Selena Nguyen Essays (386 words) - Sewing, Clothing, Textile Arts

Selena Nguyen Essays (386 words) - Sewing, Clothing, Textile Arts Selena Nguyen 1/3/2018 The sewing machine The English inventor and cabinetmaker, Thomas Saint, wasissued the first patent for a complete machine for sewing in 1790. It is not known if Saint actually built a working prototype of his invention. The patent describes an awl that punched a hole in leather and passed a needle through the hole. It is known that when an attempt was made in the 1880s to produce a machine from Saint's drawings it would not work without modifications. Thomas Saint was born in the 1700s in Greenhill Rents parish of St. Sepulchre London, England. Thomas Saint invented the first sewing machine design, but he did not successfully advertise or market his invention, His machine was meant to be used on leather and canvas material. It is likely that Saint had a working model but there is no evidence of one; he was a skilled cabinet maker and his device included many practically functional features. His sewing machine used the chain stitch method, in which the machine uses a single thread to make simple stitches in the fabric. A stitching awl would pierce the material and a forked point rod would carry the thread through the hole where it would be hooked underneath and moved to the next stitching place, where the cycle would be repeated, locking the stitch. Saint's machine was designed to aid the manufacture of various leather goods, including saddles and bridles, but it was also capable of working with canvas, and was used for sewing ship sails. In 1874, a sewing machine manufacturer, William Newton Wilson, found Saint's drawings in the London Patent Office, made adjustments and built a working machine, currently owned by the London Science Museum. Sewing machines were invented during the first Industrial Revolution to decrease the amount of manual sewing work performed in clothing companies. The invention of the sewing machine freed women of this chore, liberated workers from poorly paid long hours in factories, and produced a wide variety of less expensive clothing. The industrial sewing machine made a range of products possible and affordable. Since the invention of the first working sewing machine, generally considered to have been the work of Englishman Thomas Saint in 1790, the sewing machine has greatly improved the efficiency and productivity of the clothing industry.