Definitions

sewing-machine

sewing machine

Machine for stitching material (such as cloth or leather), usually having a needle and shuttle to carry thread and powered by treadle or electricity. Invented by Elias Howe in 1846 and successfully manufactured by Howe and Isaac Merritt Singer, it became the first widely distributed mechanical home appliance and has also been an important industrial machine. Modern sewing machines are usually powered by an electric motor, but the foot-treadle machine is still in wide use in much of the world.

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Sewing-Machine Needles is a three prominent rock needles, the highest 45 m, lying close southeast of Rancho Point, Deception Island, in the South Shetland Islands. The name Sewing-Machine Rock was given by whalers for what was originally a conspicuous natural arch. Needles is now considered the more suitable descriptive term; an earthquake tremor in 1924 caused the arch to collapse.

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