WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: The Sewing Machine 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from my Heart Radio. 0:00:11.960 --> 0:00:15.040 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:19.400 Jonathan Strickland. I'm the executive producer of this show and 0:00:19.520 --> 0:00:22.280 a couple of others, and I love all things tech 0:00:22.840 --> 0:00:25.759 and it is time for a classic episode of tech Stuff. 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:29.920 This episode originally published way back on October two thousand 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:32.560 and fourteen. It was about a topic that I didn't 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:34.919 think when I first started going into it was going 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:39.720 to be particularly interesting or have any controversy around it. 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:46.560 I was incredibly wrong. This is the sewing machine. Enjoy. 0:00:46.960 --> 0:00:50.240 We want to talk about patent wars, and we've talked 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:53.159 about patent wars on tech Stuff before. Patent wars are 0:00:53.240 --> 0:00:57.040 when you've got at least two, but sometimes multiple entities 0:00:57.240 --> 0:01:00.840 all claiming ownership for some kind of technology and competing 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:03.720 against each other and sometimes taking each other to court 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:06.480 and saying nasty things about each other's moms. And you 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:09.280 might think that that's a pretty recent activity, you know, 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:12.399 the smartphone, that that's a big patent war, right, lots 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:15.160 of modern viciousness around patents. But here's the thing that 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:18.120 modern viciousness has a long and detailed history that we 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:20.960 can trace back to one of the most important pieces 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:25.399 of technology. I am not using hyper bowl people, this 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:28.760 is true to me. It's certainly a super important piece 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:30.520 of technology. Mean, when you look at when you look 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:34.800 at mass production, this is one of the specific pieces 0:01:34.800 --> 0:01:39.080 of technology that makes mass production possible. I'm talking about 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:43.560 sewing machines. So sewing machines, as it turns out, were 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:47.480 the focus of one of the first major patent wars. 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:51.680 And the story is a complex one, filled with joy 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:56.920 and tragedy and a lot of crabbiness and some some stitches, 0:01:57.040 --> 0:02:01.480 and there's a lot needles, a lot of that. If 0:02:01.520 --> 0:02:04.400 any of your listeners have listened to the Stephy Maston 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:06.640 history class episode on this very thing, a lot of 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:11.280 this will be repeat information. Yeah, but it's just so fascinating, 0:02:11.840 --> 0:02:17.000 how completely similar to modern day arguments over tech, these 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:18.880 ones where I mean it's it's it's you can draw 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:22.680 direct parallels. I mean, seriously, when you look at a 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:26.360 company trying to make a piece of technology as complex essay, 0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:29.280 a tablet or a smartphone. Now, a tablet or a 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:32.400 smartphone by itself is one thing, but it's made up 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:35.960 of numerous individual components, some of which may not be 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:39.600 owned by one particular entity. The same thing is true 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:42.760 with sewing machines, as it turns out, absolutely So before 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:46.840 we jump into the sordid history of the sewing machine, 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:50.120 I thought I would remind folks what a patent is. 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:53.079 What's all about. So patents are that's a set of 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:56.720 exclusive rights granted by a government some form of agency 0:02:56.840 --> 0:03:00.520 that has authority to an inventor or an assigning for 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:03.520 the use of an invention. Now, an invention does not 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:06.919 have to be a complete thing all by itself. It 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:09.120 could be a component of a thing, like if you 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:14.040 were to have a full invention. Let's say it's a 0:03:15.120 --> 0:03:17.440 washing machine, because we've done a tech stuff episode about 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:19.840 washing machines, and you come up with a way to 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:23.680 improve washing machines so that they wash clothes, uh more 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:27.880 thoroughly or without as much bashing around, so the clothing 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:29.840 doesn't take as much of a beating. And you come 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:32.480 up with that that improvement, and then you patent it. 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:36.600 You can do that, that's perfectly acceptable, and then any 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:40.480 washing machine that would use that particular improvement would have 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:43.400 to either have been made by you or have received 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:48.600 your permission to use that specific technology. So patents can 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:51.400 be for a full invention with all the different components, 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:54.040 or it can be just a tiny little thing that's 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:57.160 an improvement. The point of it is the reason why 0:03:57.160 --> 0:03:59.440 you would want to patent it is that you get 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:02.720 those ex elusive rights to use that technology. Now, in 0:04:02.840 --> 0:04:06.720 return for that, you have to disclose how that technology works. 