This is how you start to study
family portraits
and you will believe in the transmigration of souls."
S. Holmes
Recently it became necessary to sew a small line on a sewing machine. It would seem that it could be easier. I took the thread of the desired color (if I was not at home, I bought it - fortunately now the choice is rich), wound the thread on the bobbin, and put it in the sewing machine. And they, sewing machines, almost everyone has at home. And most of them were left from their parents. Nowadays, hardly anyone buys sewing machines, due to the low demand on the farm. Items purchased already in size, do not need to be hemmed or sutured. And the bulk of the population under 30 and not only younger does not know how to do this. I remember before not only hemming and stitching, but also sewing dresses according to patterns and other things. Of course curtains and tulle are an essential part of using sewing machines. And remember how the children used to walk! Yes, they could not be driven home. Yes, and the process of walking was associated with the obligatory - Oh hooked. For mending children's clothes, a sewing machine is not an interchangeable thing, it's not about patching up patches on your hands. I tried to sew myself, sinful, and sewed. Sewing, stitching and sewing was a natural process.
So that's it. I was interested in the history of the appearance of the sewing machine. And what do you think? Looking through the history of the sewing machine I was surprised. Although there is not much to be surprised at. Everything, everything that we now use in everyday life and in production was invented at the end of the 19th century. If you are curious, then do not be lazy and compare this or that technological progress and you will be amazed. The beginning of all inventions is the end of the 19th century, and the end of inventions is the middle of the 20th century. All! Nothing newer has been invented! So back to the sewing machines.
And so what our beloved Internet tells us. Now you don't have to go to libraries and re-read a lot of books, newspapers and other information carriers to find out the right question. It is enough to type in the browser search engine and VOIL - we are interested in the object found! Just explore! And our Internet is not verbose, I will give an example from a couple of sites. Moreover, there are different sites, and the text on all is like a copy:
The first project of a sewing machine was proposed at the end of the 15th century by Leonardo da Vinci, but it remained unrealized. This Leonardo is an amazing person. What only he did not invent, what only did not come up with. Only while that did not work. It is logical to assume that either we know nothing at all about that time, or these inventions were artificially "aged" by throwing them back into the past. Although I have a completely different idea on this score.
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In 1755, the German Karl Weisental received a patent for a sewing machine that copied the formation of a stitch by hand.
In 1790, the Englishman Thomas Saint invented a sewing machine for sewing boots. The machine had a manual drive, the workpieces of the boots were moved relative to the needle by hand.
All these machines have not received widespread practical use. Here's the result! They turned out to have no practical application! No, well, just think about it! "All these machines have not received widespread practical use."
Manual cars appeared about two hundred and fifty years ago and did not represent a mechanism outwardly similar to the modern one. Again what kind of chatter, what 250 years? Today 2020 minus 250 years = 1770. And we are told - "All these machines have not received widespread practical use." Some kind of discrepancy.
Yes, and the question arises, how did they sew dresses for so many gentlemen, and these are chic livery for servants, and how many different types of uniforms, "greatcoats" and other attributes of everyday life? It will be necessary to return to this question.
A more perfect machine for single-thread chain weaving was created by the Frenchman B. Timonier. In 1831, Timonye opened a factory, whose workers, using 80 new foot-operated sewing machines, tirelessly fulfilled the orders of the then only consumer of mass standard clothing - the armed forces. The factory owner had more than enough orders, but everything ended badly - the workers of neighboring garment factories, who had lost a lucrative army order, destroyed and burned Timonye's enterprise. All sewing machines and blueprints were destroyed, and the inventor himself almost died. Later, Timonier repeatedly patented new models of machines, his units received medals from world exhibitions three times, but the front line of the struggle for the best sewing machine finally moved overseas - to America. The sewing machine invented by Elias Howe in 1845. How can we do without a beautiful legend! Defeats and fires.
And only in 1845, the American mechanic Elias Howe managed to design the first practically usable machine, which gave a double stitch and made 300 stitches per minute.
And although the patent for the invention was acquired in England, America is rightfully considered the birthplace of the sewing machine: here it found fertile soil and underwent its remarkable evolution, revealing Isaac Singer to the world. A mechanic, inventor, entrepreneur and even an actor - it was he who managed to give the sewing machine a second life, embodying it in a giant industry that has been flourishing for almost a century and a half. And the SINGER company itself was founded in 1851 by Isaac Singer and his partner Edward Clark, as IM Singer & Co. In 1865 it was renamed Singer Manufacturing Company, and in 1963 - The Singer Company. Here again, the end of the 19th century!
All of the above is of course informative and curious. But there are a lot of all sorts of incomprehensibility that give rise to questions in inquisitive minds.
Let's just try to count. With the modern development of technologies, technical and electrical machines in a modern atelier, it takes about 3-5 weeks to sew a structurally simple dress. I don’t know why this is, but it’s probably a rule of good form. I emphasize once again - this is with modern equipment. More complex models, with embroidery or some other excesses, will require more than just a qualified fashion designer, cutter, and seamstress. And don't forget about the attendants. Now think about it is necessary to sheathe 1 million people! How many of these specialists are needed at the beginning of the 19th century. I'm not talking about linen for dress-suit-uniforms. Just how many specialists are needed? Model development, tailoring, cutting, sewing, sweeping and many other complicated things. Even the notorious Napoleon's army of about 700 thousand soldiers, how many such seamstresses will be needed? We do not consider the servants around these soldiers, who also had more than one outfit.
So we come to the main point. Against the background of a seemingly simple invention like a sewing machine, you can look at the story offered to us from a critical point of view. Either they blatantly lie to us that then the inhabitants of the planet were backward, or all the events were far-fetched, moved in time, united as far as one or one was spread over different periods.
