Schiffli embroidery machine
By the early twentieth century schiffli machines had standardized to ten and fifteen meters in width and used more than 600 needles.
As the needle withdraws it forms a loop on the back side of the material.
Once a row of embroidery is completed the material is rolled upwards and the design is repeated.
Unlike the hand embroidery machine, the needles do not pass completely through the fabric.
Since the manual embroidery machine required the thread to be pulled completely through the fabric, after each front and back side stitch, its thread length was limited by the depth of the machine.
A schiffli spool on the other hand, could hold more than 500 yards of embroidery thread.
The schiffli machine is only limited by the length of thread that can fit on the bobbin.
He developed a prototype at Benninger AG in the municipality of Uzwil, Switzerland.
By then, Saurer in Arbon and Martini in Frauenfeld, Switzerland began to compete.
The German machine manufacturers J.C. & H. Dietrich in Plauen (later known as the Vogtländische Maschinenfabrik AG, or VOMAG) and the Maschinenfabrik Kappel AG located in Chemnitz-Kappel also began building machines.
All of these companies competed for business in the textile industry that was centered in eastern Switzerland and in particular St. Gallen.
Robert Zahn is credited with adapting the punch card concept for VOMAG.
Even before 1900, Saurer was able to build and sell very large numbers of schiffli machines.
So called chemical lace (German: Ätzspitze) is embroidered onto a type of fabric, a foundation, that is later dissolved.
In early 1900s schiffli machines were imported and many Swiss immigrated from the canton of St. Gallen to Hudson County, New Jersey and helped establish the industry there.
Since the craft of stitching was learned on the job and passed from one generation to the next - many of the operational details are obscure, or have yet to be translated from German.
His later book, The Art of Embroidery: In the 90's, includes a revised history of schiffli machines.
A large portion of the book describes various Schiffli machines that evolved from the Plauen design.
Schneider, who lived and worked in NJ, documented the embroidery industry that existed in Hudson County, during the first half of the twentieth century.
The region included yarn and fabric producers, textile bleachers and etchers, designers, as well as dealers and mechanics that supported the machines.
Schneider describes how business was cyclical, always dependent on fashion, but also how demand for items such as embroidered patches, known as emblems, spiked during the first and second world wars.
The catalog also includes images of several large factory installations near Plauen and St. Gallen.
