The sewing machines from the collection of RHM Burgas

There is hardly a home that has not had or still has a sewing machine. We will briefly introduce you to the history of the sewing machine, and then we will present you a few specimens from the collection of RHM Burgas.

The story begins in 1755 in London, where the German engineer Charles Wiesenthal, working and living at the time in Britain, managed to patent a needle that could be used for mechanical sewing. There is no mention of a machine on which to put the needle, and it took 34 years for the Englishman Thomas Saint to invent what is considered to be the first real sewing machine. In 1790, the producer of cabinets patented a machine that through an awl makes a hole in the skin and the needle passes. Critics of Thomas Saint, however, believe that he patented only an idea and the machine was never produced.

In 1804, two more inventions were patented. One in France by Thomas Stone and James Henderson - a machine that resembles hand sewing. Scott John Duncan's invention was a machine that embroiders with a number of needles. Unfortunately, nothing more is known about the fate of the two inventions. The first practical and widely used sewing machine was invented by the French tailor Barthelemy Timonie in 1829. His machine sewed straight seams using a chain stitch. The following year, 1830, he signed a contract with Auguste Ferran, a mining engineer, who made the necessary drawings and applied for a patent. The patent was issued on July 17, 1830, and in the same year he and his partners opened the world's first company for the production of army uniforms for the French army. However, this led to a conflict with Parisian tailors, who were worried about losing their jobs. The model of the machine is exhibited in the Museum of Science in London. In 1832, Walter Hunt invented the first American sewing machine, but quickly lost interest in his creation, and the first patent for a sewing machine in the United States was in 1842 by John Greenoff. However, the machine that combined all the parts invented until then was the work of the English inventor John Fisher in 1844, yet failed to obtain a patent due to an error in the documents. Almost ten years later, in 1851, the American engineer Singer received a patent for his sewing machine. It combines elements from the machines of Timonie, Hunt and Howie. The foot protector used to convert reciprocating motion to rotational motion is adapted to drive the sewing machine, leaving both hands free. It is the Singer sewing machine that is among the most widespread in Bulgaria and probably each of us has seen it, and maybe sew on it.

</iframe> There are plenty medium itinerary sewing machines in the collection of RHM Burgas. One of them is Csepel 30. Foot, fully finished, in a wooden box with two drawers on the sides, one of which has a device for sticking needles. The machine is made in Hungary. The manufacturer dates back to 1882, when the brothers Manfred and Berthold Weiss set up a cannery in the 7th district of Budapest. Medium work activities in the everything factory and demonstration of ammunition for the army. In 1890, an explosion took place in the factory, which was set before its relocation to the sparsely populated village of the village of Chepel (now the 21st district in Budapest) in 1892. In the period 1896 - 1914, remained in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, produced mostly ammunition and military equipment. At the time of the World War I, the work in the factory was drastically reduced and closed the production of household appliances - high quality, practical and easy to use sewing machines, ovens, kitchen utensils and more.

<iframe style="float:right" src="http://burgasmuseums.bg/index.php?page=collectionitem_embed&id=15473" width="357" height="290" scrolling="no"></iframe> UNION sewing machine from 1967, were manufactured in the former Soviet Union. It is legged, placed in a wooden cabinet. The cabinet door opens to the left, the upper part in the same direction and rests on it. Additional auxiliary space is obtained. There are three metal boxes attached to the door by means of plates, which can be folded one under the other. The sewing machine is retracted and removed as well, driven by a wooden pedal.

Two more sewing machines are of interest, and the only thing that is supposed about them is that they are Bulgarian-made - a Balkan sewing machine and a Vera sewing machine.

<i>Plamena Kirova - ch. curator of the Ethnography Department

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