WEBVTT - The Sewing Machine 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.520 Get in touch with technology with text stuff from stuff 0:00:07.800 --> 0:00:13.960 dot Com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:17.840 Jonathan Strickland and joining me in the studio is special 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:21.960 guest Holly from Stuff You miss in History class High Holly. Hello, ha, 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:25.880 I am so glad that you are here too. Yeah, 0:00:25.920 --> 0:00:29.560 because I've been asking other hosts here at how Stuff 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:32.280 works if they could sit in as a guest and 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:34.600 kind of mix things up and find out what they'd 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:39.040 be interested to talk about in the world of technology. Sometimes, uh, 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:42.159 they don't have a suggestion right. Sometimes they're they're like, no, 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:44.120 you just tell me what you want to talk about, 0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:46.520 and I think, well, okay, but then it's just gonna 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:48.840 be like another episode of tech Stuff. But other people 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:53.920 like Holly come to me with an idea that is phenomenal. See, 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:58.040 we want to talk about patent wars, and we've talked 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:00.959 about patent wars on tech stuff before. Pat wars are 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:04.840 when you've got at least two, but sometimes multiple entities 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:08.640 all claiming ownership for some kind of technology and competing 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:11.520 against each other and sometimes taking each other to court 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:14.280 and saying nasty things about each other's moms. And you 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:17.080 might think that that's a pretty recent activity. You know, 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:20.240 the smartphone that that's a big patent war, right, lots 0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:22.959 of modern viciousness around patents. But here's the thing that 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:25.959 modern viciousness has a long and detailed history that we 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:28.760 can trace back to one of the most important pieces 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:33.240 of technology. I am not using hyper bowl people, this 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:36.560 is true to me. It's certainly a super important piece 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:38.160 of technology. I mean, when you look at when you 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:41.600 look at mass production, this is one of the specific 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:45.880 pieces of technology that makes mass production possible. I'm talking 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:50.960 about sewing machines. So sewing machines. As it turns out, 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:55.280 we're the focus of one of the first major patent wars. 0:01:55.760 --> 0:01:59.480 And the story is a complex one, filled with joy 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:04.680 and tragedy and a lot of crabbiness and some stitches, 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:09.800 and there's uh a lot of that. If any of 0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:12.880 your listeners have listened to the stuffy Masson History class 0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:14.799 episode on this very thing, a lot of this will 0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:19.959 be repeat information. Yeah, but it's just so fascinating how 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:25.040 completely similar to modern day arguments over tech, these ones 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:29.240 where I mean, it's it's it's you can draw direct parallels. 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:31.320 I mean, seriously, when you look at a company trying 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:34.360 to make a piece of technology as complex essay a 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:37.600 tablet or a smartphone. Now, a tablet or a smartphone 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:40.440 by itself is one thing, but it's made up of 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:44.280 numerous individual components, some of which may not be owned 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:47.520 by one particular entity. The same thing is true with 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:50.760 sewing machines, as it turns out, absolutely So before we 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:55.160 jump into the sordid history of the sewing machine, I 0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:58.240 thought I would remind folks what a patent is. What's 0:02:58.280 --> 0:03:01.440 all about? So patents are that's a set of exclusive 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:05.040 rights granted by government some form of agency that has 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:08.919 authority to an inventor or an assignee for the use 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:11.720 of an invention. Now, an invention does not have to 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:15.000 be a complete thing all by itself. It could be 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:17.280 a component of a thing, Like if you were to 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:23.600 have a full invention, Let's say it's a washing machine. 0:03:23.600 --> 0:03:25.960 Because we've done a tech stuff episode about washing machines, 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:28.560 and you come up with a way to improve washing 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:32.440 machines so that they wash clothes, uh more thoroughly or 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:36.120 without as much bashing around, so the clothing doesn't take 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:37.920 as much of a beating. And you come up with 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:41.000 that that improvement and then you patent it. You can 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:45.400 do that. That's perfectly acceptable, and then any washing machine 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:48.800 that would use that particular improvement would have to either 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:51.920 have been made by you or have received your permission 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:56.680 to use that specific technology. Yes, so patents can be 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:59.640 for a full invention with all the different components, or 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:02.680 it can be just a tiny little thing that's an improvement. 