Bernina Sewing Machine

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History

In the spring of 1890, Karl Friedrich Gegauf moved from Tägerwilen to Steckborn, Switzerland. and in Feldbach Convent established an embroidery shop and a mechanical workshop for the production of a monogram embroidering machine, his own invention. In the embroidering section he had 4-6 machines in operation and up to 10 skilled mechanics were employed in the workshop. But Gegauf was less interested in the operation of the embroidery shop - that served more as a proving ground where his machines could be tried out: his main concern was the development of new machines of all different types.

He worked intensively on the problem of developing a machine for doing hemstitching, which at that time had to be done painstakingly by hand on countless items of laundry. He found an ingenious solution and in 1892 he was granted Swiss Patent No. 4670 for the world's first hemstitch sewing machine. This machine, and the one that he and his son improved later, were to be the main product of the Gegauf works for more than 30 years.

In 1895 the greater part of the convent was destroyed by fire - and with it the embroidery shop and the workshop. Luckily, among the few items that could be saved was the prototype of the hemstitch sewing machine. Immediately after the fire the workshops were re-established in a barn and equipped with more machinery, so that in future more hemstitch machines could be produced, alongside the embroidery machines.

At the turn of the century, about 70 to 80 people were employed in the workshop - it had become a small factory. Karl Friedrich Gegauf was the technical director and his brother Georg looked after the commercial side. The hemstitch machines soon found a wide market and were also being exported. The term "gegaufing" came to be used for the mechanical production of hemstitching. Gegauf's great interest and skill for all kinds of mechanical equipment were evident not only in his inventions and his workshops, which were well equipped for those times.

In the 1890s he astonished the local inhabitants with a pennyfarthing bicycle, and a few years later he was to be seen in his Daimler Benz motor car, with the number plate TG 1, driving through the streets of Steckborn and along the lakeside. He also made use of the car's engine to power a fruit press, and down at the lake, his remarkable boat could be seen with a steam boiler mounted on it to provide the power.

However, the upward trend in the fortunes of the Gegauf brothers' enterprise during the first decade of the twentieth century was to be interrupted by two significant events. Following the outbreak of the World War I, no sewing machines could be exported to foreign customers, which meant that the company had to find other more suitable articles to manufacture. And then in 1917, in the middle of a very difficult period, Georg Gegauf died as the result of an accident. Karl Friedrich decided to continue with his own plans and in 1919 he established new workshops in the "Neue Schloss" in Steckborn, while his late brother's family continued to run operations in the "Grüne Haus", which was also in Steckborn.

Read more at Wikipedia.org