Figure 64.—The treadle of the machine was also used to help create music. George D. Garvie and George Wood received patent 267,874, Nov. 21, 1882, for “a cover for a sewing machine provided with a musical instrument and means for transmitting motion from the shaft of the sewing machine to the operating parts of the musical instrument.” Although no patent model was submitted by the inventors, the “Musical Sewing Machine Cover” was offered for sale as early as October 1882, as shown by this advertisement that appeared in The Sewing Machine News that month. (Smithsonian photo 57983.)
Soon after the sewing machine was commercially successful, special attachments for it were invented and manufactured. These ranged from the simplest devices for cutting thread to complicated ones for making buttonholes (see figs. 56 through 66).
Figure 65.—This fanning attachment was commercially available from James Morrison & Co. in the early 1870s; it sold for one dollar as stated in the advertising brochure from which this engraving was copied. Other inventors also patented similar implements. (Smithsonian photo 45513.)
The first patent for an attachment was issued in 1853 to Harry Sweet for a binder, used to stitch a special binding edge to the fabric. Other related attachments followed; among these were the hemmer which was similar to the binder, but turned the edge of the same piece of fabric to itself as the stitching was performed. Guides for stitching braid in any pattern, as directed by the movement of the goods below, were also developed; this was followed by the embroiderer, an elaborate form of braider. The first machine to stitch buttonholes was patented in 1854 and the first buttonhole attachment in 1856, but the latter was not practical until improvements were made in the late 1860s. Special devices for refilling the bobbins were invented and patented as early as 1862, and the popularity of tucked and ruffled garments inspired inventors to provide sewing-machine attachments for these purposes also. To keep the seamstress cool, C. D. Stewart patented an attachment for fanning the operator by an action derived from the treadle (fig. 65). While electric sewing machines did not become common until the 20th century, several 19th-century inventors considered the possibility of attaching a type of motor to the machine. One was the 1871 patent of Solomon Jones, who added an “electro motor” to an 1865 Bartlett machine (fig. 66). The attachments that were developed during the latter part of the 19th century numbered in the thousands; many of these were superfluous. Most of the basic ones in use today were developed by the 1880s and remain almost unchanged. Even the recently popular home zigzag machine, an outgrowth of the buttonhole machine, was in commercial use by the 1870s.
Figure 66.—Jones “electro motor” patent model of 1871 on a Bartlett sewing machine. (Smithsonian photo P-63104.)