The Invention of the Sewing Machine Part 7

I. Notes on the Development and Commercial Use of the Sewing Machine

INTRODUCTION

While researching the history of the invention and the development of the sewing machine, many items of related interest concerning the machine's economic value came to light. The manufacture of the machines was in itself a boost to the economy of the emerging "industrial United States," as was the production of attachments for specialized st.i.tching and the need for new types of needles and thread. Moreover, the machine's ability to speed up production permitted it to permeate the entire field of products manufactured by any type of st.i.tching, from umbrellas to tents. Since this aspect of the story was not completed for this study, no attempt will be made to include any definitive statements on the economic importance of the sewing machine at home or abroad. This related information is of sufficient interest, however, to warrant inclusion in this first Appendix. Perhaps these notes will suggest areas of future research for students of American technology.

READY-MADE CLOTHING

Whether of the expensive or the inexpensive type, the sewing machine was much more than a popular household appliance. Its introduction had far-reaching effects on many different types of manufacturing establishments as well as on the export trade. The newly developing ready-made clothing industry was not only in a state of development to welcome the new machine but also was, in all probability, responsible for its immediate practical application and success.

Until the early part of the second quarter of the 19th century, the ready-made clothing trade in the United States was confined almost entirely to furnishing the clothing required by sailors about to ship out to sea. The stores that kept these supplies were usually in the neighborhood of wharf areas. But other than the needs of these seamen, there was little market for ready-made goods. Out of necessity many of the families in the early years in this country had made their own clothing. As wealth was acquired and taste could be cultivated, professional seamstresses and tailors were in increasing demand, moved into the cities and towns, and even visited the smaller villages for as long as their services were needed. At the same time a related trade was also growing in the cities, especially in New York City, that of dealing in second-hand clothing. Industrious persons bought up old clothes, cleaned, repaired and refinished them, and sold the clothing to immigrants and transients who wished to avoid the high cost of new custom-made clothing.

The repairing of this second-hand clothing led to the purchase of cheap cloth at auction--"half-burnt," "wet-goods," and other damaged yardage.

When in excess of the repairing needs, this fabric was made into garments and sold with the second-hand items. Many visitors who pa.s.sed through New York City were found to be potential buyers of this merchandise if a better cla.s.s of ready-made clothes was made available.

Manufacture began to increase. Tailors of the city began to keep an a.s.sortment of finished garments on hand. When visitors bought these, they were also very likely to buy additional garments for resale at home. The latter led to the establishment of the wholesale garment-manufacturing industry in New York about 1834-35.

Most of the ready-made clothing establishments were small operations, not large factories. Large quant.i.ties of cloth were purchased; cutting was done in multiple layers with tailor's shears. Since many seamstresses were needed, the garments were farmed out to the girls in their homes. The manufacture of garments in quant.i.ty meant that the profit on each garment was larger than a tailor could make on a single custom-made item. The appeal of increased profits influenced many to enter the new industry and, due to the ensuing compet.i.tion, the retail cost of each garment was lowered. Just as the new businesses were getting underway, the Panic of 1837 ruined most of them. But the lower cost and the convenience of ready-made clothing had left its mark. Not only was the garment-manufacturing business re-established soon after the Panic had subsided, but by 1841 the value of clothing sold at wholesale in New York was estimated at $2,500,000 and by 1850--a year before sewing machines were manufactured in any quant.i.ty--there were 4,278 clothing manufacturing establishments in the United States. Beside New York City, Cincinnati was also one of the important ready-made clothing centers. In 1850 the value of its products amounted to $4,427,500 and in 1860 to $6,381,190. Boston was another important center with a ready-made clothing production of $4,567,749 in 1860.

Philadelphia, Baltimore, Louisville, and St. Louis all had a large wholesale clothing trade by 1860. Here was the ready market for a practical sewing machine.[73]

Clothing establishments grew and began to have agencies in small towns and the sewing work was distributed throughout the countryside. The new, competing sewing-machine companies were willing to deliver a machine for a small sum and to allow the buyer to pay a dollar or two a month until the full amount of the sale was paid. This was an extension of the hire-purchase plan (buying on credit) initiated by Clark of the Singer Company. The home seamstresses were eager to buy, for they were able to produce more piecework with a sewing machine and therefore earn more money. An example of the effect that the sewing machine had on the st.i.tching time required was interestingly established through a series of experiments conducted by the Wheeler and Wilson company. Four hand sewers and four sewing-machine operators were used to provide the average figures in this comparative time study, the results of which were published in 1861;[74]

NUMBER OF St.i.tCHES PER MINUTE

_By Hand_ _By Machine_ Patent leather, fine st.i.tching 7 175 Binding hats 33 374 St.i.tching vamped shoes 10 210 St.i.tching fine linen 23 640 St.i.tching fine silk 30 550

TIME FOR GARMENTS St.i.tCHED

_By Hand_ _By Machine_ Frock coats 16 hrs. 35 min. 2 hrs. 38 min.