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:10.800 You submit a patent application that has a full description 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:15.680 of the mechanism and the purpose of your invention, and 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:20.400 that becomes publicly available, and once the patent expires, which 0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:24.160 they do, anyone can access that information and make use 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:26.360 of it. But during the course of that patent, that 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:30.000 the lifespan of that patent, it's all you, boss. They 0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:32.520 got to come through you. Yeah, Although that is an 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:35.360 interesting one related to what we're talking about today, because 0:04:35.720 --> 0:04:38.400 there were several instances on the road to the sewing 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:41.280 machine actually becoming a fully fledged thing where there were 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:43.680 some FIBs told in the patent filings so that they 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:47.799 could keep their proprietary information to themselves, so when people 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:50.560 tried to replicate them, they did not always work. Right. See, 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:53.000 you could if you wanted to, if you invented something. 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:55.680 There's nothing nothing that requires you to get a patent. 0:04:56.080 --> 0:04:59.280 You could keep it secret and say this magical technology 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:01.000 is mine and minal loan. But the danger of that, 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:02.680 of course, is if someone gets hold of it and 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:04.839 figures out how it works, they could then make the 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:06.880 same thing with and you would have no protection. Not 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:09.160 only could they make the same thing, they could file 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:11.440 a patent for it, and then you would no longer 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:14.080 be able to use the thing you invented. Yeah, it's 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:17.080 all about first rites. Yeah, so, as it turns out, 0:05:17.279 --> 0:05:19.800 and we haven't even gotten into the complication of filing 0:05:19.839 --> 0:05:21.960 for a patent in one country versus filing for a 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:25.120 button and another. But we've we've hemmed in hod long 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:28.680 enough about patents. Let's start off. Tell me what what 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:34.479 was sewing before the sewing machine. Well, most people would 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:38.400 probably recognize it if they thought about pre sewing machines sewing, 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:40.120 they would think of an needle and thread. But even 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:43.240 way before that, there were people using bones and sticks 0:05:43.279 --> 0:05:46.760 to kind of poke holes into fabrics, usually leathers, and 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:48.440 then they would pass a lace through. It was not 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:51.560 all one continuous thing where the lace was attached to 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:55.440 the the boner stick and then they added the eye 0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:59.360 that circle that the whatever you're lacing material passes through. Right. 0:05:59.440 --> 0:06:01.880 The thing that confounds me whenever I have to thread 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:05.279 a needle. Many people say that I think he either 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:09.320 got it or you don't. I don't got it. Um, 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:12.000 I hope I keep it forever, because I have a 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:13.680 few friends who are saying are getting to the age 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:16.560 and their eyesight isn't letting them keep it anymore. But yeah, 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:20.320 so that eventually that I was added and people were 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:22.120 able to do it all in one fell swoop where 0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:25.520 they poked the whole and passed the binding material through, 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:29.720 and that also developed things like embroidery. But it wasn't 0:06:29.720 --> 0:06:32.960 really until the Industrial Revolution that stitching became mechanized. And 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:36.479 even pre Industrial Revolution in the mid seventeen hundreds, where 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:39.400 kind of industry was first starting to get seated, is 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:43.240 really where we started having first people on record actually 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:47.040 filing things. Right. So you have Charles Wisenthal here who 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:49.760 received a patent for a needle for a sewing machine, 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:53.600 but it had a distinct disadvantage and that it was 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:57.039 a design for a needle for a machine that didn't exist. Yeah, 0:06:57.080 --> 0:06:59.720 he just really felt like he had the needle situation 0:06:59.760 --> 0:07:02.400 where down and eventually the rest would follow. You've got 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:06.440 to really nail the needle. Is his approach, which is true. 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:08.719 The needle how it came to be where it is 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:11.080 today really took a lot of iterations. And his needle 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:14.320 had was pointed on both ends, and it had an eye. 