Recently, I had an opportunity to view an old Singer industrial buttonhole machine that was made in 1875 and it’s still functional (although there’s only one size template that’s currently available). It has an individual motor but it’s obvious that at one time it was connected to a central motive force with a belt. Below are some pictures:

I didn’t have a  chance to see it in action but I hope to in the near future. In the meantime, I’ll be doing some research on this machine. 🙂