The history of the needle for children. Sewing needle. Story. The most ancient invention of man is the needle. She's probably older than the wheel
The first iron needles were found in Manching, in Bavaria, and date back to the 3rd century BC. It is possible, however, that these were “imported” samples. At that time, the ear (hole) was not yet known and the blunt tip was simply bent into a small ring. The ancient states also knew the iron needle, and in Ancient Egypt already in the 5th century BC. Embroidery was actively used. The needles found on the territory of Ancient Egypt are practically no different in appearance from modern ones. The first steel needle was found in China; it dates back to around the 10th century AD.
It is believed that needles were brought to Europe around the 8th century AD. Moorish tribes who lived in the territories of modern Morocco and Algeria. According to other sources, this was done by Arab merchants in the 14th century. In any case, steel needles were known there much earlier than in Europe. With the invention of Damascus steel, needles began to be made from it. This happened in 1370. That year, the first workshop community specializing in needles and other sewing items appeared in Europe. There was still no eye in those needles. And they were made exclusively by hand using the forging method.
Starting from the 12th century, the method of drawing wire using a special drawing plate became known in Europe, and needles began to be made on a much larger scale. (More precisely, the method existed for a long time, since ancient times, but was then conveniently forgotten). The appearance of the needles has improved significantly. Nuremberg (Germany) became the center of needle craft. A revolution in needlework took place in the 16th century, when the method of wire drawing was mechanized using a hydraulic motor invented in Germany. The main production was concentrated in Germany, Nuremberg and Spain. “Spanish peaks” - that’s what the needles were called at that time - were even exported. Later - in 1556 - England took over the baton with its industrial revolution, and the main production was concentrated there. Before this, needles were very expensive; rarely did any master have more than two needles. Now their prices have become more reasonable.
Since the 16th century, an unexpected use was found for the needle - etchings began to be made with its help. Etching is an independent type of engraving in which a design is scratched with a needle on a metal board covered with a layer of varnish. The acid in which the board is then immersed corrodes the grooves, and they become more distinct. Then the board acts as a stamp. The needles that were used for this type of art are similar to sewing needles, only without an eye and their tips are sharpened in the form of a cone, blade, or cylinder. Without strong steel needles, etching would hardly have been born. Thanks to the needle, the world in the 16th century recognized such German artists as A. Dürer, D. Hopfer, in the 17th century - the Spaniard H. Ribera, the Dutch A. Van Deyak, A. van Ostade, the greatest of the etchers, Rembrandt van Rijn. A. Watteau and F. Boucher worked in France, F. Goya in Spain, and G. B. Tiepolo in Italy. A.F. Zubov, M.F. Kazakov, V.I. Bazhenov worked in Russia. The needle was often used to draw popular prints, including folk pictures from the time of the Patriotic War of 1812, glorifying, for example, the cavalry guard maiden Durova or the partisan poet Denis Davydov, illustrations for books, and caricatures. This technique is still alive today and is used by many contemporary artists.
But let's return to the sewing needle. Real mechanized production opened in 1785, Europe and America were flooded with new needles. Fun fact: Treasure seekers recently discovered a huge wooden chest with the inscription "San Fernando" on the Florida coast under a thick layer of sand. They looked up the archives and discovered that such a ship actually sank on the way from Mexico to Spain in the middle of the 18th century. On board, judging by the inventory, there were goods worth about 150 million silver pesos - a fabulous sum at that time. When the chest was opened, an unexpected sight was revealed to the greedy eyes of the treasure hunters: the chest was full of tens of thousands of sailor needles for patching sails.
In 1850, the British came up with special needle machines that made it possible to make the familiar eye in a needle. England takes first place in the world in the production of needles, becomes a monopolist and for a very long time has been a supplier of this necessary product to all countries. Before this, needles were cut from wire with varying degrees of mechanization, but the English machine not only stamped needles, but also made the ears itself. The British quickly realized that good quality needles that do not deform, do not break, do not rust, are well polished, are highly valued, and this product is a win-win. The whole world has understood what a convenient steel needle is, which does not touch the fabric with its homemade eye in the form of a loop.