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:05.240 The point of it is, the reason why you would 0:04:05.280 --> 0:04:08.240 want to patent it is that you get those exclusive 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:11.480 rights to use that technology. Now, in return for that, 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:16.000 you have to disclose how that technology works. You submit 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:19.160 a patent application that has a full description of the 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:24.640 mechanism and the purpose of your invention, and that becomes 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:28.760 publicly available, and once the patent expires, which they do, 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:32.240 anyone can access that information and make use of it. 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:34.960 But during the course of that patent, that the lifespan 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:38.120 of that patent, it's all you, boss. They got to 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:41.039 come through you. Yeah, Although that is an interesting one 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:43.920 related to what we're talking about today, because there were 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:46.920 several instances on the road to the sewing machine actually 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:49.679 becoming a fully fledged thing where there were some FIBs 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:51.960 told in the patent filings so that they could keep 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:56.000 their proprietary information to themselves, so when people tried to 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:58.640 replicate them, they did not always work. Right. See, you 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:01.560 could if you wanted to. If you invented something, there's nothing, 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:04.200 nothing that requires you to get a patent, you could 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:07.440 keep it secret and say this magical technology is mine 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:09.240 and mine alone. But the danger of that, of course, 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:11.000 is if someone gets hold of it and figures out 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:13.200 how it works, they could then make the same thing 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:15.120 with and you would have no protection. Not only could 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:17.560 they make the same thing, they could file a patent 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:19.599 for it, and then you would no longer be able 0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:22.400 to use the thing you invented. Yeah, it's all about 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:25.800 first rites. So as it turns out, and we haven't 0:05:25.800 --> 0:05:28.119 even gotten into the complication of filing for a patent 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:30.599 in one country versus filing for a paton and another. 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:33.880 But we we've hemmed in hod long enough about patents. 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:38.760 Let's start off. Tell me what what was sewing before 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:43.560 the sewing machine. Well, most people would probably recognize it 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:46.560 if they thought about pre sewing machines sewing, they would 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:48.720 think of an needle and thread. But even way before that, 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:51.479 there were people using bones and sticks to kind of 0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:55.000 poke holes into fabrics. Usually leathers and then they would 0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:57.919 pass a lace through. It was not all one continuous 0:05:57.920 --> 0:06:00.919 thing where the lace was attached to the the boner stick. 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:04.240 And then they added the eye that circle that the 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:08.040 whatever you're lacing material passes through. Right. The thing that 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:11.080 confounds me whenever I have to threaten a needle, many 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:13.480 people say that I think you either got it or 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:18.280 you don't. I don't got it. Um, I hope I 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:20.480 keep it forever because I have a few friends who 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:22.120 are saying are getting to the age and their eyesight 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:24.839 isn't letting them keep it anymore. But yeah, so that 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:28.520 eventually that I was added and people were able to 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:30.320 do it all in one fell swoop where they poked 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.919 the hole and passed the binding material through, and that 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:38.000 also developed things like embroidery. But it wasn't really until 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:41.240 the Industrial Revolution that stitching became mechanized. And even pre 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:44.599 Industrial Revolution in the mid seventeen hundreds, where kind of 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:47.760 industry was first starting to get seated, is really where 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:52.440 we started having first people on record actually filing things. Right. 