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Brief History of the Sewing Machine Needle
It is a little
known fact that the needle was one of humankind's first tools. Over the
centuries it developed from a simple craft item to the precision tool
for modern sewing machines, constantly adapted for new industrial
applications and requirements. The use of sewing today does not stop at
garments and furnishings, but is equally important for car seats and
airbags meeting high technical safety standards. The needle has played a
major part in the development of our civilization and our standard of
living.
The most ancient
sewing needles, which date back to 28,000 BC, did not have an eye but a
split end which gripped the thread to be sewn (often raffia, gut or
sinew). Needles from later than 17,500 BC already had the two features
characteristic of the hand sewing needle today . . . the eye at one end
and the tapering point at the other end. They were made from the
materials available to human society at the time, for example, bones and
antlers.
As people
acquired skills in working metal materials, needles were also made from
metal (Bronze Age approximately 7000 BC), first from copper, later from
iron or bronze. Although there is no positive evidence as to the precise
design of these needles, excellent pieces of embroidery from the
pre-Christian era suggest that they were probably fashioned almost to
perfection. Unfortunately, the articles made with these needles were
only partially preserved and there are barely any traces of the needles
themselves. This is largely explained by the effect of oxidation, which
destroys metallic needles after a short time. Even needles made during
the 19th century are now rarely found intact.
The invention of
the sewing machine gave rise to the development of the sewing machine
machine needle.
The basic form
of the hand sewing needle remained the same, though the degree of
tapering and the variation of the diameter over the length of the needle
were slightly altered in the course of time. In order to be able to make
comparisons, one must study the needle from its very point to just below
the eye. Although the eye and the point have moved closer together, as
the basic functional elements of the needle, they remain unaltered.
In 1755 a German
named Weisenthal thought that he had found the prerequisite for machine
sewing in his development of a two-point needle. This needle form was
also used later on by Madersperger and others and it is even used
nowadays in modern industrial machines for sewing shank buttons or for
imitating hand-made seams. An Englishman called Saint used a so-called
hook needle or protruding needle similar to today's crochet needle for
his machine designed in 1790. Even today, hook needles are used in some
single-chain, drop-stitch embroidery (Cornely), saddle-stitch and
linking machines. Both types of needles, however, were of little
importance for the further development of the sewing machine needle.
Around 1800
Balthasar Krems from Mayen, Germany used a needle, for the first time,
which had the eye moved close to the point. One should particularly
appreciate this invention because one feature that looks so simple to us
today was a sensation at that time. This eye-point needle paved the way
for the mechanization of sewing world-wide.
Since then, the
sewing machine needle has been developed to the form known today. The
needle has accomplished its transition from a hand tool to the precision
tool of the sewing machine needle.
©2001 Ferd.
Schmetz GMBH. All rights reserved.
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