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:15.880 But the eye was in the middle, which is not 0:07:16.040 --> 0:07:19.239 If anybody knows a modern sewing machine or hand sewing needle, 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:21.920 the eye is usually not in the middle. Right. So 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:25.920 then we move forward to we have Thomas st who 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:29.720 I love the title of his patents. We talked about 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:32.440 this in the history podcast. It's it's so succaint, it's 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:36.760 it's so delightful and just completely rebos. Do you want 0:07:36.760 --> 0:07:38.640 to read it? Let me, let me do this all right? 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:42.880 So he's an English cabinet maker, so uh sorry, listeners, 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:46.080 Here we go an entire new method of making and 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:49.920 completing shoes, boots, splatter, dashes, clogs, and other articles by 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:53.560 means and tools, and by means of tools and machines 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:57.040 also invented by me for that purpose, and of certain 0:07:57.040 --> 0:08:00.320 compositions of the nature of japan or varnish, which will 0:08:00.360 --> 0:08:04.800 be very advantageous in many useful applications. End quote. Don't 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:07.000 you just feel like this is sewing as described by 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:09.720 a Monty Python sketch. It does feel like John Cleese 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:11.960 is the person who needs to deliver that patent title. 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:14.120 For me, it's Terry Jones, but we all have our favorite. 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:17.520 That's fair. You went more Welsh. That's all right, that's 0:08:17.760 --> 0:08:21.600 it's fine with that. So he's actually describing three different 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:25.920 machines in this patent um. So the second of the three, 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:28.720 which is why it's so crazy wordy, I mean Japan 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:31.440 and varnish, which are the words used for like these 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:35.000 coding um methods have nothing to do with stitching. But 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:37.160 he kind of lumped everything together. And he was a 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:39.680 cabinet maker. I think maybe he didn't like to file 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:41.320 a lot of paper. Yeah, that's probably one of those 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:44.680 things where thought, goodness, gracious, this is a lot of work. 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:47.320 Let's let's just lump it all together. One very wordy 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:50.720 document will cover me. So the second part of his 0:08:50.840 --> 0:08:53.320 patent was actually the one for stitching, and it really 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:56.560 wasn't terribly practical. It had a lot of components that 0:08:56.600 --> 0:08:59.760 we actually associate with modern sewing machines. So it had 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:02.360 arm with the needle, it had a continuous thread from 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:05.960 a spool, uh and it had a table set up 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:08.079 that the cloth would sit on, and those all still 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:11.160 persist in some form or another. But his is a 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:14.400 case where there's no actual example of his machine having 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:18.400 been built, although in eighteen seventy three Newton Wilson, who 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:20.760 was from Great Britain, found the plans and he did 0:09:20.800 --> 0:09:23.520 build this machine, but it did not work. And this 0:09:23.600 --> 0:09:24.920 is one of those ones that we talked about a 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:28.160 little bit ago, where the suspicion is that he didn't 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:31.280 entirely disclose what he was getting, right, leave a few 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:34.760 things out of the patent design so that folks don't 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:38.599 automatically go out there and actually start making one uh. 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:41.920 One thing about patents, by the way, there's no guarantee 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:44.320 that your design has to work. It has to it 0:09:44.320 --> 0:09:47.079 has to be reasonably you know, the people at the 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:50.160 patent offices have to reasonably believe that you you believe 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:53.080 it will work the way you've designed it. But you 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:56.440 don't have to prove. Yeah, there's not a proofing stage design. Yeah, 0:09:56.480 --> 0:09:58.240 you don't have to bring one in and say, well, here, 0:09:58.320 --> 0:09:59.760 let me put it in motion and show you that 0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:01.840 all the parts move the way I've described it in 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:04.600 the patent. It really is just meant to prevent other 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:09.000 people from making that same design without your permission. All right. Well, 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:11.880 then in four we've got this story about Thomas Stone 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:15.920 and James Henderson who were issued a patent in France 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:19.920 for their own kind of sewing machine. Right. Yeah. It 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:22.320 kind of created an overcast stitch. So if you don't 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:25.120 know what that is, I do not. Um. If you 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:27.920 see like a situation where two pieces of cloth are 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:31.320 bound together and there's a stitch that passes through each 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:33.600 one and kind of spirals around the edges and then 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:37.800 back through, that's an overcast okay, all right, um, so 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:39.839 this was similar. It's also called a whip stitch when 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:43.400 you do it by hand, so it's very simple. But 