A needle is that thing that has always, at all times, been in any home: whether it belongs to a poor man or to a king. During the numerous wars in which our planet is so rich, each soldier always had his own needle, rewound with thread: sew on a button, put on a patch. This tradition has survived to this day: all military personnel have several needles with different thread colors: white for sewing on collars, black and protective for sewing on buttons, shoulder straps, and for minor repairs.
Literally until the 19th century, everyone sewed clothes for themselves, because everyone knew how to do needlework, regardless of class. Even noble ladies considered it obligatory to come to visit with handicrafts - embroidery, beads, sewing. Despite the invention of the sewing machine at the beginning of the 19th century, hand sewing and embroidery continued to remain incredibly popular; works of sewing art created in the literal sense of the word never cease to amaze us with their beauty even now.
Many paintings by famous artists are dedicated to needlewomen. Suffice it to recall “A Peasant Girl Embroidering” by A.G. Venetsianov, a number of paintings by V.A. Tropinin - “Gold Seamstress”, “Beading Stitches”.
By the way, the first steel needles appeared in Russia only in the 17th century, although the age of bone needles found in Russia (the village of Kostenki, Voronezh region) is determined by experts to be approximately 40 thousand years. Older than a Cro-Magnon thimble!
Steel needles were brought from Germany by Hanseatic merchants. Before this, in Rus' they used bronze, and later iron, needles; for rich customers they were forged from silver (gold, by the way, has not caught on anywhere for making needles - the metal is too soft, it bends and breaks). In Tver, already in the 16th century, there was the production of so-called “Tver needles”, thick and thin, which successfully competed on the Russian market with needles from Lithuania. They were sold in thousands in Tver and other cities. “However, even in such a major metalworking center as Novgorod, in the 80s of the 16th century there were only seven needle holders and one pin maker,” writes historian E.I. Zaozerskaya.
The own industrial production of needles in Russia began with the light hand of Peter I. In 1717, he issued a decree on the construction of two needle factories in the villages of Stolbtsy and Kolentsy on the Prona River (modern Ryazan region). They were built by the merchant brothers Ryumin and their “colleague” Sidor Tomilin. Russia by that time did not have its own labor market, since it was an agricultural country, so there was a catastrophic shortage of workers. Peter gave permission to hire them “wherever they find them and at whatever price they want.” By 1720, 124 students were recruited, mostly townspeople's children from craft and trading families in the suburbs of Moscow. Studying and work were so hard that rarely anyone could stand it.
There is a legend, passed down from generation to generation in the factory working environment (the production of needles still exists in the old place), how Peter, having once visited the factories, demonstrated his blacksmithing skills to the workers.
Since then, the steel needle has firmly entered the life of the poor, becoming a real symbol of hard work. There was even a saying: “A village stands by a needle and a harrow.” What a poor man! These needles were also used by Peter’s unfortunate wife Evdokia Fedorovna Lopukhina, who whiled away her time embroidering during her almost thirty years of imprisonment in the monastery of the Shlisselburg fortress. When the queen gave her grandson Peter II a ribbon and a star on the occasion of her release, she said: “I, a sinner, brought it down with my own hands.”
After the invention of the neck machine, a need arose for machine needles. They differ from hand needles primarily in that the eye is on a sharp tip, and the blunt tip is turned into a kind of pin for securing it in the machine. The design of machine needles changed with the development of the design of the machine; along the way, various additions and improvements were made, such as the grooves in which the thread is hidden. Nowadays, only a few countries have established mass production of machine needles. A few kilograms of this high-quality product can cost more than a luxury car! And making an ordinary needle is not an easy task, despite all the achievements of civilization.
