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

352 All About Inventions redescend. In this instance the loops forming the chain-stitches were made upon the upper instead of upon the under surface of the material. Thimmonier spent considerable time and patience perfecting his machine, and then demonstrated it before a few financial friends. They were so favour- ably impressed that they forthwith advanced the ingenious tailor the necessary sinews of war to estab- lish and to equip a factory. This enterprise met with such success that eleven years later eighty of these machines were at work. But the seamstresses and tailors did not view the new development with favour. Like those who had fallaciously construed Hargreaves’ spinning machine into a threat against their livelihood and had promptly smashed the new- fangled idea out of recognition, so did the discontented French needle workers raid Thimmonier’s factory and destroy the whole plant. Thimmonier was not dismayed by this manifesta- tion of mob violence and antagonism; it convinced him more than ever that his invention was certain of a great future. He built improved machines, one of which was stated to be capable of making 200 stitches a minute, and which was placed on view at the Great Exhibition of 1851. But apparently it attracted little if any attention. The inventor became bitterly disappointed at not receiving any further encourage- ment from his financial friends, who doubtless feared another outburst of frenzy among the needleworkers if they attempted to re-establish mechanical sewing upon a commercial scale. Moreover, the French tailor appears to have become involved in patent litigation in the United States. This was indubitably