2-914-075 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Steam Sewing-Machines, 1854. The machine-room of the firm of Holloway, Crowe, and Holloway, '...wholesale clothes manufacturers, Stroud, Gloucestershire...Here are twenty machines in work, "the whole driven by steam power"...Each machine is attended by a young woman, who has both hands to guide the cloth, whilst the foot starts or stops the machine...by means of a lever connected with the shafting that runs underneath. The occupation of these yonng women is not laborious, as in hand-sewing, but is...healthful, amusing, and performed with the greatest ease...The machines, which are the invention of Mr. C. T. Judkins, of Manchester, and bear his patent, display first-rate engineering talent and a high class of workmanship. They work at the rate of 800 stitches per minute - each macaine, with its attendant basters and finishers, will produce about 150 pairs of men's trousers per week'. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.