun in 1878, are intended for the publication, in separate form, of shorter papers from the Museum of Natural History. These are gathered in volumes, octavo in size, with the publication date of each paper recorded in the table of contents of the volume.
In the Bulletin series, the first of which was issued in 1875, appear longer, separate publications consisting of monographs (occasionally in several parts) and volumes in which are collected works on related subjects. Bulletins are either octavo or quarto in size, depending on the needs of the presentation. Since 1902 papers relating to the botanical collections of the Museum of Natural History have been published in the Bulletin series under the heading Contributions from the United States National Herbarium and, since 1959, in Bulletins titled “Contributions from the Museum of History and Technology,” have been gathered shorter papers relating to the collections and research of that Museum.
This work forms volume 254 of the Bulletin series.
Frank A. Taylor
Director, United States National Museum
For sale by Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office
Washington, D.C. 20402—Price $2.75
Contents
| Preface | [vii] | ||
| Acknowledgments | [viii] | ||
| 1. | Early Efforts | [1] | |
| 2. | Elements of a Successful Machine | [17] | |
| 3. | The “Sewing-Machine Combination” | [39] | |
| 4. | Less Expensive Machines | [43] | |
| Appendixes | [55] | ||
| I. | Notes on the Development and Commercial Use of the Sewing Machine | [57] | |
| II. | American Sewing-Machine Companies of the 19th Century | [65] | |
| III. | Chronological List of U.S. Sewing-Machine Patent Models in the Smithsonian Collections | [125] | |
| IV. | 19th-Century Sewing Machine Leaflets in the Smithsonian Collections | [134] | |
| V. | A Brief History of Cotton Thread | [135] | |
| VI. | Biographical Sketches | [137] | |
| Bibliography | [144] | ||
| Indexes | [147] | ||
| Geographical Index to Companies Listed in Appendix II | [149] | ||
| Alphabetical Index to Patentees Listed in Appendix III | [151] | ||
| General Index to Chapters 1-4 | [155] | ||
Preface
It had no instrument panel with push-button controls. It was not operated electronically or jet-propelled. But to many 19th-century people the sewing machine was probably as awe-inspiring as a space capsule is to their 20th-century descendants. It was expensive, but, considering the work it could do and the time it could save, the cost was more than justified. The sewing machine became the first widely advertised consumer appliance, pioneered installment buying and patent pooling, and revolutionized the ready-made clothing industry. It also weathered the protests of those who feared the new machine was a threat to their livelihood.
The practical sewing machine is not the result of one man’s genius, but rather the culmination of a century of thought, work, trials, failures, and partial successes of a long list of inventors. History is too quick to credit one or two men for an important invention and to forget the work that preceded and prodded each man to contribute his share. It is no discredit to Howe to state that he did not invent the sewing machine. Howe’s work with the sewing machine was important, and he did patent certain improvements, but his work was one step along the way. It is for the reader to decide whether it was the turning point.
Since the sewing machine has been considered by some as one of the most important inventions of 19th-century America, of equal importance to this story of the invention is the history of the sewing machine’s development into a practical, popular commodity. Since many new companies blossomed overnight to manufacture this very salable item, a catalog list of more than one hundred and fifty of these 19th-century companies is included in this study. Still, the list is probably incomplete. Many of the companies remained in business a very short time or kept their activities a secret to avoid payment of royalties to patent holders. Evidence of these companies is difficult to find. It is hoped that additional information will come to light as a result of this initial attempt to list and date known companies. The dating of individual machines based on their serial numbers is also a difficult task. Individual company records of this type have not survived; however, using the commercial machines in the patent collection, for which we know one limiting date—the date the machine was deposited at the patent office—and using the records that have survived, an estimated date based on the serial number can be established for many of the better known machines.
Acknowledgments
I am greatly indebted to the late Dr. Frederick Lewton, whose interest in the history of the sewing machine initiated the collecting of information about it for the Smithsonian Institution’s Division of Textiles archives and whose out-of-print booklet “A Servant in the House” prompted the writing of this work. I would also like to thank Mr. Bogart Thompson of the Singer Manufacturing Company for his cooperation in arranging for the gift of an excellent collection of 19th-century sewing machines to the Smithsonian and for allowing me to use the Singer historical files. Acknowledgment is also made of the cooperation extended by The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village for permitting me to study their collection of old sewing machines.
Grace Rogers Cooper
Chapter One
Figure 1.—After almost a century of attempts to invent a machine that would sew, the practical sewing machine evolved in the mid-19th century. This elegant, carpeted salesroom of the 1870s, with fashionable ladies and gentlemen scanning the latest model sewing machines, reflects the pinnacle reached by the new industry in just a few decades. This example, one of many of its type, is the Wheeler and Wilson sewing-machine offices and salesroom, No. 44 Fourteenth Street, Union Square, New York City. From The Daily Graphic, New York City, December 29, 1874. (Smithsonian photo 48091-A.)