Sewing Machine History

The introduction of the machine had significant industrial and social impacts. Before the sewing machine, middle class housewives and their seamstresses would spend days maintaining the family’s clothes. As all of the garments were hand sewn – a long process that required a high level of skill – most people often only had two outfits; their working clothes and their Sunday clothes. The sewing machines use in industry meant that clothes could be mass produced. Wealthy women now wanted more clothes, more variety in designs and for the garments to be sold at a lower price (Perkin, 2002). The expectations of the rich did not translate well for the poor women and children working in the textile mills. They already worked in overcrowded, poorly ventilated factories for up to 20 hours a day for very little pay. The majority of them were unable to earn a living wage. Children as young as four years old worked in the mills. Children were expected to work up to sixteen hours a day and were beaten if they fell asleep. The arrival of the sewing machine meant that more clothes could be made at a faster pace thus increasing the workload for the workers. There have been many claims as to who invented the sewing machine. It may have been the German engineer Charles Frederick Wisenthal or Englishman Thomas Saint. However, the first sewing machine that worked and was mass produced was created by Barthélemy Thimonnier. Thimonnier was a

(Godfrey, 1982, p. 60) Singer was an American actor and mechanic and it was both trades that led him to success. Singer became interested in sewing machines while at Orson C. Phelps’ workshop in Boston where the machines were manufactured. Singer encountered Phelps’ customers who were “frequently returning their sewing machines, complaining that they would not stitch satisfactorily and were constantly breaking down.” (Godfrey, 1982, p. 260) Singer quickly spotted the faults in the machines; the rotating motion of the shuttle caused the thread to untwist and to break. He sketched a design for a new machine which led to a partnership between Singer, Phelps and George B. Zieber, a publisher and Singer’s previous business

In 1851 he founded I.M. Singer & Company with Edward C. Clark and within two years Singer became the leading sewing machine manufacturer in America. In 1856, Clark came up with a new payment plan where customers could pay for their machine over a certain period of time thus broadening their market to people who couldn’t afford to pay one lump sum of one hundred dollars. The company began to make machines specifically for the home calling them ‘family machines’ (Singer Sewing Co., 2013) and introducing lightweight, portable machines. Singer was giving his customers variety and choice which is the key to sales. By 1890, Singer was the leading sewing machine manufacturer in the world and still is