The Invention of the Sewing Machine

The Invention of the Sewing Machine by Grace Rogers Cooper is a 1968 museum bulletin printed in Washington, D.C., with the author named as curator of textiles. A figure shows Weisenthal's two-pointed needle of 1755, and another shows Saint's sewing machine of 1790, with the text asking whether Saint built even one machine. A section headed 1800-1820 describes a French patent of 14 February 1804 to Thomas Stone and James Henderson for a machine that used a common needle and a pair of pincers to make an overcast stitch, which the text says was not commercially successful.

Another passage describes a British patent granted on 30 May of the same year to John Duncan, a Glasgow manufacturer, for tambouring. The book also carries long lists of makers with places and dates, among them Nettleton & Raymond of Brattleboro, Vt., and the New Home Sewing Machine Co. of Orange, Mass., an index of makers by state, and an alphabetical index to patentees listed in Appendix III.