Eye-pointed needle

Looper & chain stitch, overhanging arm and a presser foot in the form of a tube for the needle to pass through.

1807

1810

1830

Edward Chapman

Balthasar Krems

Bartholomy Thimonnier

U.S.A

Germany

France

For passing a thread through leather belts.

On a machine for making nightcaps.
These are just two instances. There were others used for leather and decorative work.

The loops were on top of the material with the thread being pulled through from underneath by a barbed needle entering from the top. It tended to catch the cloth on its way up. The thread was hooked onto the needle by an oscillating arm which is not shown on the animation. The machine had no cloth feed so the work had to be moved along by the operator.

Double locking chain stitch

Treadle drive

1849

1851

William Grover

Isaac Singer

U.S.A

U.S.A

Most industrial machines use a stitch based on this invention. There is no shuttle so both threads can be supplied from a large bobbin which will seldom need replacing. Notice that the ends of both threads are fixed and do not pass through a loop. Only loops pass through loops. Very clever.

I cannot help thinking that Singer might have seen the idea of the tredle on your actual common or garden spinning wheel! Thimonnier's later machine also had treadles. In fairness though, Singer did not attempt to patent it. Singer's machine had the same general layout of those used today. He did not have the four motion feed but instead used a toothed wheel which turned intermittently against a presser foot so it was difficult to turn the cloth. He was not a key inventor but, to put it simply, he put all the parts in the right place and pointed them in the right direction.