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:46.240 it could work on all different kinds of fabrics. And 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:49.200 it was able to stitch curves. Okay, so it's not 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:52.280 just a straight line like some of the other devices 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:54.439 will be talking about. Correct, Like a lot of them 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:55.880 will only go in a straight line, but this one 0:10:55.920 --> 0:10:59.559 could handle curves. That The one big drawback of it, though, 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:02.240 was that it did not have a continuous thread feed, 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:04.720 so there was a lot of stopping and going and 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:08.840 re threading of needles and hating. So it saved time, 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:11.400 we think theoretically, I say that with a question mark 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:14.160 on purpose. Right, maybe it saves time for someone who 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:17.800 just really hates the motion of actually making a stitch. Well, 0:11:17.920 --> 0:11:20.760 or if you're doing like large scale things like leathers 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:24.000 and probably help. So that same year you have John 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:27.960 Duncan of Glasgow here patenting an embroidery machine, which is 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:30.320 not quite the same thing as a stitching machine, correct. 0:11:31.200 --> 0:11:34.200 I mean it does do stitches, but it's not the 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:37.240 same sort of utilitarian things that would hold together pants. Right, 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:41.360 we'll just make the pants beautiful. I've learned that through 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:46.640 a better experience. In seven we have Edward Walter Chapman 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:50.400 and Walter Chapman. It's not confusing at all receiving a 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:53.360 British patent three thousand, seventy eight. That's another thing that 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:55.680 I think is interesting. You look at the history of 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:58.280 sewing machines and you look at those patent numbers. Yeah, 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:02.679 and when they're still in the four digit range, that's incredible. 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:05.400 If guys go to the patent I'll go to like 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:08.559 Google search for patents and look up any patent that's 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:11.079 been issued over the last couple of years. We're talking 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:13.960 in the millions here, Yeah, and this is when they 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:16.560 were still in the thousands, which is pretty incredible. It 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:20.400 really does show that the patent industry here was very young. 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:23.760 Oh yeah, this was the one that allowed a machine 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:25.600 that had a needle that would not have to pass 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:28.600 all the way through the fabric. It could just puncture it, 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:31.840 uh slightly and then pull back out and make the 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:34.640 stitch that way, right, which is how modern machines still 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:37.280 were for the most part. I think there's a couple 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:39.680 of specialty machines that do different things. But yeah, so 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:42.320 it had two needles. One, as you said, punched in 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:45.120 and passed the thread down. Another kind of shuttled through 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:48.560 it and then it got pulled back up. So um, 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:53.440 continuous stitching via these two different thread feeds. Cool. And 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:56.160 then we have my favorite name on our list. It's 0:12:56.200 --> 0:13:00.640 one of my favorites eight thirty. So it's bartelling me Himnier. 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:03.719 I love a good French name. Yeah, that's a great one, 0:13:03.760 --> 0:13:07.679 as there's two th in there, and as I recall, 0:13:07.920 --> 0:13:09.760 that's a hard tea but I could be wrong. It 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:12.960 is it is. And his machine made a chain stitch 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:16.480 and there are still machines very similar to this functioning today. 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:18.760 They're not used a whole lot because it's one of 0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:21.520 those things. You may have even come across them periodically. 0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:23.760 If you ever have, like an article of clothing that's 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:26.480 maybe not super pricy, you may be bought it, you know, 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:28.920 a cheap store, and you pull one thread and the 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:31.680 whole thing starts coming out. That's often a chain stitch 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:34.720 because it's the one thread holding everything together, so there's 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:37.920 nothing stopping it from continuing to unravel. Right. That's what 0:13:38.400 --> 0:13:40.959 I always get nervous now whenever I see a loose thread, 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:43.480 and I'm more of a snipper than a than a 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:45.920 tugger at it. Not I'm a yanker, but I know 0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:48.000 I can fix it if it all goes a right. Yeah. 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:50.679 For me, it's it's fixing means going out and buying 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:54.120 a new one. We're gonna pause on our stitching right 0:13:54.120 --> 0:13:57.200 now with the sewing machine and take a quick break. 