Sewing's Not So Simple
1846 AD
1846 1846
71.10W42.20N
SCI

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
	On first thought, sewing machines don't look too complicated.  A needle goes up and down sewing pieces of cloth together.  But if you think about it, if it just went up and down, the thread would just come right back out of the hole each time the needle came up.
	That was the problem sewing machine inventors had to face, and the best solution belonged to Elias Howe, of Massachusetts, who patented his sewing machine in 1846.
	Howe's machine used a needle with an eye at the point and two spools of thread, one under the cloth called a bobbin.  When the needle brought the upper thread through the cloth, a rotating hook caught it and looped it completely around the bobbin.  Then, as the upper thread was pulled up by the needle, it caught the lower thread, which trailed from the bobbin, creating a tight lock stitch.
	In 1851 Isaac Singer added to Howe's invention a presser foot to hold the fabric down, and in 1854 Alan Wilson introduced an automatic cloth feed mechanism.