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:55.719 So you have Charles Wisenthal here who received a patent 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:59.279 for a needle for a sewing machine, but it had 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:02.440 a distinct disadvantage and that it was a design for 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:04.960 a needle for a machine that didn't exist. Yeah, he 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:07.880 just really felt like he had the needle situation worked 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:10.280 out and eventually the rest would follow. You've got to 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:15.080 really nail the needle. Is his approach, which the needle, 0:07:15.440 --> 0:07:17.040 how it came to be where it is today, really 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:20.000 took a lot of iterations. And his needle um had 0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:22.160 was pointed on both ends, and it had an eye, 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:23.680 but the eye was in the middle, which is not 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:27.080 If anybody knows a modern sewing machine or hand sewing needle, 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:29.720 the eye is usually not in the middle. Right. So 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:33.760 then we move forward to we have Thomas sat who 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:37.520 I love the title of his patents. We talked about 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:40.680 this in the History podcast. It's it's so scint it's 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:44.600 it's so delightful and just completely reboth. Do you want 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:46.440 to read it? Let me, let me do this all right. 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:50.680 So he's an English cabinet maker, so uh, sorry, listeners, 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:53.920 here we go an entire new method of making and 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:57.760 completing shoes, boots, splatter dashes, clogs, and other articles by 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:01.360 means and tools and by means of tools and machines. 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:04.840 Also invented by me all that purpose and of certain 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:08.080 compositions of the nature of Japan or Vanish, which will 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:12.600 be very advantageous in many useful applications. End quote. Don't 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:14.800 you just feel like this is sewing as described by 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:17.480 a Monty Python sketch? It does feel like John Cleese 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:19.800 is the person who needs to deliver that patent title. 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:21.560 For me, it's Terry Jones, but we all have our 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:25.360 favorite that you went more Welsh. That's all right, that's 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:29.440 what's fine with that. So he's actually describing three different 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:33.760 machines in this patent um. So the second of the three, 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:36.520 which is why it's so crazy wordy, I mean Japan 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:39.280 and varnish, which are the words used for like these 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:42.840 coding um methods have nothing to do with stitching. But 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:44.960 he kind of lumped everything together. And he was a 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:47.480 cabinet maker. I think maybe he didn't like to file 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:49.160 a lot of paper. Yeah, that's probably one of those 0:08:49.160 --> 0:08:52.480 things we thought, goodness, gracious, this is a lot of work. 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:55.120 Let's let's just lump it all together. One very wordy 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:58.520 document will cover me. So the second part of his 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:01.160 patent was actually the one first ditching, and it really 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:04.360 wasn't terribly practical. It had a lot of components that 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:07.640 we actually associate with modern sewing machines. So it had 0:09:07.720 --> 0:09:10.160 the arm with the needle, it had continuous thread from 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:13.760 a spool, uh, and it had a table set up 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:15.880 that the cloth would sit on. And those all still 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:18.960 persist in some form or another. But his is a 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:22.200 case where there's no actual example of his machine having 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:26.160 been built, although in eighteen seventy three Newton Wilson, who 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:28.560 was from Great Britain, found the plans and he did 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:31.360 build this machine, but it did not work. And this 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:32.719 is one of those ones that we talked about a 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:35.920 little bit ago, where the suspicion is that he didn't 0:09:36.160 --> 0:09:39.360 entirely disclose what he was getting. Leave a few things 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:43.239 out of the patent design so that folks don't automatically 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:46.600 go out there and actually start making one uh. One 0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:49.840 thing about patents, by the way, there's no guarantee that 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:52.280 your design has to work. It has to it has 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:55.160 to be reasonably you know, the people at the patent 0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:58.000 office that have to reasonably believe that you you believe 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:00.920 it will work the way you've designed it, but you 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:04.240 don't have to prove Yeah, there's not a proofing stage design. Yeah, 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:06.079 you don't have to bring one in and say, well here, 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:07.600 let me put it in motion and show you that 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:09.640 all the parts move the way I've described it in 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:12.440 the patent. It really is just meant to prevent other 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:16.800 people from making that same design without your permission. All right. Well, 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:19.680 then in four we've got this story about Thomas Stone 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:23.720 and James Henderson who were issued a patent in France 