IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING. MACHINES
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edmund Hunt, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING.
MACHINES."
Sealed the 1st October 1878, and dated the 17th July 1878.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edmund Hunt at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 17th July 1878.
EDMUND HUNT, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Patent
Agent. "IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING MACHINES."
This Invention relates to sewing machines of the kind by which a thread (or a
combination of two or more threads acting as one thread) is laid in a helical form,
and passes round the edge or edges of the cloth or material to be overcast or sewn
together.
In some of such machines as hitherto constructed the material to be sewn is fed
or progresses continuously, whilst in others the feed or progress is intermittent.
With the continuous feed a needle of a simple helical form of more than one
convolution has been used, such needle being made to rotate about an axis parallel
to the edge of the material to be sewn, but without moving longitudinally. With
the intermittent feed the needle has in some machines also been one rotating about
an axis parallel to the edge of the material, but it has been reduced to a part of a
convolution or circle, and has been made without helical inclination in order to
suit the circumstance that the material is stationary whilst the needle passes
through it, the intermittent progressive movements taking place whilst the needle
is moving through a part of its circular course clear of the material.
In other machines with an intermittent feed a complex arrangement of a recipro-
cating needle and other parts is used.
In most of the machines herein-before referred to, what is termed a thread barrel
or an equivalent device is used for carrying the successive loops of thread, and for

page_text: assisting them through the material, the loops leaving the end of the barrel as the
stitches become successively tightened in the material. In some machines the loops
of thread are carried on the needle, which is grooved externally for the purpose, no
separate barrel being used.
By the present Invention, when the feed is continuous and the needle is in the
form of a simple helix, that is, a cylindrical regular helix, or such as can be traced
with a uniform inclination on a cylinder, such needle is driven by one or more
cylindrical pulleys having helical grooves which engage with the convolutions of
the needle, the pulleys being external to the needle and fixed on shafts driven in
any convenient way. If the needle is a left-hand helix the helical grooves of the
needle-driving pulley or pulleys must be right-handed, and vice versa.
The pulleys may be of the same effective diameter as the needle, or of a diameter
which is any convenient multiple thereof. Any tendency of the needle to slip
backwards through the helical grooves of the pulleys in consequence of the resist-
ance it experiences in passing through the material and drawing the thread may be
compensated for by causing a tube, such as that which in some machines carries the
thread barrel and is within the needle,, to act frictionally on the inside of the
needle, with a surface speed slightly greater than that which the needle should
properly have. Also, if necessary, one or more of the needle-driving pulleys may
have at the back of it a projecting tooth, which will correct the position of the
needle at each revolution by encountering the back end of the needle and pushing
it forward if it has slipped backwards.
By a second and preferable modification the needle is made in the form of a
conical regular helix, the needle-driving pulley being also made conical to correspond.
With this conical form the convolutions of the needle gradually diminish in diameter
from the point to the back end, and the needle being laterally confined in position
by its driving pulleys, and, if necessary, also by antifriction guide pulleys or by
stationary guide surfaces, it cannot slip backwards.
Retaining pulleys or fixed guide surfaces may be used with the cylindrical needle
as well as with the conical one, and such retaining pulleys may be helically grooved
to engage with the needle, and they may be driven from the main pulleys by toothed
wheels or cords if found desirable.
By a third modification the needle is made in the form of a cylindrical or conical
slant helix, which, from the different inclination of its different parts, will be
incapable of slipping backwards even if cylindrical. The needle-driving pulleys
are cylindrical or conical, and grooved to correspond to the needle, and they are
made to reciprocate longitudinally to make the needle accommodate itself to a
continuous feed, or the feed motion is made to vary to suit the needle.
By a fourth modification the needle is made in the form of a cylindrical or conical
irregular helix, a part of each convolution having no inclination. The feed for this
modification is intermittent, the material being stationary whilst the inclined parts
of the needle pass through it.
In order to diminish the resistance to the passage of the needle and thread
through the material, an improved preparing pricker is used according to this
Invention. This pricker comprises one or more steel points placed and moving at
right angles relatively to the material. Two or more points may be used, either
when it is more convenient to pierce the holes for the needle in twos or in larger
sets at once instead of one by one, or, when it is thought desirable, to repeat the
prickings with larger points, so as to enlarge the holes.