The needle has become part of everyday life so long ago and firmly that it even began to carry a certain sacred meaning. It is not for nothing that so many signs, fortune telling, prohibitions, fairy tales and legends are dedicated to her. And there are many more questions about the needle than about other items. Why is Koshchei's death at the end of a needle? Why has the needle never had a decorative function, like most items of clothing and accessories, including a pin? Why can’t a needle be inserted into clothing that is currently being worn? Yes, our grandmothers forbade sticking needles into anything for storage! Why can’t you sew up your clothes, but must be taken off first? Why should you never pick up a needle on the street, and why is it generally not recommended to use someone else’s? Why are love spells cast and the most terrible damage inflicted using a needle? Why does any housewife carefully store and hide her needles, even though she has dozens of them and they cost pennies? There are a lot of these “whys”, if you bring them all, and even remember the signs with dreams, no blog will be enough.
There is one amazing Buddhist ceremony in Japan called the Broken Needle Festival. The festival has been taking place throughout Japan for over a thousand years on December 8th. Previously, only tailors took part in it, today - anyone who knows how to sew. A special tomb is built for needles, in which scissors and thimbles are placed. A bowl of tofu, ritual bean curd, is placed in the center, and all the needles that have broken or bent over the past year are placed in it. After this, one of the seamstresses says a special prayer of gratitude to the needles for their good service. The tofu with the needles is then wrapped in paper and lowered into the sea.
Nowadays, every housewife has a lot of sewing needles, and they are all different, have different sizes and shapes depending on what they are sewing with (there are twelve sizes in total). There are needles not only for sewing and embroidery, but also for saddlery, furriers, sailing: For ordinary sewing and basting, long thin needles are used; gold-plated ones are well suited for embroidery - they literally “fly” through the fabric. For those who embroider with both hands, there are very convenient double-ended needles. They have a hole in the middle and allow you to pierce the fabric without turning the needle over. To embroider with floss threads, the needle must be chrome-plated with a gold-plated eye, so that, thanks to the contrast, it is easy to thread colored threads. The eye for such needles is made longer so that the thread slides freely when sewing and does not fray when passing through the fabric. For darning, needles with a long eye are also used, but they are much thicker and always have a sharp tip. For sewing wool, the tip is made blunt so as not to tear the thick fibers. For beads and bugles, the needle should have a thickness of almost a hair and it should be the same throughout its entire length, and the needle for leather should be thick and with a triangular sharpening of the tip. Tapestry needles are made with a large eye and a rounded end, which does not pierce, but pushes the fabric fibers apart. Similar needles are also used for cross stitch. The thickest (from 2 to 5 mm) and longest (70-200 mm) are “gypsy” needles, also known as bag needles, used for coarse fabrics such as canvas, burlap, tarpaulin, etc. They may be curved. There are special needles used in the manufacture of carpets and non-woven textile materials. It is no coincidence that one of the methods for obtaining them is called needle-punched. There are needles for the visually impaired; they are very easy to thread, because... The eyelet is made according to the principle of a carbine. Even so-called “platinum needles” appeared, made of stainless steel and coated with a thin layer of platinum, which reduces friction on the fabric. These needles reduce sewing time and are resistant to oils and acids, so they do not leave stains.
Just as people constantly used this item, they came up with various signs about the needle.
Pricking a finger with a needle was considered a way for a girl to listen to someone’s praise.
If a person has lost a needle without a thread, he will have to meet his loved one, and if the loss was with a thread, he will have to part with him.
If you hold two needles crosswise at the level of your heart, this will protect you from the evil eye and damage.
Stepping on a needle is a bad omen: you will be disappointed in your friends and quarrel with them.
Accidentally sitting on a needle means experiencing love disappointment and someone's betrayal.
Needles cannot be given as a gift - to a quarrel; If you still give it, lightly prick him in the arm.
Whether you believe in omens or not, everyone believes that a needle is an irreplaceable thing in our home.
Machine needles do not lag behind simple ones and are also divided not only by thickness, but also by purpose. There are regular, universal needles, and there are also special needles for sewing denim, knitwear and leather. Their noses are sharpened in a special way for this purpose.
However, it would be wrong to think that needles are only for sewing. We talked about some - etchings - at the beginning. But there are also gramophone ones (or rather, there were), which made it possible to “remove” sound from the grooves of a record: There are needle bearings as a type of roller bearings. In the 19th century there was even a so-called “needle gun”. When the trigger was pulled, a special needle pierced the paper bottom of the cartridge and ignited the percussion composition of the primer. The “needle gun,” however, did not last very long and was supplanted by the rifle.