0:14:04.720 --> 0:14:07.920 What I love about this story is it's interesting because 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:12.480 it's a real life story that mirrors something that is 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:17.400 um a popular misconception. And what I mean by that 0:14:17.520 --> 0:14:19.920 is in the story you have Tumonier who had a 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:24.760 shop in Paris. Uh. He had lots of these different machines, 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:30.080 eighty of them working at a time, and Taylor's people 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:35.560 who sewed by hand, stormed his store and destroyed some 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:38.080 of the machinery because they didn't want to be put 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:40.520 out of a job. And the reason why I say 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:42.640 this is interesting is that there's a story that we 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:46.160 have told on tech stuff before that is erroneous and 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:49.520 uh and in fact I have been guilty of of 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:53.720 pushing this forward. The idea of sabotage being named after sabo, 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:57.200 as in the French word for shoe. The story is 0:14:57.240 --> 0:15:01.440 that you had often it was told about weavers who 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:05.440 came in and threw their shoes into large mechanized looms 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:09.080 in order to foul the workings and destroy them. As 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:12.560 it turns out, that's not necessarily true. The first the 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:15.560 first appearance of the word sabotage doesn't come until in 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:17.200 the written word, as far as I can tell, until 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:22.040 which tells me that this incident, which happened in around 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:26.040 the mid eighteen hundreds, could have given birth to a 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:29.840 word involving tailors that would have replaced sabotage, and they 0:15:29.880 --> 0:15:32.920 just didn't capitalize on it. I want it to include 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:39.680 Timonier somehow I got totally Timoniate today at work, walked 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:43.200 in and they just ambushed me. Yeah. So they came 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:46.200 and destroyed his shop and he had to flee. And 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:49.800 he did give financial backing, uh so that he could 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:55.479 continue his work and develop new machines. But unfortunately, uh 0:15:55.640 --> 0:15:58.200 and he got some additional patents as well, both in 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:00.880 France and and Britain. But the revolution kind of caused 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:04.520 his legacy to get put on the back burner. Yet 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:07.400 there were some important things that people were attending to 0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:09.640 at the time. Yeah, not so much with the let's 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:13.240 make machines. Now, we've got an American inventor coming up next, 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:17.120 so let's just take a moment to go America. Well, 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:20.480 and he becomes very important in the patent battles. So 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:23.680 this is Walter Hunt you're talking about here. Yeah. So 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:26.920 he made a machine that it created a lock stitch. 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:30.160 It used to thread sources, very similar to the bobbing 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:33.400 and school method you would see modern machines. Um and 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:35.160 this you know, of course, was different than the single 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:38.480 thread chain stitch of Timoni. A successful machines and he 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:41.440 kind of was a busy bee he had a lot 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:43.960 of inventions going at the same time, and so it 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:46.240 wasn't like this sewing machine was his baby and he 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:48.320 had really put his heart and soul into it. He 0:16:48.360 --> 0:16:49.880 was kind of like, no, no, he's ever gonna be 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:52.400 interested in this, and he sold it. So he sold 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:54.440 the patent off to he didn't even have the patent. 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:57.520 He just I go, that's right, he didn't even patent 0:16:57.680 --> 0:17:01.280 this invention. He's like, yeah, I could use the money. 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:03.640 He sold it to a man named George a aerosmith 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:05.800 and was basically like, yeah, well, you know, I'll fund 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:08.080 some other projects with whatever I make off of this. 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:13.080 It's not that important. Um. As we said, he comes 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:15.679 up later and becomes very important to remember him. And 0:17:15.680 --> 0:17:18.200 we'll also point out his machine was one that Jonathan 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:21.040 referenced earlier that would only go in straight lines. You 0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:24.320 couldn't really work curves with it, right, so that that 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:30.200 certainly limits its usefulness. Uh. Now, we also have to 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:34.040 acknowledge the fact that there's a challenge in really talking 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:36.040 about the history of the sewing machine because of an 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:39.720 event that happened in that the mid eighteen hundreds, early 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:42.040 to mid eighteen hundreds. Yeah, we had a little bit 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:45.480 of a fire in the patent office. Yeah, as it 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:48.719 turns out, patents are flammable. Yes, some one had patented 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:52.160 