Were machines used for leather sewing, Civil War era?

[Big Sioux Saddlery]

23 minutes ago, TinkerTailor said:

Before synthetics, canvas sails were reinforced with leather at the corners and such. With 3-4 layers of sailcloth and 2 layers of leather, it would be close to 1/2 inch thick I cant think of a non sail leather operation that needs an arm that long on a machine. It must have been made that long for a reason. Most every equestrian operation can and has been done on machines with almost no throat, like the campbell lockstitch. Do you know of any operations that require the larger arm clearance from that time period?

 Perhaps carriage dashes and fenders for the longer arm machine?  That would explain the relatively light capacity of a half inch

 

21 hours ago, CowboyBob said:

I wished I knew more about these old machines too! The smallest machine is Singer first Industrial model & the ser# on it dates to 1858 so it might of done some civil war sewing?? The 2nd one back is a Standard or #2 & the larger one is #3 for harness work.

They all use a wooden pitman arm to the treadle pedal insead of a belt like the newer machines & they are pretty hard to treadle !

 

6 hours ago, CowboyBob said:

The largest one is a Singer model # 3-1 & supposed to sew 1/2" of leather? Sails or whatever needed sewn.I think they needed the big wheels to keep the momentum going has they were treadled.

Half inch would not have been of much use for harness work for anything except the lightest carriage harness. And it certainly might have been used for that so I'm not arguing. But farm and work harness requires close to an inch of lift, not necessarily throughout the entire harness, but trace and breeching ends get pretty heavy on those types of harness.  I've been told that the Landis One's (Regular Landis Lockstich Machine) were in use during the civil war, but I have my doubts on the accuracy of that. Any info on that Bob?

 

These old machines fascinate me as well. For no more technology than they had in those times, and they could design and build a machine that would do a pretty decent job, all things considered.

[CowboyBob]

I don't know a lot about Landis #1 history either,although I've worked on alot of them & sold them over the years,they are a pretty good old machine.I was told once that they quit making them around 1900 but I've never talked to anyone that could say when they started making them.

[CowboyBob]

I found this on ISMACS

The No. 3 Standard

(Picture and Text Courtesy of Dorothy Brumleve)

In 1852 a modification of the first Singer machine was put on the market and was called the "No. 1 Standard"; it was essentially a machine for manufacturing purposes and several hundred thousand were sold previous to 1880.

It was succeeded by the "No. 2 Standard" in 1854. This also was similar to the "No. 1" but had greater capacity; it was fitted with either the rolling, the vibrating or the spring presser, according to the class of work it was to accomplish. It was heavier than the No. 1 and had more room under the arm.

In 1856 the "No. 3 Standard" was brought out. This too was similar to its predecessors in its mechanism but was especially designed for stitching leather in carriage trimming and harness manufacture. It has 18 inches clear space under the arm and is a standard machine to-day [1914] for its purpose.

[shoepatcher]

Bob,

I was told some time ago but can't remember who told me that Isaac Singer donated machines to the North's cause and uniforms were sewn on them.

glenn

[TinkerTailor]

After you commented that, I found this:

https://americancivilwarvoice.org/2014/06/03/the-sewing-machine-and-the-civil-war/

And here is the answer:

According to sewing-machine historian GraceRogers Cooper, over the course of the struggle the Union army purchased 473,000 pairs of ‘machine sewed bootees’ since they lasted eight times longer than those sewn byhand.

http://www.academia.edu/2646532/A_Nation_in_Extremity_Sewing_Machines_and_the_American_Civil_War

It appears that the north used them extensively and the south couldn't get them. The north had 60 or so sewing machine makers at the outset of the war, the south had none. Only 2% of the existing southern uniforms were machine sewn, while in the north 71% of uniforms inspected in one study had machine sewing somewhere. Apparently it was Elias Howe equipped a whole regiment with his royalties.

[Harfindel]

Here is what I.M. Singer said about the No. 3 Standard in an 1862 advertisement:

 

"Our No. 3 Machines are especially adapted to all kinds of light and heavy Leather Work, in Carriage Trimming, Boot and Shoe Making, Harness Making, etc., etc. They are of extra size, with an arm long enough to take under it and stitch the largest sized dashers. There is scarcely any part of a Trimmer's stitching that cannot be better done with them by hand; so, too, the saving of time and labor is very great.  The table of these machines is 24 inches long, and the shuttle will hold six times as much thread as the shuttle of those used for tailoring purposes.  The large machines work as fast as the small ones."

 

I have a saddle made in the 1860's in San Jose, CA.  The linings were almost certainly sewn into the various pieces by machine - the seams run at about 25 stitches per inch (extremely small) and with a uniformity that would have been nearly impossible, in my opinion, to do by hand.  The 1870 Industrial US census entry for the particular saddler reports manual powered sewing machines in use in his shop at that time.  I would imagine that the larger shops in SF, like Main & Winchester, had many sewing machines by then.  

I am guessing that if leather sewing machines had made it to CA by those dates, even though no rail line had been established yet, then they were already in fairly wide use in the East. The average cost of a good saddle in CA during the Civil War was about $40-60, so $125 for a sewing machine would have been a reasonable investment.

 

Can I ask where that photo of the three Singer "Standard" machines came from?  I have never seen them photographed as a group before.

 

[Harfindel]

The posting on ISMACS, by the way, is a quote from p. 46 of Singer Sewing Machine Co., "The Mechanics of the Sewing Machine" (1914).  The drawing is a reproduction from there, too.

[TinkerTailor]

On 11/25/2016 at 5:03 PM, Harfindel said:

Can I ask where that photo of the three Singer "Standard" machines came from?  I have never seen them photographed as a group before.

I believe they are in Cowboy Bob's "collection"

[Constabulary]

GOOD LORD - what a nice bunch of machines. Can I add a Needle Positioning System and has JUKI ever built s clone of them

[billybopp]

I was poking around craigslist in Philadelphia the the other day, and came across a Standard No.3.  with some pretty good pictures.  It looks fascinating, but certainly too pricey for me and I somehow doubt that parts are available.  I'd love to see a video of one o' these in action!  They claim that this one was made around 1873, so shortly after the civil war.

http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/for/5888005948.html