institch embroideries from India,
this hook was used to produce chainstitch designs on a net ground.[2]
The stitch and the fine hook to make it were especially adaptable to
this work. By the 18th century the hook had been reduced to needle size
and inserted into a handle, and was used to chainstitch-embroider woven
fabrics.[3] In France the hook was called a crochet and was sharpened to
a point for easy entry into the fabric (fig. 3). For stitching, the
fabric was held taut on a drum-shaped frame. The hooked needle pierced
the fabric, caught the thread from below the surface and pulled a loop
to the top. The needle reentered the fabric a stitch-length from the
first entry and caught the thread again, pulling a second loop through
the first to which it became enchained. This method of embroidery
permitted for the first time the use of a continuous length of thread.
At this time the chainstitch was used exclusively for decorative
embroidery, and from the French name for drum--the shape of the frame
that held the fabric--the worked fabric came to be called tambour
embroidery. The crochet[4] or small hooked needle soon became known as
a tambour needle.

In 1755 a new type of needle was invented for producing embroidery
stitches. This needle had to pass completely through the fabric two
times (a through-and-through motion) for every stitch. The inventor was
Charles F. Weisenthal, a German mechanic living in London who was
granted British patent 701 for a two-pointed needle (fig. 4). The
invention was described in the patent as follows:

The muslin, being put into a frame, is to be worked with a needle
that has two points, one at the head, and the other point as a
common needle, which is to be worked by holding it with the fingers
in the middle, so as not to require turning.

It might be argued that Weisenthal had invented the eye-pointed needle,
since he was the first inventor to put a point at the end of the needle
having the eye. But, since his specifically stated use required the
needle to have two points and to be passed completely through the
fabric, Weisenthal had no intention of utilizing the very important
advantage that the eye-pointed needle provided, that of _not_ requiring
the passage of the needle through the fabric as in hand sewing.

While no records can be found to establish that Weisenthal's patent was
put to any commercial use during the inventor's lifetime, the
two-pointed needle wi