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:27.719 for their own kind of sewing machine. Right. Yeah, it 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:30.120 kind of created an overcast stitch. So if you don't 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:32.960 know what that is, I do not. Um. If you 0:10:33.040 --> 0:10:35.720 see like a situation where two pieces of cloth are 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:39.080 bound together and there's a stitch that passes through each 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:41.400 one and kind of spirals around the edges and then 0:10:41.440 --> 0:10:45.600 back through, that's an overcast okay, all right, Um, so 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:47.640 this was similar. It's also called a whip stitch when 0:10:47.679 --> 0:10:51.240 you do it by hand, so it's very simple. But 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:54.040 it could work on all different kinds of fabrics, and 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:57.040 it was able to stitch curves. Okay, So it's not 0:10:57.120 --> 0:10:59.960 just a straight line like some of the other device 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:02.080 as we'll be talking about. Correct, Like a lot of 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:03.560 them will only go in a straight line, but this 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:07.400 one could handle curves. The one big drawback of it though, 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:10.079 was that it did not have a continuous thread feed, 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:12.520 so there was a lot of stopping and going and 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:16.680 re threading of needles and treating. So it saved time, 0:11:16.960 --> 0:11:19.200 we think theoretically, I say that with a question mark 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:21.960 on purpose. Right, maybe it saves time for someone who 0:11:22.000 --> 0:11:25.600 just really hates the motion of actually making a stitch well, 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:28.559 or if you're doing like large scale things like leathers 0:11:29.280 --> 0:11:31.800 and probably help. So that same year you have John 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:35.760 Duncan of Glasgow here patenting an embroidery machine, which is 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:38.120 not quite the same thing as a stitching machine, correct. 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:42.000 I mean it does do stitches, but it's not the 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:45.040 same sort of utilitarian things that would hold together pants. Right, 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:49.200 we'll just make the pants beautiful. I've learned that through 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:54.439 a better experience. In seven we have Edward Walter Chapman 0:11:54.600 --> 0:11:58.240 and Walter Chapman. It's not confusing at all receiving a 0:11:58.280 --> 0:12:01.320 British patent three seven eight. That's another thing that I 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:03.840 think is interesting. You look at the history of sewing 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:06.760 machines and you look at those patent numbers and when 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:10.640 they're still in the four digit range. That's incredible. If 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:13.600 guys go to the patent I'll go to like Google 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:16.600 search for patents and look up any patent that's been 0:12:16.640 --> 0:12:19.000 issued over the last couple of years. We're talking in 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:21.920 the millions here. Yeah, and this is when they were 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:24.760 still in the thousands, which is pretty incredible. It really 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:28.200 does show that the patent industry here was very young. 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:31.559 Oh yeah, this was the one that allowed a machine 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:33.400 that had a needle that would not have to pass 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:36.400 all the way through the fabric. It could just puncture it, 0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:39.680 uh slightly and then pull back out and make the 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:42.440 stitch that way, right, which is how modern machines still 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:45.120 work for the most part. I think there's a couple 0:12:45.120 --> 0:12:47.520 of specialty machines that do different things. But yeah, so 0:12:47.559 --> 0:12:50.160 it had two needles. One, as you said, punched in 0:12:50.200 --> 0:12:52.920 and passed the thread down. Another kind of shuttled through 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:56.400 it and then it got pulled back up. So um, 0:12:56.600 --> 0:13:01.280 continuous stitching via these two different threads feeds cool. And 0:13:01.280 --> 0:13:04.000 then we have my favorite name on our list. It's 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:08.439 one of my favorites eight thirty so it's bartelling me Timonier. 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:11.520 I love a good French name. Yeah, that's a great one, 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:15.200 as there's two th in there and as I a 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:17.400 call that's a hard tea, but I could be wrong. 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:20.720 It is it is, and his machine made a chain stitch. 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:24.320 And there are still machines very similar to this functioning today. 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:26.599 They're not used a whole lot because it's one of 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:29.319 those things. You may have even come across them periodically. 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:31.559 If you ever have, like an article of clothing it's 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:34.280 maybe not super pricy. You may be bought it, you know, 0:13:34.320 --> 0:13:36.680 a cheap store, and you pull one thread and the 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:39.520 whole thing starts coming out. That's often a chain stitch 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:42.520 because it's the one thread holding everything together, so there's 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:45.760 nothing stopping it from continuing to unravel. Right, That's what 0:13:46.200 --> 0:13:48.760 I always get nervous now whenever I see a loose thread. 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:51.640 And I'm more of a snipper than a than a tugger. 