by Adelin (Feb 21, 2006)

Sewing is a 20,000-year-old activity. In the 14th century, the needle was invented and was pierced with an eye in the following century. But the demand for sewing increased and took the whole day! People started thinking about sewing with the help of a mechanical device.

However it is only in the early 19th century that mechanical sewing became possible thanks to a French inventor: Barthélemy Thimonnier, a tailor in Saint-Etienne, in the Loire. Indeed, in 1829, in Valbenoite, he invented the first sewing machine called the “couseuse à fil continu” (continuous thread sewer). 

But because of money problems, he associated with Auguste Ferrand, a teacher from Saint-Etienne. In this manner, Thimonnier was the first inventor of a machine capable of sewing 200 stitches per minute whereas a tailor sewed 30 stitches in a minute. This sewing machine sewed with the catenary point method, very delicate! Thimonnier received his patent on 17th July 1830. Thanks to generous investors, he founded the first company, called: “Petit and Co Company”, who got the agreement to  market the sewing machine in France and abroad. 

But, on the morning of 20th January 1831, about 200 tailors ransacked the main factory of this company, located in Paris, because they thought that the sewing machine  was a dangerous competitor for them.

In 1832, Thimonnier improved his sewing machine and created the “couso-brodeur” (embroidering sewer), a sewing machine capable of sewing and embroidering 300 stitches per minute.

 Besides, all his life, he searched for new mechanical sewing methods until he died on 5th July 1857, at the age of 64! Later, after his death, the American Elias Howe improved his first machine, the “couseuse”, in 1846. He invented the “two-thread sewing”; the needle thread and meshing needle thread; the spool is located in the meshing needle.

So Thimonnier’s invention particularly affected culture and modern society. Today we sew with the same method that he invented. 

Also some time before his death, in1849, Thimonnier went to Manchester in England, where he successfully marketed his machines. People were attracted by these new sewing machines that sew more quickly and more rapidly! In this manner, a lot of factories use the sewing machine for making clothes, plastic bags. It is used a lot in our society! 

The sewing machine is an invention that changed the world!

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