Quote:
Originally Posted by oldosc
not a lot to do with cycling..my Grandmother born1889 worked in a London Sweat shop at age 11 sewing buttons on shirts for the Boer War boys, pay was 6 pence a gross,
yet the treadle machines were capeable of that sort of sophistication,finely crafted..used by human robots...but she taught me to ride a bike when I was about 7. by showing me (button sided boots no less .I remember asking when she had a bike..she said never but it was easier than a treadle .
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Co-incidence, my mother was a seamstress in a Great Portland Street, London sweatshop early in the 20th century, and her sewing machine at home was a Singer treadle job. My first engineering knowledge came from that as a baby as I was forever crawling around under it peering into the works as she sewed, much to her alarm in case I got crushed by the treadle!
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