Satin vests 7 hrs. 19 min. 1 hr. 14 min.

Summer pants 2 hrs. 50 min. 0 hr. 38 min.

Calico dress 6 hrs. 37 min. 0 hr. 57 min.

Plain ap.r.o.n 1 hr. 26 min. 0 hr. 9 min.

Gentlemen's shirts 14 hrs. 26 min. 1 hr. 16 min.

The factory manufacturer, with the sewing work done at the factory, was also developing. In 1860, Oliver F. Winchester, a shirt manufacturer of New Haven, Connecticut, stated that his factory turned out 800 dozen shirts per week, using 400 sewing machines and operators to do the work of 2,000 hand sewers. The price for hand sewing was then $3 per week, which made labor costs $6000 per week. The 400 machine operators received $4 per week, making the labor cost $1600 per week. Allowing $150 as the cost of each machine, the sewing machines more than paid for themselves in less than 14 weeks, increased the operators pay by $1 a week, and lowered the retail cost of the item.[75] The greatest savings of time, which was as much as fifty percent, was in the manufacture of light goods--such items as shirts, ap.r.o.ns, and calico dresses. The Commissioner of Patents weighed the monetary effect that this or any invention had on the economy against the monetary gain received by the patentee. When he found that the patentee had not been fairly compensated, he had the authority to grant a seven-year extension to the patent.[76]

The sewing machine also contributed to the popularity of certain fashions. Ready-made cloaks for women were a business of a few years'

standing when the sewing machine was adopted for their manufacture in 1853. Machine sewing reduced the cost of constructing the garment by about eighty percent, thereby decreasing its price and increasing its popularity. In New York City alone, the value of the "cloak and mantilla" manufacture in 1860 was $618,400.[77] Crinolines and hoopskirts were easier to st.i.tch by machine than by hand, and these items had a spirited period of popularity due to the introduction of the sewing machine. Braiding, pleating, and tucking adorned many costume items because they could be produced by machine with ease and rapidity.

In addition to using the sewing machine for the manufacture of shirts, collars, and related men's furnishings, the machine was also used in the production of men's and boy's suits and reportedly gave "a vast impetus to the trade."[78] The Army, however, was not quite convinced of the sewing machine's practical adaptation to its needs. Although a sewing machine was purchased for the Philadelphia Quartermaster Depot as early as 1851, they had only six by 1860. On March 31, 1859, General Jesup of the Philadelphia Depot wrote to a Nechard & Company stating that the machine sewing had been tried but was not used for clothing, only for st.i.tching caps and chevrons. In another letter, on the same day, to "Messers Hebrard & Co., Louisiana Steam Clothing Factory, N. Orleans,"

Jesup states: "Machine sewing has been tried with us, and though it meets the requirements of a populous and civilized life, it has been found not to answer for the hard wear and tear and limited means of our frontier service. Particular attention has been paid to this subject, and we have abandoned the use of machines for coats, jackets and trousers, etc. and use them on caps and bands that are not exposed to much hard usage...."[79] At this period prior to the Civil War, the Army manufactured its own clothing. As the demands of war increased, more and more of the Army's clothing supplies were furnished on open contract--with no specifications as to st.i.tching.[80] Machine st.i.tching, in fact, is found in most of the Civil War uniforms. One of the problems that most probably affected the durability of the machine st.i.tching in the 1850s was the sewing thread, a problem that was not solved until the 1860s and which is discussed later under "thread for the machine."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 55.--BLAKE'S LEATHER-St.i.tCHING MACHINE patent model of July 6, 1858; the inventor claimed the arrangement of the mechanism used and an auxiliary arm capable of entering the shoe, which enabled the outer sole to be st.i.tched both to the inner sole and to the upper part of the shoe. (Smithsonian photo 50361.)]

