liking quilting

I have shared this in the chit chat section too, but thought it was appropriate for the vintage section. The Berlin Museum of Technology is one of the great places I was able to visit with my dh & ds last week. There were displays of several old machines, including 3 machines hooked together to be operated at once, set to embroider in the hoop, pattern determined by a scroll of punched paper. Cool! What ingenuity.

OurWorkbench

Thank you, Mavis, for posting here ;-)

I'm going to guess since it is in a museum that it is not currently operational and is for display only. It sure would be fun to see it actually work, but very it is neat to see how they "used to do it"

Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.

Mickey2

That's new to me too, never knew they connected machines like that. I knew about the puncture cards and paper, I have seen pre 1900 embroidery machines, set up to make bands and ribbons with colorful embroidery. How did they change thread along the way?

Jane Quilter

Dig too deep into the textile industry's history and you will find many sad tales. How they changed the thread was often done by small children working in a dangerous environment. Don't get me started. But I enjoyed your photos

Valeriekat

Knew?.............

Mariposa

Very neat!

liking quilting

Yes, "knew" ... still fighting jet lag!

donna13350

That is just amazing! It makes me think of the old player pianos that used perforated rolls..maybe the same concept?
Can anyone make out the brand name on those machines? Wurker maybe?
Thanks for showing these pics...they're great!

Mickey2

Yes, I it says Würker, sort of hand writing style. I have seen the Würker name on old zigzagger attachments, maybe there's a connection? (I have spend way too much time searching ebay and the web in general )

Jane Quilter, you reminded me of somting there; digging into the world of sewing machines and related industri we certainly get to know social history; why worker's unions came about, and mandatoy work regulations are important. They are still as improtant as ever. From a world wide point of view, we might not have come that far.

A lot we read on sewing machine history relates to domestic machines; the first swing needle zigzaggers were introduced in the 1920s. I have discovered they had industrial over lockers, sergers, swing needle zigzaggers, embrodery units of various kinds. I suppose our grand parents and great grand parents knew it very well, but we discover it when reading up on the past. I'm all for a wider view of our selves than the current decade, even century :- )

liking quilting

There was a single machine set up that we were allowed to handcrank. The large one was display only. Parts of this museum were very "hands-on" and required us to check our bags and have hands free before entering that section. That one had lots to do with things like motion, water movement, electricity, etc.