When the feed is intermittent the pricker is moved by a simple crank motion,
arranged so as to pierce the material at the time when it is stationary; but when
the feed is continuous the crank-moved pricker is guided on a piece which is moved
by a "heart" or spiral cam, so as to carry the pricking points along with the
material when they are piercing it, the cam moving them back again in the
intervals. The pricker is advantageously applicable to any of the modifications of
apparatus or varieties of machine herein-before described or referred to.

page_text: In the variety of machine herein-before referred to, in which the needle is in the
form of part of a circle and the feed has heretofore been intermittent, the feed is
by this Invention made continuous, and the parts carrying the needle have imparted
to them a small movement parallel to the edge of the material at the time when
the needle is passing through the material, so that the needle then travels with the
material whilst passing through it. This movement is obtained by means of a
"heart" or spiral cam, which also moves the parts back when the needle is clear of
the material. Or instead of the spiral cam a circumferential cam or cam groove
made up of two reversed helical parts may be used, and may be on the needle
driver and arranged to bear on stationary guide wheels or surfaces, and thereby
move the driver and parts connected with it in the required manner.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Edmund Hunt in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 16th January
1879.
EDMUND HUNT, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Patent
Agent. IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING MACHINES."
"
My said Invention relates to sewing machines of the kind by which a thread (or
a combination of two or more threads acting as one thread) is laid in a helical form,
and passes round the edge or edges of the cloth or material to be overcast or sewn
together.
In some of such machines as hitherto constructed the material to be sewn is fed
or progresses continuously, whilst in others the feed or progress is intermittent.
With the continuous feed a needle of a simple helical form of more than one con-
volution has been used, such needle being made to rotate about an axis parallel to
the edge of the material to be sewn, but without moving longitudinally. With the
intermittent feed the needle has in some machines also been one rotating about an
axis parallel to the edge of the material, but it has been reduced to a part of a con-
volution or circle, and has been made without helical inclination in order to suit
the circumstance that the material is stationary whilst the needle passes through it,
the intermittent progressive movements taking place whilst the needle is moving
through a part of its circular course clear of the material.
In other machines with an intermittent feed a complex arrangement of a recipro-
cating needle and other parts is used.
In most of the machines herein-before referred to what is termed a thread barrel,
or an equivalent device, is used for carrying the successive loops of thread, and for
assisting them through the material, the loops leaving the end of the barrel as the
stitches become successively tightened in the material. In some machines the loops
of thread are carried on the needle, which is grooved externally for the purpose, no
separate barrel being used.
.
By my present Invention when the feed is continuous and the needle is in the
form of a simple helix, that is, a cylindrical regular helix, or such as can be traced
with a uniform inclination on a cylinder, such needle is driven by one or more
cylindrical pulleys having helical grooves, which engage with the convolutions of
the needle; the pulleys being external to the needle, and driven in any convenient
way. If the needle is a left-hand helix the helix grooves of the needle-driving
pulley or pulleys must be right-handed, and vice versa.
The pulleys may be of the same effective diameter as the needle, or of a diameter
which is any convenient multiple thereof. Any tendency of the needle to slip back-
wards through the helical grooves of the pulleys, in cousequence of the resistance
it experiences in passing through the material and drawing the thread may be
compensated for by causing a tube, such as that which in some machines carries the
thread barrel and is within the needle, to act frictionally on the inside of the needle
with a surface speed greater than that which the needle should properly have.
Also, if necessary, one or more of the needle-driving pulleys may have at the back
of it a projecting tooth, which will correct the position of the needle at each revo-
lution by encountering the back end of the needle and pushing it forward if it has
slipped backwards.
By a second and preferable modification the needle is made in the form of a
conical regular helix, the needle-driving pulleys being also made conical to corre-
spond. With this conical form the convolutions of the needle gradually diminish
in diameter from the point to the back end; and the needle being laterally confined
in position by its own driving pulleys, and if necessary, also by antifriction guide
pulleys or by stationary guide surfaces, it cannot slip backwards.

page_text: Retaining pulleys or fixed guide surfaces may be used with the cylindrical
needle as well as with the conical one, and such retaining pulleys may be helically
grooved to engage with the needle, and they may may be driven from the main
pulleys by toothed wheels or cords if found desirable.
