CHAPTER XIX.

GARMENTS.

“Man is a Tool-using Animal, of which Truth, Clothes are but one Example.”--Form of Needle not Changed until 1775.-- Weisenthal.--Embroidery Needle.--Saint’s Sewing Machine, 1790.--John Duncan’s Tamboring Machine, 1804.--Eye Pointed Needles for Rope Matting, 1807.--Madersperger’s Sewing Machine, 1814.--France and the Thimonnier Machine, 1830-1848-50, Made of Wood.--Destroyed by Mob.--English Embroidering Machine, 1841.-- Concurrent Inventions in Widely Separated Countries.--Thimonnier in France, Hunt in America, 1832, 1834.--Elias Howe, 1846.-- Description of Howe’s Inventions.--Recital of his Struggles and final Triumphs.--The Test of Priority.--Leather Sewing Machines of Greenough and Corliss, 1842-43.--Bean’s Running Stitch, 1843.--The Decade of 1849-1859, Greatest in Century in Sewing Machine Inventions.--Hood’s “Song of the Shirt,” a Dying Drudgery.--Improvements after Howe.--Blodgett and Lerow’s Dip Motion.--Wilson’s Four-Motion Feed.--Singer’s Inventions, their Importance, his Rise from Poverty to Great Wealth.--The Grover and Baker.--The Display in 1876 at the Centennial.--Vast Growth of the Industry.--Extraordinary Versatility of Invention in Sewing and Reaping Machines, and Breech-Loading Fire-arms.-- Commercial Success due to Division of Labour and Assembling of Parts.--Innumerable Additions to the Art.--Seventy-five Different Stitches.--Passing of the Quilting Party.--Embroidery and Button-hole Machines.--Garment-cutting Machines.--Bonnets and Inventions of Women.--Hat Making.--Its History.--Bonjeau’s Improvements in Plain Cloths, 1834.--Effect of Modern Inventions on Wearing Apparel and Condition of the Poor.--The Epoch of Good Clothes. 310