sold for one
dollar as stated in the advertising brochure from which this engraving
was copied. Other inventors also patented similar implements.
(Smithsonian photo 45513.)]

The first patent for an attachment was issued in 1853 to Harry Sweet for
a binder, used to stitch a special binding edge to the fabric. Other
related attachments followed; among these were the hemmer which was
similar to the binder, but turned the edge of the same piece of fabric
to itself as the stitching was performed. Guides for stitching braid in
any pattern, as directed by the movement of the goods below, were also
developed; this was followed by the embroiderer, an elaborate form of
braider. The first machine to stitch buttonholes was patented in 1854
and the first buttonhole attachment in 1856, but the latter was not
practical until improvements were made in the late 1860s. Special
devices for refilling the bobbins were invented and patented as early as
1862, and the popularity of tucked and ruffled garments inspired
inventors to provide sewing-machine attachments for these purposes also.
To keep the seamstress cool, C. D. Stewart patented an attachment for
fanning the operator by an action derived from the treadle (fig. 65).
While electric sewing machines did not become common until the 20th
century, several 19th-century inventors considered the possibility of
attaching a type of motor to the machine. One was the 1871 patent of
Solomon Jones, who added an "electro motor" to an 1865 Bartlett machine
(fig. 66). The attachments that were developed during the latter part of
the 19th century numbered in the thousands; many of these were
superfluous. Most of the basic ones in use today were developed by the
1880s and remain almost unchanged. Even the recently popular home zigzag
machine, an outgrowth of the buttonhole machine, was in commercial use
by the 1870s.

[Illustration: Figure 66.--JONES "ELECTRO MOTOR" PATENT MODEL of 1871 on
a Bartlett sewing machine. (Smithsonian photo P-63104.)]

Sewing-machine improvements have been made from time to time. Like other
mechanical items the machine has become increasingly automatic, but the
basic principles remain the same. One of the more recent developments,
patented[84] in 1933 by Valentine Naftali et al., is for a manufacturing
machine that imitates hand stitching. This machine uses a two-pointed
"floating needle" that is passed completely through the fabric--the very
idea that was attempted over