1830 Sewing machine by Barthelemy Thimonnier
Barthélemy Thimonnier was born on 19 August 1793 in L'Arbresle, Rhône (69), in
revolution torn France. A few years earlier his family had moved from the center
of Lyon to set up a small textile business in L’
Arbresle. After a good but short education he was apprenticed to
a tailor and made such good progress that by the age of 16 he had opened his own
shop. In 1825 he moved his business to Saint Etienne and about the same time
started to experiment with a machine that would join an embroidered cloth using
a form of crochet hook. With financial help from Marcel Ferrand, a local teacher
Thimonnier took out a patent and within 10 years he had 80 machines set up in a
factory in the Paris suburbs with a royal contract to manufacture army uniforms.
France was still in turmoil with Louis Napoleon stirring up the Bonapartists and
it could have been no great surprise when a mob of local tailors burst into the
factory and destroyed every machine. Thimonnier, now penniless escaped the mob
and fled back to the relative safety of St Etienne where he found a new
financial backer Jean Mary Magnin who, being an engineer, believed that the
original machine could be in considerably improved. Between them they produced a
Mk Two machine but it was now 1848 the year of revolution in Paris and France
was no place for budding entrepreneurs. Barthelemy Thimonnier and Magnin took a
boat to England and two years later in an attempt to publicise the machine
showed it at the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park.. The elder
of seven he studies for a while at Saint jean seminary in Lyon and in 1795 he
takes the trade of tailor and sets up his business in Amplepuis which he will
leave after his wife's death. He marries a embroideress in January 1822. thus,
in 1823 he moves to the neighborhood of Saint-Etienne in a place named 'Les
Forges'. a tailor, even though he
is smart enough to invent a sewing machine, Thimonnier has problems to derive
money from his invention alone, so he associates with Aguste Ferrand, a tutor in
the Ecole des Mines in Saint-Etienne. he signs a private agreement in which he
agrees upon building a second "mecanical loom" while "Mr. Ferrand agrees to make
all drawings, reports and applications" necessary for the patent "in both the
contracting parties' names" as well as "finding the sum of money necessary to
the application of the said patent". Note that the patent is to be "in both the
contracting parties' names" whereas Thimonnier is the actual clever inventor of
a machine capble of sewing 200 stitches per minute (a tailor sew 30 in a
minute).
ttp://buisson.pagesperso-orange.fr/english/thimonnier.htm
revolution torn France. A few years earlier his family had moved from the center
of Lyon to set up a small textile business in L’
Arbresle. After a good but short education he was apprenticed to
a tailor and made such good progress that by the age of 16 he had opened his own
shop. In 1825 he moved his business to Saint Etienne and about the same time
started to experiment with a machine that would join an embroidered cloth using
a form of crochet hook. With financial help from Marcel Ferrand, a local teacher
Thimonnier took out a patent and within 10 years he had 80 machines set up in a
factory in the Paris suburbs with a royal contract to manufacture army uniforms.
France was still in turmoil with Louis Napoleon stirring up the Bonapartists and
it could have been no great surprise when a mob of local tailors burst into the
factory and destroyed every machine. Thimonnier, now penniless escaped the mob
and fled back to the relative safety of St Etienne where he found a new
financial backer Jean Mary Magnin who, being an engineer, believed that the
original machine could be in considerably improved. Between them they produced a
Mk Two machine but it was now 1848 the year of revolution in Paris and France
was no place for budding entrepreneurs. Barthelemy Thimonnier and Magnin took a
boat to England and two years later in an attempt to publicise the machine
showed it at the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park.. The elder
of seven he studies for a while at Saint jean seminary in Lyon and in 1795 he
takes the trade of tailor and sets up his business in Amplepuis which he will
leave after his wife's death. He marries a embroideress in January 1822. thus,
in 1823 he moves to the neighborhood of Saint-Etienne in a place named 'Les
Forges'. a tailor, even though he
is smart enough to invent a sewing machine, Thimonnier has problems to derive
money from his invention alone, so he associates with Aguste Ferrand, a tutor in
the Ecole des Mines in Saint-Etienne. he signs a private agreement in which he
agrees upon building a second "mecanical loom" while "Mr. Ferrand agrees to make
all drawings, reports and applications" necessary for the patent "in both the
contracting parties' names" as well as "finding the sum of money necessary to
the application of the said patent". Note that the patent is to be "in both the
contracting parties' names" whereas Thimonnier is the actual clever inventor of
a machine capble of sewing 200 stitches per minute (a tailor sew 30 in a
minute).
ttp://buisson.pagesperso-orange.fr/english/thimonnier.htm