But the most common “non-sewing” needles are medical needles. Although why not sewing? The surgeon uses them to sew. Not just fabric, but people. God forbid that we get to know these needles in practice, but in theory. In theory this is interesting.
To begin with, needles in medicine were used only for injections, starting around 1670. However, the syringe in the modern sense of the word appeared only in 1853. It’s a little late, considering that the prototype of the syringe was invented by the French mathematician, physicist and philosopher Blaise Pascal already in 1648. But then the world did not accept his invention. For what? What microbes? What injections? Devilishness and nothing more.
The injection needle is a hollow stainless steel tube with the end cut at an acute angle. We all received injections, so everyone remembers the not very pleasant sensations of “acquaintance” with such a needle. Now you can no longer be afraid of injections, because... There are already painless microneedles that do not affect nerve endings. Such a needle, as doctors say, is not something you would immediately find in a haystack, but even on a smooth table.
A needle in the form of a hollow tube is used, by the way, not only for injections, but also for suctioning gases and liquids, for example, from the chest cavity during inflammation.
Surgeons use “sewing” medical needles for stitching (“darning” in their professional slang) tissues and organs. These needles are not straight, as we are used to, but curved. Depending on the purpose, they are semicircular, triangular, semi-oval. At the end there is usually a split eyelet for the thread, the surface of the needle is chromed or nickel plated so that the needle does not rust. There are also platinum surgical needles. Ophthalmic (eye) needles, which are used to perform operations, for example, on the cornea of the eye, have a thickness of a fraction of a millimeter. It is clear that such a needle can only be used using a microscope.
It is impossible not to mention one more medical needle - for acupuncture. In China, this method of treatment was known even before our era. The meaning of acupuncture is to determine the point on the human body that, according to projection, is “responsible” for a particular organ. At any point (and there are about 660 of them known), the specialist inserts a special needle up to twelve cm long and 0.3 to 0.45 mm thick. With this thickness, the acupuncture needle is not straight, but has a helical structure, perceptible only to the touch. The tip, which remains “sticking out,” ends with a kind of knob, so that such a needle reminds the pack of a pin, and not a needle.
So smoothly we moved on to another sewing item - a pin.
Over the centuries, humanity has invented quite a lot of pins. They are all different and have different purposes and histories. First, we'll talk about sewing pins, which look like a needle with a ball or eyelet head. In the form in which they are familiar to us, they have been known since the 15th century. Nowadays, tailor's pins have not only a metal ball, but also a bright plastic ball. These pins are especially convenient for sewing. There are also so-called “carnations” - pins for packing men’s shirts. They are similar to ordinary ones, only shorter and their metal ball is very small.
In principle, the history of a needle and a sewing pin are very similar in their stages, because Tailors always felt the need for pins when they needed to pin together pieces of clothing for fitting or sewing, which means they needed both needles and pins at the same time. The history of the pin used for sewing is, of course, shorter than the history of the needle, because... ancient people did not feel the need for pins due to their simple cut and simple sewing technology. The need appears in the late Gothic period, when clothing became tight-fitting to the body, and therefore required a precise cut. This in turn changed sewing technology: it became difficult to hold numerous cut pieces while sewing them together, and pins were required. Another thing is curious: neither the guild communities of the Middle Ages for making needles, nor the factories or manufactories in the future, ever paid attention to the requests of tailors. They made pins, but for other purposes: decorative (we will talk about them in the next issue), pins for fastening papers, for fastening clothes (in a sock), etc. For some reason, they were not interested in tailor's pins, and the tailors were forced to use them according to the “residual” principle: they were content with whatever fell apart.
The situation improved gradually. In the middle of the 18th century, the French made the first modern type of pins. England, which by that time had become the main supplier of needles, did not lag behind. In 1775, the Continental Congress of the North American Colonies announced the establishment of a prize that would be awarded to the person who could produce the first 300 pins equal in quality to those imported from England. But only in the 19th century, with the development of the fashion industry, the industry began to make sewing pins, as they say, personally for tailors.
