All About Inventions and Discoveries
The Romance of modern scientific and mechanical Achievements

CHAPTER XVI The Sewing Machine It is doubtful whether any invention has ever made such an enormous appeal directly to the household as the sewing machine. Certainly none can com- pare with it in the domestic circle as a time- and labour-saver. One hundred, even seventy-five, years ago all sew- ing operations had to be carried out by hand, and in precisely the same manner as they had been done since the Dark Ages. The only difference between hand-sewing five or six thousand years before the Christian era, and at the beginning of the nineteenth century, was that a steel needle was used instead of one of bone or wood. While handwork possibly can- not be surpassed even to-day, it suffers from the grave disability of being exceedingly slow, the most skilful worker being unable to exceed a sewing speed of about thirty stitches a minute. Yet sewing by the aid of a machine is by no means such a modern invention as one might suppose. Our grandmothers vividly recall the days of its first suc- cessful appearance and the sensational interest it aroused. But the women-folk of those times did not receive the proposal with open arms. There was a conspicuous scepticism of a machine ever being able to execute needlework as efficiently, neatly, tightly, and as perfectly as deft feminine fingers. Centuries 348