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:53.880 I'm not. I'm a yanker, okay, but I know I 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:56.200 can fix it if it all goes right. Yeah, for me, 0:13:56.280 --> 0:13:59.000 it's it's fixing means going out and buying a new one. 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:02.400 So well. I love about the story is it's interesting 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:06.880 because it's a real life story that mirrors something that 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:12.000 is um a popular misconception. And what I mean by 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:14.400 that is in the story you have Toumonnier who had 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:18.719 a shop in Paris. Uh. He had lots of these 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:22.480 different machines, eighty of them working at a time, and 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:29.280 Taylor's people, who sewed by hand, stormed his store and 0:14:29.640 --> 0:14:32.520 destroyed some of the machinery because they didn't want to 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:34.960 be put out of a job. And the reason why 0:14:35.000 --> 0:14:37.080 I say this is interesting is that there's a story 0:14:37.120 --> 0:14:39.480 that we have told on tech stuff before that is 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:43.320 erroneous and uh. And in fact I have been guilty 0:14:43.480 --> 0:14:47.480 of of pushing this forward. The idea of sabotage being 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:50.560 named after sabo, as in the French word for shoe, 0:14:51.280 --> 0:14:54.480 The story is that you had uh. Often it was 0:14:54.760 --> 0:14:57.800 told about weavers who came in and threw their shoes 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:02.520 into large mechanized loom in order to foul the workings 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:06.680 and destroy them. As it turns out, that's not necessarily true. 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:09.640 The first the first appearance of the word sabotage doesn't 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:11.320 come until in the written word, as far as I 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:15.880 can tell, until which tells me that this incident, which 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:20.160 happened in around the mid eighteen hundreds, could have given 0:15:20.200 --> 0:15:24.280 birth to a word involving tailors that would have replaced sabotage, 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:27.200 and they just didn't capitalize on it. I wanted to 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:33.280 include Timonier somehow I got totally Timoniate today at work, 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:37.720 locked in and they just ambushed me. Yeah. So they 0:15:37.760 --> 0:15:39.920 came and destroyed his shop and he had to flee. 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:44.280 And he did get financial backing, uh so that he 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:49.120 could continue his work and develop new machines. But unfortunately 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:52.880 uh and he got some additional patents as well, both 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:55.160 in France and in Britain. But the revolution kind of 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:58.200 caused his legacy to get put on the back burner. 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:02.040 It turns out some important things that people were attending 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:04.040 to at the time. Yeah, not so much with the 0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:07.400 let's make machines. Now we've got an American inventor coming 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:11.840 up next, so let's just take a moment to go America. Well, 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:15.200 and he becomes very important in the patent battles. So 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:18.440 this is Walter Hunt you're talking about here. Yeah. So 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:21.680 he made a machine that it created a lock stitch. 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:24.920 It used to thread sources, very similar to the bobbing 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:28.000 and school method you would see on modern machines. UM 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:29.640 and this, you know, of course, was different than the 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:33.200 single thread chain stitch of Timoni successful machines. And he 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:36.200 kind of was a busy bee. He had a lot 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:38.640 of inventions going at the same time, and so it 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:40.960 wasn't like this sewing machine was his baby and he 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:43.040 had really put his heart and soul into it. He 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:44.600 was kind of like, no, no, he's ever gonna be 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:47.160 interested in this, and he sold it. So he sold 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:49.200 the patent off to He didn't even have the patent. 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:51.920 He just sold I go that's right, he didn't even 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:56.120 patent this invention. Yeah, I could use the money. He 0:16:56.200 --> 0:16:58.640 sold it to a man named George A Arrowsmith and 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:00.680 was basically like, yeah, well, you know, all fund some 0:17:00.760 --> 0:17:03.760 other projects with whatever I make off of this. It's 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:08.040 not that important. Um. As we said, he comes up 0:17:08.160 --> 0:17:10.600 later and becomes very important to remember him. And we'll 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:13.359 also point out his machine was one that Jonathan referenced 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:16.119 earlier that would only go in straight lines. You couldn't 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:19.640 really work curves with it, right, so that that certainly 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:25.679 limits its usefulness. Uh. Now, we also have to acknowledge 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:29.040 the fact that there's a challenge in really talking about 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:31.119 the history of the sewing machine because of the event 0:17:31.160 --> 0:17:34.520 that happened in that the mid eighteen hundreds, early to 0:17:34.560 --> 0:17:36.919 mid eighteen hundreds. Yeah, we had a little bit of 0:17:36.960 --> 0:17:40.600 a fire in the patent office. As it