By a third modification the needle is made in the form of a cylindrical or conical
slant helix, which from the different inclination of its different parts will be
incapable of slipping backwards, even if cylindrical. The needle driving pulleys
are cylindrical or conical and grooved to correspond to the needle, and they are
made to reciprocate longitudinally to make the needle accommodate itself to a
continuous feed; or the feed motion is made to vary to suit the needle.
By a fourth modification the needle is made in the form of a cylindrical or
conical irregular helix, a part of each convolution having no inclination. The feed
for this modification is intermittent, the material being stationary whilst the
uninclined parts of the needle pass through it.
In order to diminish the resistance to the passage of the needle and thread
through the material an improved preparing pricker is used according to this In-
vention. This pricker comprises one or more steel points, placed and moving at
right angles relatively to the material. Two or more points may be used, either
when it is more convenient to pierce the holes for the needle in twos or in larger
sets at once instead of one by one, or when it is thought desirable to repeat the
prickings with larger points, so as to enlarge the holes.
"
-When the feed is intermittent the pricker is moved by a simple crank motion
arranged so as to pierce the material at the time when it is stationary; but when
the feed is continuous the crank moved pricker is guided on a piece, which is
moved by a "heart
or spiral cam, so as to carry the pricking points along with
the material when they are piercing it, the cam moving them back again in the
intervals. The pricker is advantageously applicable to any of the modifications of
apparatus or varieties of machine herein-before described or referred to.
In the variety of machine herein-before referred to, in which the needle is in the
form of part of a circle and the feed has heretofore been intermittent, the feed is by
my Invention made continuous, and the parts carrying the needle have imparted to
them a small movement parallel to the edge of the material at the time when the
needle is passing through the material, so that the needle then travels with the
material whilst passing through it. This movement is obtained by means of a
"heart" or spiral cam, which also moves the parts back when the needle is clear of the
material. Or instead of the spiral cam a circumferential cam or cam groove, made
up of two reversed helical parts, may be used, and may be on the needle driver, and
arranged to bear on stationary guide wheels or surfaces, and thereby move the
driver and parts connected with it in the required manner.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing the same may
be properly understood, I hereunto append six Shects of explanatory Drawings, to
be herein-after referred to, and representing several modifications of my improved
sewing-machine mechanism. In these Drawings the same reference numerals are
used to mark the same or like parts wherever they are repeated.
As the arrangement in which the needle is in the form of a regular conical helix,
and which is herein-before referred to as the second modification, is as I believe
the best for practical purposes I shall first describe a modification of that arrange-
ment, which is shown on Sheets 1 and 2 of the accompanying Drawings.
Figures 1 and 2, on Sheet 1, are a plan and a front elevation of the machine.
Figure 3, on Sheet 2, is an enlarged front elevation of the needle.
Figure 4 is an end view diagram showing the relative positions of the needle
and its conical drivers; and Figure 5 is a sectional side elevation of one of the
conical drivers.
In this machine the various parts are carried by a base plate 1, which is to be
secured to a table or bench of a suitable height. The material, as, for example, a
piece of cloth to form a sack, is placed by hand with the two edges which are to

page_text: be sewn together, resting upon a long narrow horizontal guide plate 2-3 extending
along the front of the machine. The end of the cloth at which the sewing is to
commence is placed towards the right hand, and is entered at about the middle of
the guide plate 2-3 under the left-hand end of a pressing or holding down bar 4,
which is held by two curved rods 5, 6, and as the cloth enters under this bar 4 it
engages with upwardly projecting points fixed to an endless pitch chain, of which
a part 7 is shown by strong dotted lines. The pitch chain 7, which passes over
guide pulleys at 8 and 3, under an adjustable distending pulley 9 and round a
pitch pulley 10, by which last it is driven, imparts to the cloth a continuous or
uniform feed or progressive motion towards the right hand. The curved rods 5, 6,
which are bent over to the inside, the former to clear the edge of the cloth, and the
. latter to clear other parts as well, are held by strong springs in hollow brackets
11, 12, so as to press the bar 4 down on the cloth, whilst allowing it to be raised
to get the cloth under it. The left-hand half of the guide plate 2-3 is broader
than the other part, and is fitted with a vertical fence or guiding surface 13, against
which the edges of the cloth run; but the right-hand half of the guide plate is
narrower, so that the cloth projects beyond the inner edge of it to an extent corre-
sponding to the breadth of grip of the stitching.
