Alex has spent a lifetime in the sewing industry and is considered one of the foremost experts of pioneering machines and their inventors. He has written extensively for trade magazines, radio, television, books and publications world wide.

William Taylor 1840-1917
 

The William Taylor Sewing Machine of 1873

Taylor sewing machine circa 1873, part of the Alex Askaroff collection

Very little was known about this beautiful machine it is as rare as hens teeth. What we do know is that William Taylor from East Gate, Driffield, East Riding, East Yorkshire, patented this remarkable machine around 1873, however there the mystery begins.

William Taylor was a banker's clerk but was also a superb designer. He was granted patent No's 1156 & 37005. He must have been delighted to have patented a complete machine that was unique in design.

To this date there are less than a dozen known examples of the William Cross-Belt machines!One of his machines is in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

An early 1875 patent application by William Taylor for improvements to his machine.

What a brilliant designer and engineer was doing hiding in a bank in the centre of this little East Riding town is an enigma and much has been lost in the mists of time. William Taylor was considered a genius of his time, no small feat! When he died he was still an actuary at his local savings bank.

William was born on April Fools day 1840 and died aged 77 in 1917. However being born on April Fools day did not stop him earning the reputation as the smartest man that ever lived in Driffield.

Poor William suffered from infant paralysis. His father, manager of the Union Bank, bought him a donkey to get around on as his paralysis left him with a permanent limp which he use to try and hide with a heavy cork insert in his left sole.

William may have had an unlucky start in life but he was an inspired genius of his time, he was not going to let his frail body get in the way of his stamp on the world. Today, family from all over the world try and trace his early life and inventions.

William Taylor invented many things such as the cot with a drop-side and an automatic pole for lamp-lighting and adjusting gas lamps.

Now this may be gossip and need conformation, but rumour has it that he invented and patented his sewing machine in 1860-1 and exhibited it at the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace where he won a bronze medal. Oh how I need my time machine...

When I started to research William I hit a brick wall but persistence pays off and a chance encounter with Amy from the Patent Office proved beneficial. On a search of the patents it turns out that William was into sewing machines at a much earlier date than was previously thought.

By the age of 26 William, living in Bridge Street, Driffield, had already filed for a sewing machine patent. It was a clever idea of tensioning the shuttle by wrapping the thread around a bar several times. It was similar principle to the top tension he later used on his large lock-stitch machines.

In 1868 he applied for another patent this time for a super idea of an attachable hand crank system to added to any sewing machine. It would mean you could convert a treadle machine to a table top  portable.

Portable hand operated mechanism for sewing machines.

It is interesting to note that the 1868 patent was with Charles Edward Taylor of Bradfield and concerned tables and treadles for sewing machines some in stunning castings.

Then again in 1870 William was applying for more treadle tables and drive wheel assemblies for turning the humble sewing machine.

In 1874 he was at it again with another patent to improvements in his lockstitch machine shuttle and shuttle holder.

Now that we have established what a busy boy our William was we can get onto some really interesting stuff.

One of the only known Taylor Twisted Loop sewing machines, part of my collection.
It is small and sweet, light and easy to use.

With this stunning machine William launched his bid on the sewing machine industry and the Taylor Sewing Machine Company Ltd was formed. The company that made this superb machine had several shareholders and just a few rumours have survived of how it all collapsed.

It is believed that the company first started manufacturing the machines in his small engineering foundry in Driffield in the early part of the 1860's. As his first machine was the chain-stitch machine and by 1866 he was already working on his lockstitch we can guess that the Taylor Twisted Loop was well in production from 1861-66.

His first machine, above, was the much smaller and simpler chain stitch machine as seen. This was sold as hand or treadle but are very rare. I have only ever seen one and that is now in my collection. This machine was called Taylors Twisted Loop Sewing Machine.

Please note the picture below is the only one known to exist, do ask if you would like a copy.

The Taylor Twisted Loop Sewing Machine

Unfortunately there is little information that I can find on this model but he did give sewing lessons to some of his customers on this model that made a simple chain stitch or twisted loop. Studying the mechanism there is no doubt that much of the mechanism owes its originality to the Willcox & Gibbs chainstitch. However the machine is much smaller and lighter with many individualities. You can see why he did not patent much from his Twisted Loop machine it was really just a copy of machines on the market at the time.

Although the Patent Office have no record of patents for William's Twisted Loop machine his advertising clearly states that he held some sort of patent on it?

William Taylor had a premises adjoining 13 New Road in Eastgate where he made adjustable desks but this was bought by the local gasworks.

Later he moved to Retort Yard in Bridge Street. There he tuned grandfather clocks and made the bells for the chimes in a tiny fireplace. William was a workaholic and one day even set fire to his beard while tempering some steel, but this was long after his dalliance with sewing machines.

