History sewing machine

1755

 

First mechanical experiments on producing a seam with a machine and a two-pointed needle with an eye

INVENTOR: CHARLES FREDERIC WEISENTHAL (ENGLAND)

 

1790

 

First sewing machine made of wood for shoemakers

With forked needle, pricker, hooked needle: chain stitch

INVENTOR: THOMAS SAINT (ENGLAND)

 

1800

 

Chain-stitch sewing system

The first of its kind: needle with eye at the tip and controlled bobbin hook; sprocket wheel material feed – 300–350 stitches per minute

INVENTOR: BALTHASAR KREMS FROM MAYEN/EIFEL (GERMANY)

 

1807 - 39

 

Double-stitch sewing machine

Two-pointed needle with eye and shuttle-like device for double-stitching

INVENTOR: JOSEPH MADERSPERGER FROM KUFSTEIN (AUSTRIA)

 

1814

Machine for sewing quilts

INVENTOR: JOSEF MADERSPERGER (AUSTRIA)

 

1830

Serial production of the Couseuse model – for the production of military uniforms

INVENTOR: BARTHÉLEMY THIMON-NIER – CONSIDERED TO BE THE FIRST MANUFACTURER OF SEWING MACHINES

 

1834

Two-thread sewing machine

With shuttle, however not yet fully functional

INVENTOR: WALTER HUNT (USA)

 

 

1845

 

Double saddle-stitch sewing machine

With a sewing rail of 30 – 40 cm; the second thread travels back and forth in a shuttle

INVENTOR: ELIAS HOWE FROM BOSTON (USA)

 

1850

 

Central bobbin sewing machine

With two-pointed shuttle and rotating bobbin with spool, forwards and backwards movement; mass-produced

INVENTOR: WILSON (USA)

 

1851

 

Two-thread, chain-stitch sewing machine

INVENTOR: GROVER/BAKER (USA)

 

1852

 

Sewing machine

With rotary sewing hook with curved needle and hopper feed

INVENTOR: WILSON/WHEELER (USA)

 

1853

 

First American sewing machines in Europe
 

1855

 

Sewing machine

With improved cloth feed device was presented at the World Exhibition in Paris

INVENTOR: WILSON/WHEELER (USA)

 

1858

 

A new type of low-priced chain-stitch sewing machine was massproduced virtually unmodified until 1930; by 1958, there were already more than 100,000 sewing machines of this kind in the USA

INVENTOR: JAMES GIBBS FROM VIRGINIA (USA)

 

1860

 

Free-arm sewing machine from France
 

1862

 

Singer sewing machine

With a vertical needle bar, horizontal motor shaft and continuous material feed

INVENTOR: ISAAC MERRIT SINGER (USA)

 

1862/63

 

First sewing machines from Adam Opel and Georg Michael Pfaff
 

1870

 

Vibrating shuttle sewing machine from France (illustration above)

Chain-stitch sewing machine (illustration below)

 

1879

 

Sewing machine with two rotary sewing hooks

Also featured a bobbin case fan, rotary thread take-up and controlled thread tension

INVENTOR: MAX GRITZNER FROM KARLSRUHE (GERMANY)

 

 

1882

 

First German zigzag sewing machine

INVENTOR: JOHN KAYSER  (GERMANY)

 

1893

 

First hemstitch sewing machine Sewed 1,000 stitches per minute

INVENTOR: KARL FRIEDRICH GEGAUF, STECKBORN (SWITZERLAND)

 

1900

 

Models D and F of the hemstitch sewing machines

Was used in the clothing industry in Europe and the United States

INVENTOR: FRITZ GEGAUF,  GEGAUF AG, STECKBORN (SWITZERLAND)

 

1905

 

The German word “gegaufen” (English equivalent: “to gegauf”) came into use for mechanical hemstitching
 

1925

 

High-speed hemstitching machine Gegauf-Fisa

Sewed 2,200 stitches per minute

INVENTOR: KARL FRIEDRICH GEGAUF, STECKBORN (SWITZERLAND)

 

1932

 

First household sewing machine from the BERNINA brand, model 105

INVENTOR: FRITZ GEGAUF,  GEGAUF AG, STECKBORN (SWITZERLAND)