AN IMPROVED DEVICE FOR MARKING AND CREASING TUCKS IN CLOTH OR OTHER MATERIAL UPON A SEWING MACHINE
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on tho
20th May 1868.--A communication from abroad by Mary Ann
Duffy, of the City and State of New York, United States of
America.
I, WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the "International Patent Office,"
No. 8, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of
Middlesex, Consulting Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "AN IMPROVED DEVICE FOR MARKING AND CREASING TUCKS
IN CLOTH OR OTHER MATERIAL UPON A SEWING MACHINE," a communication,
to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to sewing machine gauges, and the chief object
of the said Invention is to afford the means whereby the line of a tuck
in a piece of cloth or other material may be marked or creased without
the cloth being first folded.
The marking or creasing is effected by means of a spring lever
operated by the presser foot of the sewing machine to which my
Invention is applied. I use a tucking plate of suitable form and size,
which is arranged in combination with a plate and gauge holder. The

page_text: said holder is formed with a longitudinal slot, whereby it is secured
to the machine, and over it is placed the tucking gauge. The spring
marking lever is attached to the tucking plate, and is formed with a
groove at one end to receive a lip on the said plate. The presser foot
is provided with an adjustable stop. An adjusting set screw projecting
up from the tucking plate passes through slots in the plate holder and
tucking gauge. The plate and gauge holder is secured to the sewing
machine by a set screw passing through the longitudinal slot in the
The tucking plate is previously placed beneath the said
holder with the screw head sliding in the groove in the tucking guage,
the screw being set in or out as a wide or narrow space between the
tucks is desired. The marking lever comes above the plate holder with
its groove resting on the lip projecting upwards at the edge of the plate
holder. The tucking gauge is placed over the slot through which the
adjusting screw projects, and the required width of the tuck from the
inner end of the holder being determined the tucking plate and gauge
are secured in position by the set screw. The stop of the presser foot
is secured to the same just above the marking lever. The cloth is folded
to the width of a tuck, and its folded edge is passed over the tucking
plate and lip and under the marking lever and tucking gauge up to
the inner edge of the plate and gauge holder. The line of sewing will
be the lip of the tucking gauge, and the tuck the turned cloth that is
left between that line and the inner edge of the plate holder. As the
cloth is fed along, the presser foot lifts the marking lever, and as the
presser foot falls it and the spring of the said lever cause the groove of
the latter which rests on the cloth directly over the lip on the edge of
the plate holder to rise and fall so as to crease and mark the cloth where
the next tuck is to be turned, such marked portion being in its turn
placed in the device as first described.