the the the not the inflammable that would also be flammable, 0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:56.520 but the impossible to burn patent. Yeah, And it wasn't 0:17:56.560 --> 0:17:58.840 a time where they were making tons of backups. It 0:17:58.920 --> 0:18:00.560 was kind of like you find ELLT and you go 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:03.240 on your way. Because we're still in the thousands. They 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:05.560 haven't really gotten their game figured out yet, right, not 0:18:05.720 --> 0:18:09.399 to mention the fact that they're making Making duplicates is 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:13.119 no easy task at this time, so they thought, well, 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:16.640 it's safe enough. Yeah, that fire was in eighteen thirty six, 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:18.399 so they really did not have a plan in place 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:21.520 to keep duplicate copies. And as a consequence, there are 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:24.479 actually a lot some sources will say that there are 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:28.600 a lot of kind of partial patent documents that still 0:18:28.640 --> 0:18:32.399 exists that like they mentioned a needle, or they mentioned 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:35.919 something sewing related, but like the attribution portion of the 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:38.080 document has been too damaged and they don't know who 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:41.359 filed it. So there could be families out there that 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:43.760 could have, for all we know, inherited great wealth. But 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:48.000 we'll never know because the capriciousness of fire robbed them 0:18:48.000 --> 0:18:50.880 of their place in history. Fire and it's ways possibly 0:18:50.920 --> 0:18:55.119 on Martha's vineyard. In eighteen forty two, we've got John J. Greenoff, 0:18:55.400 --> 0:18:58.119 who is the first guy, first American, to get a 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:00.000 patent for the sewing machine that we have a record 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:03.760 of anyway. Um, so even though he made his invention 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:08.000 after Hunt had, Hunt had not patented it, and as 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:10.560 you have in your notes here, the aerosmith apparently never 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:14.600 got around the patenting it either. So, uh, this is 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:17.880 the first one in the American patent system. Yeah, he 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:22.000 there was no replication of his He basically kind of 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:24.240 was one and done. Yes, So he made a prototype 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:27.200 and then not a production model. Yeah, there's we don't 0:19:27.200 --> 0:19:28.520 know if he didn't get funding or if he just 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:31.560 abandoned the idea and moved on to something else. But 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:34.040 it was only a year later when the second U. S. 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:36.520 Patent for a sewing machine came about, and that was 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:39.159 issued to Benjamin W. Bean, which is a great name, 0:19:39.200 --> 0:19:43.520 I know. Um, and he created a unique development and 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:47.199 that his machine was the first that actually fed the 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:50.600 fabrics through gears. So for the stitchers in the house, 0:19:50.840 --> 0:19:54.399 all three of us, um that's similar to feed dogs, 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:56.200 and if you don't stitch, what a feed dog is. 0:19:56.200 --> 0:19:58.200 If you've ever looked at a sewing machine, you may 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:00.480 see these two. They almost looked like little feet that 0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:02.239 come up and kind of kick at your fabric as 0:20:02.240 --> 0:20:05.280 you're showing, and they have rigid edges and that's kind 0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:07.679 of pulling your fabric through as you go right, so 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:10.080 you don't have to put through as much effort, you 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:13.680 don't have to worry about misguiding the fabric. So it 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:16.880 helps feed the fabric through as you're stitching. Yes, sometimes 0:20:16.960 --> 0:20:19.280 it creates great drama and it eats fabric, but not 0:20:19.400 --> 0:20:22.560 very often. Um and his also had a clamp mechanism 0:20:22.640 --> 0:20:24.480 to attach it to a table, so that was also 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:27.600 a new development. Uh, and there are still machines made 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:30.920 to do that. Also that year, in eighteen forty three, 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:34.679 we got George H. Corliss, who uh you know, he 0:20:34.800 --> 0:20:38.080 was also a busy body making making a steam engine. 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:41.560 That's pretty cool. We did a full episode in Tech 0:20:41.600 --> 0:20:44.040 Stuff on steam engine. So if you guys are are 0:20:44.160 --> 0:20:45.760 big into that and you really want to know about 0:20:45.760 --> 0:20:47.479 the development of the steam engine, here's a here's an 0:20:47.480 --> 0:20:51.520 interesting little fact. The original steam engines didn't push with steam. 0:20:51.680 --> 0:20:54.520 They rather would pull by letting steam condense and create 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:58.119 a vacuum, thus pulling a piston down rather than pushing 0:20:58.119 --> 0:21:00.600 a piston out. But we go into full detail and 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:03.680 tech stuff, so I don't need to redo the whole thing. 0:21:06.160 --> 0:21:08.880 It is exciting, it's actually not cool, it's actually quite hot, 0:21:09.080 --> 0:21:13.480 but but ump up. So Cordless had what's considered the 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:17.760 third u S sewing machine patents. His performed what is 0:21:17.760 --> 0:21:20.320 called a saddle stitch, which is a specialized stitch that's 0:21:20.440 --> 0:21:23.520 used to this day to join leather together. Uh, it 0:21:23.600 --> 0:21:25.800 kind of keeps it all stable. If anybody has ever 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:27.520