A young William Taylor working his Twisted Loop machine circa 1861-3

Now onto his full-size lock stitch machine proudly boasts his name, W. Taylor Patent, across the top arm and patents on the needleplate and has a wonderful tensioning device for perfect stitching. In Denmark the patent was filed by Petersen in Jutland.

The stunning looks, engineering and unique features made this machine stand out from the crowd and in 1878 at the first African International Exhibition in Cape Town, South Africa, it took the prestigious Exhibition Medal for outstanding performance and design. There is a possibility of another medal in 1881 the year the company collapsed. Amazingly there are still regular textile and machinery exhibitions near there today. The South African International Trade Exhibition or SAITEX is said to be the best trade exhibition in Africa.

The Queen of Madagascar was said to have bought one of his machines!

The cross belt was one of Williams ideas to allow the machine to turn in the correct direction. This led to another unusual adaptation allowing the needle to be inserted the wrong way and threading of the machine was right to left instead of the usual way.

However around 1879 the British Company collapsed due to poor supplies. The machine was expensive to produce and heavy compared to some of its poorer counterparts like James Weir's 55 shilling machine. Just the fine mahogany box and range of attachments, hemmers, binders and folders that came as standard with the machine cost as much as a cheaper, complete, machine.

Unlike so many machines of the era, it made a superb smooth and high quality stitch with an elliptical moving shuttle. It was the Rolls Royce of its day.

The elliptical shuttle of the Taylor sewing machine.
Note the timing position of the needle and shuttle, this has to be exact for a perfect stitch!

In a last ditch attempt to save his invention William Taylor transferred the machinery, specialized tooling, castings and parts, at considerable cost, to Hamburg in Germany, no small feat in the 1870's. The German machines were possibly manufactured by Lippmann & Lind.

One of William's patents was in partnership with Johann Heinrich Rudolph Dreyer and Heinrich Schipmann both from Hamburg. They were possibly his German partners.

The idea was to continue manufacture with cheaper overheads and running costs, much like today when British firms have their goods made abroad. Apparently there were two factories in Hamburg manufacturing parts for his machines.

The factories started to produce the machine but once more but the heavy cost of setting up the new plant and machinery proved just too much. Although the machine was a success in the domestic market with its near perfect stitching through almost any material, they could not make enough machines to cover the huge expenses incurred and pay the shareholders.

This finally led to the collapse of the company in 1881 and one of the most sought after machines of the 19th century disappeared.

But it is not quite the end of our story!

William only found out he was in real trouble after supplies and communications dried up from Hamburg. He made a hasty trip to Hamburg to see what was happening only to find the factory closed! The owners had sold everything and scarpered!

This was a disaster, no machines to fill the orders. No machines, meant no money and no money and debts meant only one thing... bankruptcy.

William returned to Britain a broken man with huge debts. He slowly paid of all his debts (many to friends who had invested in his dream) and after inventing a mild-steel riveted belts, made his money back.

They say William wept for joy the day he finally paid of all his debts. In later life William slowed a little teaching Sunday School and tinkering in his workshop. He made a lathe that would mass produced screw threads in his workshop on the corner of Bridlington Road and Eastergate. His original workshop was slightly further down Eastergate.

There are only a handful of the W. Taylor Cross-belt machines still around in the odd museum and private collection and they rarely surface for sale.

The Victorian sewing machine pioneer and inventor William Newton-Wilson of London said that in his opinion the Taylor Cross-belt hand machine was of clumsy appearance! Hey what did he know... Style is a matter of taste. Also he may not have seen the slightly later Hamburg model which had the better base and beautiful ornate top casting, different hand wheel, winder and tensioner.

The early Taylor sewing machines had a clumsy harsh base not like the later models

In my opinion I would class the Taylor machine as one of the most impressive machines of the era and the superb prices the machines realise when they do occasionally come up for sale reflect this.

The Taylor Cross-belt sewing machine

The fabulous and rare W. Taylor cross-belt sewing machine of 1873 now in my collection.

William Taylor's father was deeply religious and was one of the 12 men who broke from the Wesleyan Church over the use of lay preachers in Driffield.

William died a wealthy man mainly from copper and mild steel riveted belting aged 77 in November 1917. His funeral was held at the church where he preached and attended of over 60 years, the Bridge Street United Methodist Church. There was a large attendance as he was very well respected in his community.

William had three children, two girls, Ethel & Hilda and a son Gilbert.

Now this is a fantastic addition...

Rod Wise contacted me from Australia in 2008 to add this wonderful piece:

William Taylor treadle casting patent of 1874

The End

Thank you for posting your wonderfully appreciative essay on my great-grandfather's inventive life. Much appreciated.
Regards,
Eric Taylor

Fancy a good read: Ena Wilf  & The One-Armed Machinist

A brilliant slice of 1940's life: Spies & Spitfires

Alex's stories are now available to keep. Click on the picture for more information.

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