As for pins for “paper” purposes, the need for them became acute at the beginning of the Renaissance, when scientists and writers appeared, and they had a lot of papers that required temporary fastening (as opposed to traditional stapling - after all, there were no binders in those days ). Pins were made by stretching metal bars into wire, which was then cut into pieces of the required length. A metal head was attached to the resulting blanks. With the invention of a special drawing board, work went faster, and about 4 thousand pins were produced per hour. The work was stalled due to the fact that the packers could not keep up with the machine - they only managed to pack about one and a half thousand pieces a day. There was an urgent need to come up with something. And they came up with it. The principle of division of labor. (This principle was later used as the basis for the conveyor line). The eminent 18th-century economist Adam Smith once calculated that if not for this principle, only a few pins would be produced per day. This calculation of his was later included in textbooks on economics and some other disciplines.
Throughout history, only a few pin making machines have been invented. The most successful one was invented by physicist John Ireland Howe, the namesake of Elias Howe, one of the creators of the sewing machine in America. This was not his first invention; before that, he experimented in a completely different area - with rubber, but failed there. He was inspired to invent the pin machine by hard work in an almshouse, where he made pins by hand. The first machine turned out poorly (not very lucky, apparently, there was an inventor). But with the help of the second, 60 thousand pins were produced per day. Immediately there was a need to invent a machine that would immediately pack pins (in those days they were pinned to cardboard sheets).
It is curious that humanity has constantly experienced a shortage of pins. Henry VIII even issued a decree prohibiting the sale of pins every day, special days were set aside for this. This did not improve the situation with the shortage, on the contrary - confusion, crush, bustle, queues began (!); The decree had to be canceled after some time.
Analyzing this situation, you come to completely unexpected conclusions: can you imagine what kind of thirst people had for knowledge and learning if pins for fastening papers were in such a terrible shortage?!
It’s clear that there simply weren’t enough pins for tailoring needs and no one thought about tailors. Pins were not only scarce, they were of great value and were expensive. A set of pins was such a necessary thing that it served as a wonderful gift for almost any holiday. The reverent attitude towards pins has survived to this day - we carefully collect scattered pins and put them in a safe place. 
Archaeological finds indicate the ancient origin of the needle. The first needles were made from fish bone. The earliest metal needles in Europe, dating back to the 3rd century BC, were discovered in Bavaria. The eye of a needle at that time, as for many centuries later, was a ring of a bent blunt end. Starting from the 12th century in Europe, wire drawing technology began to be used to make needles, which significantly increased their production. The invention of Damascus steel in the second half of the 14th century contributed to improving the quality of needles. The most important milestone in the history of this instrument was the creation in 1850 of England of a machine that made it possible not only to stamp needles, but also to make an eye in them. The scale of mechanized needle production made the country a monopolist in the production of this product. The use of a new needle, which did not deform, did not break, did not rust, and was well polished, contributed to the improvement of sewing skills.
In the 17th century, steel needles were brought from Germany to Russian lands by Hanseatic merchants, and before that bone, bronze, iron and silver were used. Russia began its industrial production of needles. This was facilitated by the decree of Peter I, which announced the construction of factories for the production of needles. Factories were built in the Ryazan region, in the villages of Kolentsy and Stolbtsy, by merchants Sidor Tomilin and the Ryumin brothers. In Kolentsy, the needle factory consisted of four departments: needle, wire, pin and machine. Up to 1,200 pounds of steel wire per year were delivered from England - for the best needles, and for simple ones - from the Istiinsky plant. Peter I issued a decree “On duties on foreign needles” in order to protect domestic production. Ryazan factories produced over 32 million needles and pins per year, which met the needs of the domestic market and exported to other countries.
