History of the Sewing Machine Timeline

In 1830, Thimonnier and his partners opened the world’s first machine-based clothing manufacturing company to produce army uniforms for the French Army.

Willcox & Gibbs commercial sewing machines continued to be used into the 21st century, with spare parts available.

William Jones started making sewing machines in 1859.

As Chadwick & Jones, the partners manufactured sewing machines at Ashton-under-Lyne, England, until 1863.

William Jones formed a partnership with Thomas Chadwick in 1860.

William Jones opened a sewing-machine factory in Guide Bridge, Manchester, in 1869.

Joseph M. Merrow, president of a company that had begun in the 1840s as a machine shop for specialized knitting machinery, invented and patented the world’s first crochet machine in 1877.

Image source: Merrow Sewing Machine Company

The Merrow Machine Company became one of the largest American manufacturers of overlock sewing machines and remained, into the 21st century, the last American overlock sewing-machine manufacturer.

Singer patented the Singer Vibrating Shuttle sewing machine in 1885, using Allen B. Wilson’s idea for a vibrating shuttle.

Image source: Singer Corporation

Millions of Singer Vibrating Shuttle machines were produced. They were described as perhaps the first genuinely practical sewing machines for domestic use before rotary-shuttle machines superseded them in the twentieth century.

A Jones advertising sheet from 1893 claimed that the Guide Bridge factory was the largest factory in England devoted exclusively to making first-class sewing machines.

In 1830, Thimonnier signed a contract with Auguste Ferrand, a mining engineer who prepared the requisite drawings and submitted a patent application.

A patent for Thimonnier’s sewing machine was issued on 17 July 1830.

Walter Hunt eventually lost interest in his machine and sold individual machines without promptly patenting the invention. He obtained a patent only at a late date, in 1854.

John Greenough patented the first sewing machine in the United States in 1842.

Image source: Noble and Greenough School

Elias Howe, born in Spencer, Massachusetts, created a sewing machine in 1845 using a method similar to Fisher’s. His machine held the fabric vertically.

Image source: Elias Howe

The Fisher and Gibbons machine, together with John Duncan’s machine, was adapted into a form that became part of a court case challenging Elias Howe’s 1845 patent.

Isaac Merritt Singer was granted an American patent for a sewing machine in 1851.

Elias Howe won a patent-infringement case in 1854 and received the right to claim royalties from manufacturers using ideas covered by his patent, including Singer.

Walter Hunt patented his earlier lockstitch invention in 1854, after having sold individual machines without initially patenting it.

The Sewing Machine Combination was formed in 1856 by Singer, Howe, Wheeler, Wilson, and Grover and Baker. It lasted until 1877, when the last patent expired.

James Edward Allen Gibbs, a farmer from Raphine in Rockbridge County, Virginia, patented the first chain-stitch single-thread sewing machine on 2 June 1857.

Image source: James Edward Allen Gibbs

Works including Benjamin Disraeli’s Sybil, Honoré de Balzac’s Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes, Emile Zola’s Au Bonheur des Dames, and Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie explored related social and economic themes.

Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mary Barton, published in 1848 and set in Manchester, exemplified literary themes associated with industrial work, women’s labor, and clothing manufacture.

Image source: Mary Barton

Mid-nineteenth-century laws sought to regulate child labor and prioritize education, but these initiatives often conflicted with the realities faced by rural families.

Image source: Child labour

Helen Rogers observed that by mid-century the needlewoman had become an iconic figure in the Victorian imagination.

Pam Inder highlighted concerns that helped fuel demands for higher wages for men, allowing women to remain at home and reinforcing the Victorian belief that women should not work for pay outside the domestic sphere.

Louise Tilly and Joan Scott noted that nearly half of women workers in England held manufacturing jobs in 1851.

Public debates surrounding the Contagious Disease Acts of 1864 and 1866 highlighted opposing views about gender, work, morality, and social regulation.

Image source: Contagious Diseases Acts