As with so many inventions, it is difficult to know for certain who invented the sewing machine. Conflicting historical reports and mix-ups in patent offices have made it difficult to pin down who was the first to create a valid design. Not all of those who are credited with the invention even made a functioning machine. Many hobby inventors came up with early versions, but the names in this post are those which feature most often in the discussion. Whichever of these engineers invented the sewing machine, they all had an important role to play. Their persistence, despite numerous setbacks, gave us the technology which revolutionised the textile industry and has continued to be developed ever since!
Charles Weisenthal, 1755
Weisenthal was a German mechanic working in London. Financed by the British nobility, he invented a machine with a two-pointed needle. It worked by shuttling the thread back and forth through the cloth to produce a crude stitch. This machine didn’t tighten the stitches as intended and didn’t manage to achieve the required tension to match the work produced by manual sewing. This design was ultimately abandoned but it is worth noting as a precursor to the later more successful designs!
Thomas Saint, 1790
Saint was an English cabinet maker and hobby inventor. He realised that the needle didn’t have to pass all the way through the material for the machine to produce a stitch. Other attempts to invent a sewing machine had ineffectually tried to mimic the process of manual sewing, so this idea was revolutionary. The patent for his machine was grouped together with several others he was filing at the time relating to bookbinding and was essentially forgotten about for over 100 years. His machine has all of the attributes of modern sewing machines as we know them. However, there is no evidence to suggest that Saint actually built the machine he designed. A working replica was built by William Newton Wilson years later based on Saint’s patent, but he did have to make some modifications before it would work completely.
Barthelemy Thimonnier, 1830
Thimonnier was a French tailor who invented one of the first functioning sewing machines. It used a hooked tambour needle and produced a simple chain stitch which effectively joined cloth as intended. The operator had to feed the material by hand, but the machine could sew any length of seam, including curved seams. He built 80 machines using this design and put them to use in a factory in Paris producing uniforms for the French army. Unfortunately for him, the French revolution meant it was a time of conflict in the city. Local tailors were afraid that this machine would put them out of a job and so they formed a mob which destroyed all of the machines and burned down his factory. Thimonnier fled the city with his family and continued working on new and improved versions of his sewing machine. He tried to market his Mark 3 machine in the UK and USA but by this time other inventors had made more progress and superseded his machine with designs which were more compact and technologically advanced. He ended up as part of a travelling show, displaying his sewing machine in a tent for people to view for 10 cents a time.
Elias Howe, 1844
Howe was an American machinist who used his experience working in a factory to invent a sewing machine. He sold the income rights to half his patent to a wealthy friend so he could afford to construct it. His machine actually sewed well, but only for six inches at a time. The operator was required to hang the fabric on pins and it could only sew straight seams, which made it highly inefficient. This, combined with the high price tag, meant there were few buyers. Howe tried to sell his machine in the UK but ultimately failed and returned to NYC penniless. He found that many companies had started making sewing machines which all used concepts enshrined in his patent. Although these machines worked effectively and his didn’t, his patent law suits against these makers and the exorbitant licensing fees he charged to all manufacturers who tried to build and sell similar machines made him the second richest man in the world.
Isaac Merritt Singer, 1851
Singer was an American inventor, actor, and businessman. He did not invent the sewing machine, but he did develop a practical and efficient design for one based on an existing machine he had been asked to repair. He patented this design and was famous for his marketing, mass-production techniques, and hire-purchase systems which offered credit so customers could pay in instalments. This made Singer a household name. It also caused a conflict with Howe. Singer saw that Howe’s patent covered almost any machine it was possible to build, as it covered the use of an eye-pointed needle and shuttle. In an attempt to challenge the patent, he located an inventor named Walter Hunt who had produced a sewing machine with a needle and shuttle years earlier in around 1833.
Walter Hunt, 1833
Hunt was an American mechanic who invented a sewing machine which worked in a similar way to Howe’s years before Howe’s patent was registered. He invented many products which are still widely used today, including the safety pin, but never truly realised the potential value of these ideas. Although Howe had essentially reinvented his machine, as Hunt had failed to patent his own design, he received none of the profits. It is widely believed that Hunt deliberately didn’t patent his sewing machine as he thought such an invention would result in seamstresses being unable to find work. Singer encouraged Hunt to defend his invention against Howe in court, but the judge decided in favour of Howe. Hunt finally patented his lockstitch machine in 1854.
What happened next?
Following this there were years of lawsuits and patent disputes between rival sewing machine companies (known as the Sewing Machine War) which ultimately ended in the formation of the ‘Sewing Machine Combination’. This unprecedented move created what was essentially a cartel with a patent pool which gave them control of sewing machine production for the next 14 years.
Industrial sewing machines today
Although it’s interesting to know the history of the industrial sewing machine, the important thing is that the design has continued to be developed ever since! There are now thousands of different types of sewing machine for every conceivable application. Even seemingly small advancements like Juki’s invention of the automatic thread trimmer have had a big impact on the global textile industry. And we haven’t finished inventing yet! If you are looking for the most advanced industrial sewing machine for your manufacturing process, contact our friendly team who will recommend the best product to suit you. You can get in touch with us through the contact form on the website or via info@ae-sewingmachines.co.uk
You can learn more about the invention of the sewing machine and the conflicts surrounding it here:
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