turns out, 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:44.280 patents are flammable. Yes, no one had patented the the 0:17:44.280 --> 0:17:48.199 the not the inflammable that would also be flammable, but 0:17:48.240 --> 0:17:51.439 the impossible to burn patent. Yeah, And it wasn't a 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:53.760 time where they were making tons of backups. It was 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:55.359 kind of like, you file it and you go on 0:17:55.400 --> 0:17:58.240 your way. Because we're still in the thousands, they haven't 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:00.520 really gotten their game figured out yet, right, not to 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:04.600 mention the fact that they're making making duplicates is is 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:07.879 no easy task at this time, so they thought, well 0:18:08.119 --> 0:18:11.360 it's safe enough. Yeah, that fire was in eighteen thirty six, 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:13.160 so they really did not have a plan in place 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:16.240 to keep duplicate copies. And as a consequence, there are 0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:19.199 actually a lot some sources will say that there are 0:18:19.240 --> 0:18:23.320 a lot of kind of partial patent documents that still 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:27.159 exists that like they mentioned a needle, or they mentioned 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:30.639 something sewing related, but like the attribution portion of the 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:32.840 document has been too damaged and they don't know who 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:36.080 filed it. So there could be families out there that 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:38.480 could have, for all we know, inherited great wealth. But 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:42.760 we'll never know because the capriciousness of fire robbed them 0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:45.640 of their place in history. Fire and it's ways possibly 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:49.879 on Martha's vineyard. In eighteen forty two, we've got John J. Greenoff, 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:52.840 who is the first guy, first American, to get a 0:18:52.880 --> 0:18:54.800 patent for the sewing machine that we have a record 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:58.520 of anyway. Um. So even though he made his invention 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:02.760 after Hunt had, Hunt had not patented it, and as 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:05.280 you have in your notes here, the Aerosmith apparently never 0:19:05.359 --> 0:19:09.359 got around to patenting it either. So, uh, this is 0:19:09.400 --> 0:19:12.600 the first one in the American patent system. Yeah, he 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:16.760 there was no replication of his He basically kind of 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:18.960 was one and done. Yes, so he made a prototype 0:19:18.960 --> 0:19:21.920 and then not a production model. Yeah, there's we don't 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:23.679 know if he didn't get funding, orf he just abandoned 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:26.840 the idea and moved on to something else. But it 0:19:26.920 --> 0:19:28.800 was only a year later when the second U. S. 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:31.280 Patent for a sewing machine came about, and that was 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:33.920 issued to Benjamin W. Bean which is a great name, 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:38.240 I know. Um, And he created a unique development and 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:41.920 that his machine was the first that actually fed the 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:45.359 fabrics through gears. So for the stitchers in the house, 0:19:45.560 --> 0:19:49.119 all three of us. UM, that's similar to feed dogs. 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:50.960 And if you don't stitch what a feed dog is. 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:52.919 If you've ever looked at a sewing machine, you may 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:55.240 see these two. They almost look like little feet that 0:19:55.280 --> 0:19:57.000 come up and kind of kick at your fabric as 0:19:57.000 --> 0:19:59.960 you're sewing, and they have rigid edges and that's kind 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:02.399 to pulling your fabric through as you go right, so 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:04.800 you don't have to put through as much effort, you 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:08.399 don't have to worry about misguiding the fabric. So it 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:11.680 helps feed the fabric through as you're stitching. Yes, sometimes 0:20:11.680 --> 0:20:14.040 it creates great drama and it eats fabric, but not 0:20:14.119 --> 0:20:17.359 very often. UM and his also had a clamp mechanism 0:20:17.400 --> 0:20:19.240 to attach it to a table, so that was also 0:20:19.280 --> 0:20:22.360 a new development. Uh, and there are still machines made 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:25.720 to do that. Also that year, in eighteen forty three, 0:20:25.720 --> 0:20:29.439 we got George H. Corliss, who uh you know, he 0:20:29.520 --> 0:20:32.840 was also a busy body making making a steam engine. 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:36.320 That's pretty cool. We did a full episode and tech 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:38.800 stuff on steam engine. So if you guys are are 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:40.520 big into that and you really want to know about 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:42.600 the development of the steam engine. Here's here's an interesting 0:20:42.640 --> 0:20:46.280 little fact. The original steam engines didn't push with steam. 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:49.280 They rather would pull by letting steam condense and create 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:52.840 a vacuum, thus pulling a piston down rather than pushing 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:55.359 a piston out. But we go into full detail and 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:58.399 tech stuff, so I don't need to redo the whole thing. 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:02.760 This peace It is exciting. It's actually not cool, it's 0:21:02.760 --> 0:21:07.440 actually quite hot. But but ump ump so Corless had 0:21:07.480 --> 0:21:11.200 what's considered the third u S sewing machine patents. His 0:21:11.640 --> 0:21:13.919 performed what is called a saddle stitch, which is a 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:18.200