SHOE MANUFACTURE

Another industry that was aided by the new invention was that of shoe manufacture. Although the earliest sewing-machine patents in the United States reflect the inventors' efforts to solve the difficult task of leather st.i.tching, and, although machines were used to a limited extent in st.i.tching some parts of the shoe in the early and mid-1850s, it was not until 1858 that a machine was invented that could st.i.tch the sole to the inner sole and to the upper part of the shoe. This was the invention of Lyman R. Blake and was patented by him on July 8, 1858; the patent model is shown in figure 55. Blake formed a chainst.i.tch by using a hooked needle, which descended from above, to draw a thread through the supporting arm. Serving as the machine's bedplate, the arm was shaped to accommodate the st.i.tching of all the parts of the shoe.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 56.--HARRIS' patent thread cutter, 1872.

(Smithsonian photo P-6397.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 57.--WEST'S patent thread cutter, 1874.

(Smithsonian photo P-63100.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 58.--KARR'S patent needle threader, 1871.

(Smithsonian photo P-63101.)]

The increased number of shoes required by the Army during the Civil War spurred the use of the sewing machine in their manufacture. The first "machine sewed bootees" were purchased by the Army in 1861. Inventors continued their efforts; the most prominent of these was Gordon McKay, who worked on an improvement of the Blake machine with Robert Mathies in 1862 and then with Blake in 1864. Reportedly, the Government at first preferred the machine-st.i.tched shoes as they lasted eight times longer than those st.i.tched by hand; during the war the Army purchased 473,000 pairs, but in 1871 the Quartermaster General wrote:

No complaints regarding the quality of these shoes were received up to February 1867 when a Board of Survey, which convened at Hart's Island, New York Harbor reported upon the inferior quality of certain machine sewed bootees of the McKay patent, issued to the enlisted men at that post. The acting Quartermaster General, Col.

D. H. Rucker, April 10, 1867, addressed a letter to all the officers in charge of depots, with instructions not to issue any more of the shoes in question, but to report to this office the quant.i.ty remaining in store. From these reports it appears that there were in store at that time 362,012 pairs M. S. Bootees, all of which were ordered to be, and have since been sold at public auction.[81]

The exact complaint against the shoes was not recorded. Possibly the entire shoe was st.i.tched by machine. It was found that although machine-st.i.tched shoes were more durable in some respects and the upper parts of most shoes continued to be machine st.i.tched, pegged soles for the more durable varieties remained the fashion for a decade or more, as did custom hand-st.i.tched shoes for those who could afford them.

OTHER USES

The use of sewing machines in all types of manufacturing that required st.i.tching of any type continued to grow each year. While the princ.i.p.al purpose for which they were utilized continued to be the manufacture of clothing items, by the year 1900 they were also used for awnings, tents, and sails; cloth bags; bookbinding and related book manufacture; flags and banners; pocketbooks, trunks, and valises; saddlery and harnesses; mattresses; umbrellas; linen and rubber belting and hose; to the aggregate sum of nearly a billion dollars--$979,988,413.[82]

SEWING-MACHINE ATTACHMENTS

The growing popularity of the sewing machine offered still another boost to the economy--the development of many minor, related manufacturing industries. The repet.i.tive need for machine needles, the development of various types of attachments to simplify the many sewing tasks, and the ever-increasing need for more and better sewing thread--the sewing machine consumed from two to five times as much thread as st.i.tching by hand--created new manufacturing establishments and new jobs.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 59.--SHANK'S patent bobbin winder, 1870.

(Smithsonian photo P-6398.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 60.--SWEET'S patent binder, 1853. (Smithsonian photo P-6396.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 61.--SPOUL'S patent braid guide, 1871.

(Smithsonian photo P-63102.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 62.--ROSE'S patent embroiderer, 1881. (Smithsonian photo P-6399.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 63.--HARRIS' patent b.u.t.tonhole attachment, 1882.

(Smithsonian photo P-63103.)]

The method of manufacturing machine needles did not differ appreciably from the method used in making the common sewing needle, but the latter had never become an important permanent industry in the United States.

Since the manufacture of practical sewing machines was essentially an American development and the eye-pointed needle a vital component of the machine, it followed that the manufacture of needles would also develop here. Although such a manufacture was established in 1852,[83] foreign imports still supplied much of the need in the 1870s. As more highly specialized st.i.tching machines were developed, an ever-increasing variety of needles was required, and the industry grew.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 advertis.e.m.e.nt 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 b.u.t.tonholes (see figs. 56 through 66).