Joshua Heilmann

Construction drawing of the embroidery machine developed by Josua Heilmann

Josua Heilmann (born February 17, 1796 in Mulhouse in Alsace, † November 5, 1848 ) was a technician and the inventor of the hand embroidery machine .

Heilmann attended the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers in Paris and in 1817 took over the management of a spinning mill in Altthann . In 1823 he constructed a mechanical loom there . In 1828/29 he succeeded in developing the first hand embroidery machine . This was able to embroider with over 300 needles at the same time and thus transfer the desired pattern many times onto the fabric. Although he built some of his machines himself and had them used, they were not yet successful. That was only to happen about 20 years later through the improvements of essential details made by Jacob Bartholome Rittmeyer . The principle remained very similar, so that Heilmann is considered to be the inventor of the embroidery machine . Machines based on his principle revolutionized the textile industry and enabled the triumph of the European embroidery industry in Saxony and especially in the area around St. Gallen . More than 20,000 machines of this type were built for St. Gallen embroidery alone. It was not until around 1890 that his hand embroidery machine was slowly replaced by the Schiffli embroidery machine developed by Isaak Gröbli .

In addition to the embroidery machine, his best-known and most successful invention, he also succeeded in developing a measuring and folding machine and several improvements to the preparation machines for spinning, particularly the combing machine for wool and cotton , the introduction of which marked the boom in worsted spinning .

His grandson Jean-Jacques Heilmann , born in 1853, was an important French railway engineer.

literature

• Adolf Wißner:  Heilmann, Josua. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, ISBN 3-428-00189-3 , p. 263 ( digitized version ).

Web links

• Heilmann, Joshua . In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon . 6th edition. Volume 9, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1907, p.  78 .
• Albert Tanner: Embroidery. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Heilmann's stick machine. In: Polytechnisches Journal . 59, 1836, pp. 5-24.