Hand embroidery machine
It was widely used in the Swiss embroidery industry during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
[5][6] The name "hand embroidery machine" – a calque translation from German Handstickmaschine – is somewhat confusing.
The satin stitch is created by passing the threaded needle completely through the fabric.
Machine embroidery and lace were used to embellish linens, clothing, handkerchiefs and curtains.
Examples of machine embroidery as well as terminology can be found in Lace, Its Origin and History by Samuel L.
This article incorporates a description of Heilmann's machine that was published in a bulletin by the Société industrielle de Mulhausen and in the German Polytechnisches Journal in 1836.
Eventually the schiffli pantograph was replaced by Jacquard punch cards and machine embroidery became fully automated.
However, hand machines continued to fill a niche, e.g. for small volume jobs.
For example, both machines used the French inch and needle spacing was called rapport.
[5] Creating new embroidery designs, enlarging the drawings to scale and adding details for the stitcher were considered the most artistic steps in the process.
A major contributor to the collection was embroidery business owner Leopold Iklé.
The hand embroidery machine consists of a large frame, suspended vertically, on which the fabric is stretched.
Figure 3 shows a hand machine in side view with its components labeled.
The needle's movement between the end points of each stitch is translated from the pattern that's mounted on the easel, to the frame that holds the fabric, with the help of a pantograph.
The dimensions I-VI and II-V are chosen so that the points V, IV and VI lie on a straight line.
Hand machine needles are symmetrical, i.e. have points on both ends, and an eye at the center of the shank.
The clamps or pliers sit on opposite sides of the frame in two horizontal rows.
The carriage B, B' moves on rollers l and l' which roll on rails m. It carries a wheel frame n n', which have horizontal spacing greater than the width of the material.
One the left support, the thread tensioning mechanism x' y' w' β' and ζ, is in the retracted position.
Now, as the handle continues to turn clockwise, the right or front side trolleys move from left to right.
Stitching occurs as follows: assume the left carriage has just been driven up against the material.
The needles will have pierced the material from the back side, and they will be protruding from the left clamps.
Now the left carriage remains stationary, and the right moves away from the material, taking with it the needles and drawing the thread through the fabric.
Once the carriage has traveled a short distance, the small rods y will rotate downwards on pivots w due to weights β.
Once y has traveled a sufficient distance on pins ζ they will lower the levers x and the cross bars z.
To make the next stitch, the operator moves the pointer to the next end point on the pattern.
As carriage B returns the thread tensioner z is lifted, the needles push through the material from right to left, and the process described above repeats in the opposite direction.
One of the major drawbacks of this machine is the fact that the threads must be pulled completely through the fabric in order to create each stitch.
From the East Swiss textile industry there are reports that children had to thread needles from 6 to 8 hours per day, in addition to attending school.
The stitcher could not always see all of the threads and needles, especially those of the lower row since they were largely hidden from his view.