The image of a needle is one of the most mythologized in folk culture. The symbolism of a needle is based on its inherent properties of sharpness, small size, and ability to penetrate objects. It was also important for the mythopoetic consciousness that the metal from which the needles were made had an underground, that is, otherworldly, nature - this determined the magical functions of the needle. Thus, it was considered a powerful amulet, which was used in dangerous situations: at the birth of a child, at a wedding, funeral, during illness, in rituals with cattle. For the evil eye or damage, for example, a needle was stuck into a child’s robe. New unused needles, specially purchased for the wedding, were stuck into the hem of the bride's dress and in the chest area in a cross shape with the point up. Needles were sometimes placed in the coffin of a deceased woman so that she would have something to sew in the next world. In the Russian North, a needle without an eye was stuck into the collar of a horse carrying a dead person to church - so that it would not stumble. The needle was often used in medical practice as an object for hexing. The image of a girl sewing up a wound with a needle is persistent in conspiracies to stop bleeding. On the day of the first cattle pasture, a needle was attached to the tail or horns of the cow so that no one could damage it.
At the same time, the needle could be dangerous: it became an instrument of damage if a slander was cast on it. According to the ideas of the Eastern Slavs, sorcerers knew how to turn themselves into needles. These features explain the existing ban on picking up a needle found on the road. The timing of using a needle for sewing in traditional culture was strictly regulated. The ban not only on sewing, but also on looking at a needle extended, for example, to the feast of the Annunciation, associated with the beginning of a new stage of life - the awakening of nature. Violation of the ban could result in fright or a snake bite in the forest. In this belief, the correlation between the images of a snake and a needle is based on their common characteristics: the shine of the surface, the sharpness of the tip of the needle and the sting of the snake, chthonic origin. The last sign of the needle was significant in Christmas fortune-telling: the girl threw the needle into the millstones and, turning them, tried to hear the prediction in the sounds that arose from the contact of the needle with metal parts. In Siberia they used to tell fortunes in a different way: they tried to thread the thinnest needle - success on the first try promised marriage.
The history of the creation of the sewing needle.
- The work was completed by: Aitova Adela.
- Student of grade 6 “B”, school No. 654 named after. A. D. Friedman
- Teacher: Egorova Tatyana Vyacheslavovna
- Taking into account archaeological finds, we can say for sure that the history of sewing needles begins quite a long time ago, since they were used by people who lived before our era - 40,000 years ago. It is unknown, however, who exactly invented and created them, but there is information about when and where the first metal sewing needles appeared; before that they were made of bone.
- The oldest sewing needles made of metal were discovered by archaeologists in Bavaria, in Manching. It has been established that the time of their manufacture is the 3rd century BC. However, the possibility cannot be ruled out that the needles could simply have been brought there. The eye of a sewing needle of that time was completely different from what it is now (a hole for thread, which is familiar to us), the blunt end of the needle was simply bent, thus forming a ring through which the thread passed. The needle, discovered in China, is believed to be the first sewing needle made from steel. And this happened in the 10th century BC.
- Among the cultural states of antiquity, I would especially like to highlight Ancient Egypt, whose inhabitants not only knew how to sew with iron needles, but were also actively engaged in embroidery. Moreover, the history of the sewing needle among the Egyptians is supported by the fact that even then the needle was almost ideally shaped, very reminiscent of the modern needle we are used to, but with one thing…. She didn't have an eyelet for thread. The edge of the needle opposite the point was simply bent into a small ring.
- And if iron needles were very widespread, then with steel needles the situation was somewhat worse. The history of the sewing needle tells that they appeared in Europe only in the Middle Ages, where they were brought by eastern merchants. In the East, steel was known much earlier, therefore, simultaneously with the production of weapons steel in Damascus, artisans also made steel needles. In Europe, mass production of sewing needles began only in the 14th century. True, no one even thought of making an eyelet for thread in it. Despite the mass production, needles were very expensive and only wealthy people could afford them. This continued almost until the British, in 1785, began to use a mechanized method in the production of needles. But for about 60 years, sewing needles were produced without the usual eye. Their appearance resembled modern safety pins.
- In the middle of the 19th century, again in England, machines were invented that “knew” how to make an eyelet in a small piece of wire. From then on and for a long time, England became one of the main manufacturers and exporters of sewing needles, in the design of which an innovation was introduced, namely, an eye for thread.
