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.

Who Invented The Bicycle?

As I read your article “Behind the Wheels” (“Notes From the Field,” Winter 1994) I thought I recalled reading of a certain Kirkpatrick MacMillan, who built the world’s first pedal bicycle in 1839.

John W. Crocker
Austin, Tex.

Who Invented The Bicycle?

I thoroughly enjoyed Frederic D. Schwarz’s commentary on the invention of the bicycle and my attempt to have the Frenchman Pierre Lallement recognized as the builder of the first pedal bicycle. I wish to offer a few remarks. First, I fully agree that original inventors are often difficult to identify, and the development of the bicycle is certainly no exception. In 1869, for example, mechanics in England, France, and the United States simultaneously experimented with the tensioned-wire wheel. And even when the mark of individual genius is relatively clear, as with John Dunlop’s pneumatic tire of 1888, the “inventor of” label is a gross simplification at best. Inevitably, precedents exist.

The lofty title “inventor of the bicycle,” applied in conjunction with the Parisian cycle craze of 1867, does indeed invite similar objections. Shadowy claims for precedence abound, notably the Scotsman Kirkpatrick MacMillan, credited with a lever-driven machine around 1840. Nevertheless, we can fairly surmise that some fundamental breakthrough did occur in Paris to precipitate the original cycling phenomenon, for there is no evidence of any prior technological convergence on the bicycle. But the real historical question is this: Who, if anyone, was the catalyst, the one who sparked experimentation in Paris by building and demonstrating a prototype?

Was Pierre Lallement that figure, as originally determined by U.S. patent officials considering his 1866 patent? Or was he a marginal opportunist who merely exported the ideas of Pierre and Ernest Michaux, as French revisionists later asserted? We can reasonably deduce that if the Michaux pair had truly pioneered the bicycle they would have claimed it as their idea. The long-standing alibi that they were unaware of the patent system won’t stand. We now know that they had patents for other inventions well before that time.

David V. Herlihy
Boston, Mass.

The only logical conclusion, consistent with the evidence, is that Lallement truthfully presented himself to the U.S. patent office in 1866 as an original inventor, having left behind in Paris the seeds of cycle development.

The Speed Of Flight

My brother and I both enjoyed the article “The Jet Plane Is Born,” by T. A. Heppenheimer (Fall 1993). It brought to mind a comment our father once made. He was a stress analyst at Douglas Aircraft, at both Santa Monica and Long Beach, California, from 1929 to 1969. Shortly after the end of World War II he took us to an air show where besides seeing our first helicopter we saw a jet aircraft for the first time. As he was explaining how they worked, he laughed when he recalled that at Douglas, “We knew as a scientific fact that an airplane could not fly faster than the speed of sound!”

Maybe this too helps to explain why America dragged its heels at developing the jet airplane until well into World War II.

Steve Moseley
La Jolla, Calif.

Fine Ford Fare

I began the article “Made in America,” by Nicholas Delbanco (Winter 1994), with the purpose of gleaning some simple highlights about the Henry Ford Museum, which I plan to visit. However, I soon found myself riveted to Mr. Delbanco’s distinctive and engrossing writing. The article extended far past an informational travel piece to explore the character of American enterprise. My applause for a truly fascinating article.

Joe Thrailkill
West Chester, Ohio