The Old Green Sewing Machine
Your grandma’s foot pedal sewing machine is an example of an antique green lifestyle treasure built to last and this antique is stylish with its own charm of design. There are examples of the hardy machines that still exist and many are still functional. Too bad, not many machines that can last a hundred years or more are available to everyone. Just imagine if our cars were built to last like these antique Singer sewing machines.
If you do have one of these lovely machines, you should consider yourself lucky to have gotten such a marvellous piece of work for a song if that was the case. When it came to designing the sewing machine, inventors had been trying to devise a sewing machine that could replace the slow hand sewing of people who also were not always as reliable as a machine.
A patent was awarded to French designer B. Thimonnier for a sewing machine that was powered by foot pedals. This design was an innovation although it was not a perfected machine yet and this continued to be a problem in the development of mechanical sewing machines. Various machines were invented and improved upon yet these machines were not yet ready for full operation until Isaac M. Singer was awarded a patent in 1851 for a machine that was fully functional and was powered by an foot device called the foot treadle. This sewing machine improved upon the successful elements of the best machines until that time and this was the sewing machine that would be mass-produced for the market.
Sometimes you can see these antique foot pedal sewing machines on eBay and they are readily identifiable because each of these early Singer machines are painted black with bodies that look more like a machine than the current plastic cased and sleeker looks of current sewing machines. Some of the machines are spare looking with a black metal foot pedal and others are cased in wooden cabinets.
You can find appliance services, which offer maintenance and repairs for antique Singer sewing machines including the treadle or foot pedal type sewing machine. If you sew, like antiques and want to cut down on the energy that you use with a mechanical powered sewing machine, here is your machine.
