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

350 All About Inventions did so, because his drawings are complete, and his specification is also comprehensive. Whether Saint did or did not build a machine is a minor matter, because it does not affect the fact that he is entitled to all the credit of being the father of this product of ingenuity. His drawings include many of the fundamental features embodied in the modern machine without which, so far as knowledge has carried us, it would be impossible to execute the work which is accomplished thereby. That Saint’s machine was perfectly practicable was proved many years ago by Mr. Newton Willows, who built a machine strictly in accord with Saint’s conception and from his actual drawings. This interesting model is still to be seen in the South Kensington Museum. As a matter of fact, the London cabinet-maker, in his patent, described and illustrated three machines capable of being operated either by hand or power, one of which, be it noted, was intended essentially for the making of boots and shoes. The similarity of the present-day sewing machine to that evolved by Saint is very striking in many particulars. There is the horizontal cloth-plate, the overhanging arm with a vertically working needle at its extremity, the “ feed,” working automatically between the stitches, and the cotton or thread wound on a reel carried on the arm. The most curious feature, however, is what may be described as the double needle—or, rather, two needles. Saint did not contemplate that the needle might be able to drive its own way through the material to be sewn, because he introduced a sharp-pointed tool, similar to an awl, which was moved mechanically, and made the