The Sewing Story

As usual, I found your latest issue most interesting. The article “Seam Stresses,” by J. M. Fenster (Winter 1994), rightly tells of the resistance to sewing machines in France and of the multiple contributions that gave the sewing machine its final form, acceptable in both home and industry. I would like to suggest, however, that even more emphasis be placed on the effects of what Peter F. Drucker calls the productivity revolution, which of course was a direct consequence of the Industrial Revolution. The Luddites neither foresaw nor could have understood either of these phenomena.

Also, there may be an additional chapter to this fascinating story. The Technical Museum in Vienna exhibits a sewing machine invented by the Austrian Josef Madersperger, granted a patent in 1839. This machine had a needle with the eye near its point and sewed a type of chain stitch. The needle reciprocated vertically, and there were two thread-supply spools, one for the upper part of the stitch, one for the lower. I believe it had no impact on contemporary industry and didn’t make its inventor rich.

Fredrick T. Gutmann
Caldwell, N.J.