Parallel to the guide plate 2-3 there is the tube 14 with the thread barrel 15,
the latter being arranged and actuated substantially as described in the Specifi-
cation of British Letters Patent granted to William Lee, and dated 14 February
1878 (No. 622). The first motion shaft 16 is also parallel to the guide plate 2-3,
but further back, and it has on it fast and loose pulleys 17 for a driving belt, for
shifting which there is a hand lever fork 18. A spur wheel 19 gears with a pinion
on a shaft 20, and through that pinion, which gears with a pinion 21 on the
tube 14 drives that tube, whilst a worm 22 on the shaft 20 drives a worm wheel
on the shaft of the pitch wheel 10, which moves the feeding pitch chain 7.
The needle, which is in the form of a left-handed conical helix, as is shown in
Figures 3, 4, occupies the truncated conical space indicated by strong dotted lines
at 23 in Figures 1, 2, the axis of which space is in the horizontal plane, its front
side at the level of the axis being parallel to the front of the machine, and to the
direction of the progressive motion of the cloth.
The directions of motion are shown in Figure 4, which shows the parts as
viewed from the right-hand end of the machine.
In the modification now being described the needle is held and driven by three
helically grooved conical wheels or drivers 24, the helical grooves being right-
handed, so as to gear with the left-handed helical convolutions of the needle.
The axes of the drivers 24 and that of the needle should all converge in one
point, or as nearly so as can be practically managed, in order that the action
between the drivers and the needle may be as nearly a rolling action as possible.
In Figures 1, 2, 4 the pitch cones or effective conical surfaces of the drivers 24
are delineated, as their dimensions are what it is most useful for the machine
maker to know, but the complete form of each driver will be fully understood
from Figure 5.
Of the three drivers 24 the one in the horizontal plane of the needle is fast on a
shaft 25, driven by means of bevil wheels 26 from the first-motion shaft 16, and
on the same shaft 25 there is a bevil wheel 27 gearing with two intermediate
bevil wheels 28, one above and the other below, whilst the intermediate bevil
wheels 28 gear with bevil wheels 29 fast to the other two drivers 24.
The pitch cones of the bevil wheels 26, 27, 28, 29, are what are shown in
Figures 1, 2. The intermediate wheels 28 are on studs fixed to a bracket 30,
which is partly of a spherical form, and is also made with one of the bearings of
the shaft 25.
The wheels 29 of the uppermost and lowermost drivers 24 are each, as shown in
Figure 5, made with an elongated boss 31, on which the driver is keyed, and it is
in practice found convenient to make. the driver 24 slightly adjustable along thẹ

page_text: wheel boss 31 by means of one or more screws 32 arranged as shown. The lower-
most wheel 29 with its driver 24 is on a stud fixed to the bracket 30, but the
upper wheel 29 with its driver 24 is upon a stud fixed to a movable piece 33,
which can be turned round on a boss concentric with the stud of the intermediate
wheel 28. With this arrangement the upper driver 24 can be turned over to give
access for introducing or removing the needle without the wheels 29, 28, getting
out of gear. A screw pin 34 serves to secure the piece 33 in its working position.
The combination of the needle with its drivers 24 I term the helicone driving
arrangement.
A second modification of my helicone driving arrangement is shown on Sheet 3
of the accompanying Drawings, Figure 6 being a plan and Figure 7 a front eleva-
tion. In this modification the needle is made in the form of a conical helix
corresponding to a cone having an angle of 50 degrees of the circle between its
sides, so that there is a considerable difference between its extreme diameters. The
needle is not perfectly rigid, but liable to spring into smaller coils when the cloth
operated on or the speed is such as to cause excessive resistance; and in such cases
it is advantageous to make the needle with the greater difference between its
extreme diameters, as liability to displacement through contraction is thereby
prevented or very much diminished.
