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1829 - The sewing machine is invented (Barthélemy Thimonnier, France)

MONUMENT FOR SUPPOSED SEWING MACHINE INVENTOR

Lyons, France, Aug. 23. - (Correspondence of Associated Press) - A monument is to be erected here soon in honor of Bartholomew Thimonnier, whom the French claim was the inventor of the sewing machine.

Thimonnier, a tailor's assistant, constructed his first working model in 1829, and was thrashed by his fellow workmen who complained that his "devilish invention" would take the bread out of their mouths. Destitute and forgotten, Thimonnier died in 1867, when 64 years old. No one had ever given him any aid or encouragement.

The device of Thimonnier was said to have been quite different from that of Elias Howe, the American inventor, whose sewing machine was patented in 1846 and who is regarded in America as the originator of the first practical apparatus for mechanical stitching. Howe's machine met with similar opposition. Its chief feature was that of having the thread pass through near the point instead of the top of the needle.


Salisbury Evening Post
Salisbury, North Carolina
September 5, 1919

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