In 1830 he signed a contract with Auguste Ferrand, a mining engineer, who made the requisite drawings and submitted a patent application.

[citation needed] So, in 1790 Thomas Saint had invented a machine with an overhanging arm, a feed mechanism (adequate for the short lengths of leather he intended it for), a vertical needle bar and a looper.

[4] However in 1831, 150-200[6] tailors confronted them at the factory destroying dozens of machines in the process,[4] reportedly by workers fearful of losing work & lower wages following the issuing of the patent.

According to Moniteur,[7][8] A group of tailors, numbering about 150, headed this afternoon to rue de Sèvres, n° 155, towards the home of Mr. Gombert, into which they violently entered with the intention of breaking the sewing machines for military clothing.

Immediately a detachment of the 8th light, commanded by Lieutenant Pirolle, and passing rue de Sèvres, intervened at the requisition of the head of the establishment; their appearance put some of the delinquents to flight, they confined the other in the house from which they only came out between two hedges formed by the line and the National Guards who had come running from the quarter; 75 of these workers were thus taken to the police headquarters where they are imprisoned.

Given the high level of political resistance at the time (see Canut revolts) it could be unlikely that any success of the destruction would be stated publicly by governmental sources for fear of inspiring further actions.The statement went onto note the following,[6] They appeared today before the 6th correctional chamber.

M. Ferdinand Barrot, in an indictment full of wisdom and of moderation […] demonstrated to them, by means of statistics made available to them, that the invention of mechanics was favorable to industry, and consequently to industrialists.According to a later source,[10] Five defendants were sentenced to one month's imprisonment and sixty-nine to eight days' imprisonment; the seventy-fifth, whose name was Jacob, was acquitted.Thimonnier retired from the company the same year, shortly following the riot.

[11][10] The entire company was then fully dissolved a few years later, following the death of principal investor, Mr.Beaunier of The Saint-Étienne miners' school.