The helically grooved conical drivers 24 are of course shaped to correspond to the
needle, their axes and that of the needle converging to one point. In the modifica-
tion now being described there are two drivers 24 placed at angles of 60 degrees of
the circle above and below the central horizontal plane of the needle and at the
inner side, and the needle is kept in its place in gear with the drivers by an
antifriction roller applied in front below the horizontal plane, as indicated by dotted
lines at 35 in Figure 7, and by a plate 36 fixed above and formed with an internal
conical guiding surface. This plate 36 not only assists in keeping the needle in its
place, but also resists the tendency to bend and bulge outwards of the part of the
needle between the upper driver 24 and the cloth when the needle point is piercing
the cloth; and it may also be advantageously applied in other modifications. The
drivers 24 are driven directly by a conical wheel 37 formed with a helical thread
which engages in the helical grooves of the drivers, but by preference at parts of
grooves which do not come in driving contact with the needle.
The helical thread on the wheel 37 is left-handed like the needle, the helical
grooves on the drivers 24 being right-handed. The wheel 37 is on a short shaft
driven by bevil wheels 26 from the first-motion shaft 16. The arrangement, whilst
dispensing with the five bevil wheels 27, 28, 29, of the first modification, also admits
of the tube 14 being driven directly from the first-motion shaft 16 and of the feed
worm 22 being on that shaft. The drivers 24 run on studs, and the stud 38 of the
upper driver is hinged to the bracket to admit of the driver being turned up to
give access for introducing or removing the needle. A screw pin 34 serves for
fixing the stud 38 in its working position. The guide plate 36 is also made
removable.
An ordinary toothed bevil wheel might be substituted for the wheel 36 and
be arranged to gear with toothed bevil wheels fixed to the drivers 24, or with teeth
cut on the drivers themselves across their grooves.
The essential features of a third modification of my helicone driving arrangement
are shown on Sheet 4 of the accompanying Drawings, Figure 8 being a plan and
Figure 9 a front elevation.
In the first and second modifications herein-before described the effective diameters
or the pitch" cones of the drivers 24 are the same as that of the needle, but in this
third modification the drivers 24 are of twice the needle's effective diameter.
There are two drivers 24, as in the second modification, and they are fixed on
shafts 39, 40, which have also fixed on them toothed bevil wheels 41, which gear
with an intermediate bevil wheel 42. The upper driver shaft 39 is geared by bevil
wheels 43 to a first-motion shaft 44 which is placed horizontally and at right angles.
to the front of the machine. The shaft 44 has on it a pulley 45, a belt 46 from

page_text: which drives the tube 14. The shaft 44 has also in direct connection with it parts
for pricking the holes in the cloth in order to reduce the strain on the needle. The
mechanism shown is arranged for pricking the holes two at a time, there being two
steel prickers 47 fixed to a vertical bar 48 formed with a cross slot at is upper end
to be acted on by a crank pin 49 carried by the shaft .44. The pricker bar 48 is
guided by a vertical slot in it working on pins on a guide piece 50 which is
connected by parallel links 51 to fixed points in the framing, whilst it is at its upper
end formed with horns 52 which are acted on by a "heart" or spiral cam 53 fixed
on the shaft 44. This cam 53 gives a horizontal motion to the guide piece 50, such
as to cause the prickers 47 to move horizontally with the cloth whilst in it, and to
return when out of the cloth. In this modification the feed-motion worm 22 is
conveniently placed on the shaft of the intermediate bevil wheel 42, the teeth of
the worm wheel being inclined to suit the inclination of that shaft.
&
A second modification of the pricking mechanism, which is more suitable for the
first and second modifications of my helicone driving arrangement, is shown in
Figures 8 to 12 on Sheet 5 of the accompanying Drawings; Figure 8 being
horizontal section; Figure 9, a front elevation; Figure 10, a front elevation of the
spiral cam 53; Figure 11, a front elevation of the guide piece 50; and Figure 12, a
vertical section. The prickers 47 are fixed to a plate 48, which can work in vertical
guides in piece 50, and is formed with a cross slot to be acted upon by a crank
pin 49. The guide piece 50 is in the form of an open rectangular frame fitted to
slide on horizontal guides on a bracket 54, to be formed on or fixed to the framing
of the machine; and the guide piece 50 is formed with projections 52, to be acted on
by the spiral cam 53. The cam 53, in which the crank pin 49 can be conveniently
fixed, is to be fixed on a horizontal shaft which is at right angles to the front of the
machine, and is driven at a suitable speed.
