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 Jackson Automaton sewing machine of 1872 Part of the Alex Askaroff Collection.

Let me start by saying most people have never seen a Jackson machine. To my knowledge there are only a handful that still exist. However Ebay and other auction sites are allowing machines found in old lofts and junk-rooms to come to light. So let me tell you what little I know about the machines.

William Jackson had the perfect founding in the early British sewing machine trade. He had worked for many years in the employ of the sewing machine pioneer Newton Wilson. He had not wasted his time working for the man and upon leaving he had firm ideas of the machines he was going to make. By 1867 he was showing of his machines at the grand Paris Exhibition, the L'Exposition Universal.

To start with he kept to a different market and produced large boot and sole patching machines which he manufactured throughout his sewing machine career. In fact he worked on some of the very first machines imported in to Britain. He was at the very birth of our trade in this country. I love the sprung seat on this 1870's advert. Note the treadle operation to keep the hands free for work. though this chap looks more like he is riding a horse!

William Jackson sole patching machine 1867

He proudly boasted that his sole patching machine could be operated by a child and was capable of sewing 300 pairs a day! However it was not long before he sought the much larger domestic market.

His first domestic machine was not a great seller for we believe he sold what little stock he had of them to James Weir around 1872. The same year that he had a little beauty up his sleeve, the Automaton.

William Jackson Automaton 1872 sewing machine

In 1872, William Jackson was granted Patent No1311. In May of that year he was at 1a Caroline Street, Eaton Square, Pimlico, S W London and Warlingham in Surrey and also premises in Middlesex. The patents were for improvements to a sewing machine rather than a machine itself. Though his castings and shape were unique (which he could have also patented). He must have had some good financial backing as he even used Queen Victoria's printers, Eyre & Spottiswoode.

William Jackson sewing machine patent.

William had two novel ideas for which he claimed patent protection. One was a simple metal-finger beneath the bed of the machine to stop the top thread from twisting into the under-thread of the lock or fast-stitch. A simple and crude idea but it was unique enough for a patent.

The other was for a needle that could not be put in the wrong way or at the wrong height. This was a great idea at the time and should have caught on. However it was much cheaper to simply add a needle-stop screw to the needle bar rather than manufacture bent-top needles. You can see the patent needle to the right.

He had rushed the patent into the Patent Office and had forgotten to add a bobbin winder to his design, which he added later.

William Jackson went into business with his sons and soon produced the super-rare Automaton lock-stitch for the domestic market. Beautifully cast with lavish hand-painted gold work the machines proudly displayed, W. Jackson, London.

William Jackson sewing machine 1872 automaton

To this day only a handful have ever surfaced, they are super-rare. The machine was a delight to look at and easy to sew with. It had faults like many of the early machines but you would not guess it from his advertising, the machine was capable of sewing from one to 20 layers of fabric with consummate ease...Yeah right! What sort of advertising was that, 20 layers of fabric! Even a heavyweight industrial would struggle to get that amount of fabric under the foot, let alone stitch it! I suppose people were selling hair tonic in the same papers so we can forgive William for a bit of over zealous advertising.

The machine used a rotary hook mechanism reduced in size from his boot-patching machine that worked reasonably well. It was a basic copy of the Wheeler &Wilson patent with a revolving finger to pick up the lower stitch.

However the bobbin was clumsy to install and you need nimble fingers. I know, I must have dropped the bobbin 10 times or more while I was getting his machine ready to stitch. The machine produces a basic lock-stitch but would have greatly benefitted from a simple take-up spring to remove loose thread from the shuttle area. Nearly every major manufacturer was using one by the 1870's so you have to wonder why he did not.

The William Jackson hook (M) of 1872 patent

By the 1870's machines like Singer were producing great quality stitching, so it was only looks, price and advertising that could make the Jackson stand out. The machine was not in the same class of stitch as other mass-produced models on the market. In fact the machine was so simple it was really out-dated before it was on the market. A bit like computers today. William was selling an Sinclair 64 next to Microsoft's Vista!

His beautiful Automaton was priced at £6, as a treadle, or £4.4s as a hand model. 

As well as the Automaton he made a beautiful small chain-stitch machine called the Duchess of Edinburgh, priced at £2.2s. Both machines came with a five-year guarantee and optional, simple, treadles.

The Duchess had a unique hand wheel that could be operated in either direction. It must have had some sort of ratchet mechanism. That was a great idea as many machines jam if operated in the wrong direction. He called his Duchess a loop-stitch machine as it produced a simple loop or chain-stitch, similar to what we see today along the top of potato sacks.

                                         The William Jackson Duchess sewing machine 1874

In 1881 Jackson's had their premises at 53 Cannon Street, London. I cannot find any mention of the company after 1884 and assume they, like so many other small companies disappeared, swallowed up by fierce competition from the sewing machine giants. And so ends what little I know of this forgotten masterpiece.

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

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

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