- Our country also has a history of sewing needles; a decree prescribing the beginning of the production of sewing needles was first issued by Peter I, although needles were “brought” to the territory of the Russian Empire at the end of the 17th century. From those distant times to the present day, needles have been produced in the Ryazan region, in the same factories. Here it is, the connection of times!
- To date, despite the fact that the needle has firmly entered into the life of every house or apartment, there are still legends and all sorts of speculations about it, such as the fact that you can’t pick up a needle on the street, you can’t sew on yourself, or you can’t pick it up someone else's needle, etc. But why the needle acquired such a mystical meaning and why Koshchei’s death is at the end of the needle, only God knows.
- If it happened that the ancient craftswomen could look into the sewing boxes of modern seamstresses, they would probably die of envy. And indeed, there is something to envy, because the cost of needles is now just a penny, but the assortment is truly royal. Not only are there 12 sizes of needles in total, but there are also needles for sewing, furriers, embroidery and gilding, which do not leave marks on the fabric, and double-sided needles with a hole in the middle. Even for the visually impaired there are special needles with a thread eyelet made in the form of a carabiner. And platinum needles significantly reduce sewing time and are resistant to acids and alkalis.
- But needles are probably most revered in Japan, where for about 1000 years a festival dedicated to broken needles has been held annually. Moreover, everyone can take part in it. During such a festival, all participants take down broken needles and put them in a special box, at the same time thanking the needles for their good service. After which, the box is forever lowered into the sea.
- Such a small and familiar item in every home turns out to have such a rich history of the sewing needle!
If in the Stone Age there was a patent office and a primitive man brought there an application for a sewing implement, which stated that “a needle is a pointed rod for sewing with an eye at the end”, all the inventors over the subsequent millennia could not have added anything, the needle is so perfect.
Perhaps not a single tool has passed so unchanged through the entire history of mankind. A fish bone with a hole made in its blunt end—that’s the whole invention.
But we still use this same “bone”, only made of metal. Some time after the creation of the bone needle (it is very fragile!) they began to look for a replacement for it. Thorn thorns were used, then needles began to be made of bronze and iron. Steel appeared in Europe in the 14th century, when they learned the secret of durable Damascus steel. At first they didn’t know how to make an eyelet—they just bent the blunt tip. The appearance of the drawing board greatly facilitated the production of needles and improved their appearance.
The steel needle was brought to Russia in the 17th century from Germany by Hanseatic merchants. And soon Russian craftsmen mastered the art of making it. Of course, Rus' knew needles before - they were forged from bronze and iron, and for rich houses and palaces - silver. But still, the steel ones turned out to be the best.
From the hands of unknown craftswomen who held this simple sewing device came breathtaking outfits of fashionistas of all times and peoples, and the finest embroidered pictures, and icon frames embroidered with pearls and beads, and everyday clothes, and children’s toys...
Each type of needlework has its own needle, in this case it changes the thickness, the size of the “eye”, sometimes it becomes triangular at the end, sometimes it is arched.
Sometimes the needle acquired completely new “specialties” for it. So, in the 16th century, artists began to use it to create etchings. Etching is a type of engraving whose design is scratched onto a metal board covered with a layer of varnish. After applying the design, the board is immersed in acid, which corrodes the grooves left by the artist’s hand. An engraving needle is very similar to a regular sewing needle, only the tip is sharpened in the shape of a cone, blade, or cylinder.
Perhaps this type of engraving was born due to the fact that a needle was always “at hand” in any home. And the artist wanted to get copies of his works using paper and lithographic stone. But carving on stone with a chisel is quite hard work. This is where the needle and acid came in handy, which made things much easier and faster.
The first etchings were created in Germany in the 16th century by Albrecht Durer, D. Hopfer and other artists. In the 17th century, A. Van Dyck, A. Van Ostade, X. Ribera and the greatest of etchers, Rembrandt, created with the help of a needle. 17th century - works by J.B. Tiepolo, A. Watteau, F. Boucher, W. Hogarth, F. Goya. In Russia at this time, etching was also gaining ground: A.F. Zubov, M.F. Kazakov, V.I. Bazhenov and others worked with the help of a needle. The needle was often used to draw popular prints, including folk pictures from the Patriotic War of 1812, illustrations for books, and caricatures. And today this technique is alive, many modern artists use it.