On Sheet 5 of the accompanying Drawings there are also delineated diagrams,
Figures 13 to 16 showing my arrangement for driving the needle when in the form
of a cylindrical helix, Figure 13 being a plan showing the needle with the tube 14
and thread barrel 15 within it.
Figure 15 is an end elevation showing the needle and its two helically grooved
cylindrical drivers 55 of twice the needle's effective diameter; and Figure 14 is a
projection as at right angles to a plane passing through the axes of the needle and
one of the drivers 55. These drivers are made with pinions 56 indicated by dotted
circles in Figure 15, and which are driven by a spur wheel indicated by a dotted
circle 57. In this arrangement the tube 14 should act frictionally on the inside of
the needle, and the preparatory pricker should be used in order that the latter may
reduce the resistance to the passage of the needle through the cloth, and that the
former may compensate for any remaining resistance.
If notwithstanding the action of the pricker and of the tube 14 the needle should
be found to creep gradually backwards its position may be continually corrected by
the action on its back end of a tooth 58, fixed as shown in Figure 16 on the back of
each driver 55. The tooth 58 in consequence of projecting radially will have com-
paratively more movement than the grooves of the driver, and will push the needle
forward to its proper place whenever it slips backwards.
With the needles and drivers cylindrical the axes of the drivers are parallel to
the front of the machine, an arrangement which may be considered to present some
features of convenience. This parallel position of the axes of the drivers may be
retained whilst making the needle and drivers both very slightly conical; but in
this modification the larger diameter of the drivers will engage with the smaller
diameter of the needle which will involve some rubbing action between them.
In my pricking mechanism herein-before described an intermittent pricking
action is made to act in concert with a continuous feed or progressive motion of the
cloth. The contrivance by which this result is obtained or its equivalent is equally
and very advantageously applicable to what is know as the Webster-Laing sack-
sewing machine, or Webster's modification of Laing's machine, and by its application
the intermittent action of the needle of that machine hitherto combined with an

page_text: intermittent feed motion of the cloth can be combined with a continuous feed
motion.
Figure 17 on Sheet 6 of the accompanying Drawings is a horizontal section of
the Webster-Laing machine as now or recently made, but with my improvement
for rendering the feed motion continuous applied to it. Instead of attaching the
screwed spindle 60 as heretofore directly to the disc 61, carrying the needle, I con-
nect it to a block 62, fitted to slide parallel to the shaft 63 in guides on the table
or bed plate, and on this block I fix a guide piece 64, shown enlarged in side
and back view in Figures 18 and 19. This guide piece 64 is shaped to fit in a
groove 65, formed in an extension of the main driving pulley 66, such groove being
helical with one-half of it right-handed and the other half left-handed. As the
pulley 66 rotates the action of the groove 65 on the guide piece 64 is to cause the
parts carrying the needle to move in the direction of the feed motion whilst the
needle is in the cloth, and to return back again whilst the needle is out of the
cloth. At the same time the screwed spindle 60 causes the mean position of the
parts carrying the needle to be slowly moved along as before. The continuous feed
motion may be imparted to the cloth as in the Laing machine by an endless pitch
chain having points to engage with the cloth, such chain being driven by a pitch
wheel 67, on a spindle having on it a worm wheel driven by a worm 68 on the
shaft 63. The hand lever for moving back the disc 61 is placed under the plate or
table as indicated by dotted lines at 69, and is fixed on a short vertical spindle,
having at its upper end a lever 70, connected by a link 71 to the block-62.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, I have to state that I do not restrict myself to the precise details
herein described or delineated, but that what I believe to be novel and original, and
claim as the Invention secured to me by and in terms of the herein-before in part
recited Letters Patent is,-
1. The combination in a sewing machine of a helical meedle with one or more
helically-grooved drivers arranged and operating substantially as herein-before
described.
2. The helicone needle driving arrangement herein-before described.
3. The combination of preparatory pricking mechanism, substantially such as is
herein-before described with the needles of any of the kinds of sewing machine
herein-before referred to.
4. The application of the Webster-Laing sewing machine of parts rendering a
continuous feed or progressive motion practicable, the said parts being substantially
such as are herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edmund Hunt, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Fifteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine.
EDMUND HUNT. (L.S.)