By the way, why is a needle called a needle? Here is one of the possible origins of its name. In ancient times, oxen were harnessed to a yoke, which was secured with a thin wooden stick pointed at one end - a needle. This is where the name came from to our friend. The linguistic “relative” of the needle is the infamous word “yoke.” Yoke and collar are words of Turkic origin. And the ancient Slavic name for this harness is yoke. Among the people, the yoke and collar have always symbolized oppression and slavery. It is no coincidence that the saying “If there was a neck, there would be a collar.” And therefore, the terrible years of the invasion and rule of the Golden Horde in Rus' received their short and so succinct name - the yoke.
It’s amazing how many meanings and objects such a simple word carries – needle !
Recently, on the coast of Florida, under a thick layer of sand, treasure hunters discovered a huge wooden chest with the inscription “San Fernando”. Indeed, there was such a ship and it sank almost 250 years ago on the way from Mexico to Spain with a substantial loot on board: 150 million silver pesos. Treasure hunters fiddled over the castle for a long time, finally, the long-awaited click was heard, several trembling hands threw back the lid, and... an ancient treasure appeared to greedy eyes: thousands, tens of thousands of sailor needles for patching sails!
Based on site materials
Invention of the needle
This small and necessary thing appeared almost by accident 20,000 BC. The very first needles with an eye, made from stones, bones or animal horns, were found in the territories of modern Western Europe and Central Asia about 17 thousand years ago. They became the heirs of what would now be designated as an awl.
The ancient man suddenly realized that the thread could not only be threaded into the hole formed by the awl, but also pulled. This was especially important for embroidery. It is thanks to this that needles with an eye became very widely used in Ancient Egypt. They even became something of a bargaining chip, because... It was extremely difficult to make bronze needles, and the best needles at that time were made from this alloy. Those. the needle also became the grandmother of future metal coins.
The first iron needles were found not in the Roman, but in the Celtic area, in Manching (now Bavaria), and they date back to the 3rd century BC. e.
In Africa, thick veins of palm leaves served as needles, to which threads also made from plants were tied. It is believed that the first steel needle was made in China. During its history, the needle has practically not undergone any significant changes and is now used almost in its original form. Only its dimensions and the materials from which it is made have changed.
Mass production of needles began only in the 14th century in Nuremberg, and then in England. The very first needle was made using mechanized production in 1785. But since 1850, the British seized the monopoly, creating special machines for the production of needles.
The history of the Russian needle industry began in 1717, when Russian merchants brothers Ryumin and Sidor Tomilin built two needle factories. These needles were used by the first wife of Peter I, Evdokia Fedorovna Lopukhina, who became one of the most skilled embroiderers.
Interesting Facts:
1). A needle in a dream is a symbol of anxiety. Such a dream usually foreshadows troubles and a lot of worries.
2). Approximately 840 liters of water per day flows through a needle-wide stream of water.
3). One thousand seven hundred and ninety acupuncture needles were inserted into the head and face of Chinese man Wei Shengchu on March 23, 2004 in Nanning, China.
4). At the end of the needle in a sewing machine, pressure develops up to 5000 atmospheres. This pressure is enough to throw a projectile out of a cannon at a speed of 2000 m/sec. However, the same pressure is generated when the jaws of a pit bull terrier are compressed.
5). If you remove space from all the atoms of the human body, then what remains can fit into the eye of a needle.
With the advent of needles, people were able not only to sew stronger and more comfortable clothes, but also to decorate them with embroidery. In medicine, needles are used not only for traditional injections and droppers, but also for acupuncture.
The needle was and is often used in various pagan rituals. The most famous in this regard are probably Voodoo. This tribe uses a needle for spells. Among other things, the needle also has quite traditional uses. It is indispensable for making various things that require stitching: clothes, toys, interior items and much more. Thus, this item is constantly present in every housewife’s set. And needlewomen have a wide variety of needle variations. They have a saddlery needle, an embroidery needle, and a chenille needle.
