IMPROVEMENTS IN BUTTON HOLE SEWING MACHINES
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Robert Lake, of the Firm of Haseltine,
-
Lake, & Co., Patent Agents, Southampton Buildings, London, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN BUTTON HOLE SEWING MACHINES."
A communication from abroad by Amos Lawrence Wood, of Boston,
Massachusetts United States of America.
Sealed the 26th November 1872, and dated the 19th September 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Robert Lake
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 19th September 1872.
I, WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co.,
Patent Agents, Southampton Buildings, London, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BUTTON HOLE SEWING
MACHINES," a communication, to be as follows :—
In certain classes of machines for working or stitching button holes a
cloth clamp wheel or disc is used for holding the cloth in which is made
the hole to be stitched, various devices being used to impart longitudinal
and semicircular movements to the said clamp to present the cloth along

page_text: the sides and around the circular eye in succession to the stitch forming
mechanism.
In some machines this disc receives its rotation from a pawl acting on
ratchet teeth cut in the edge of the disc, the fault of this contrivance
being that the disc can only be moved in rotation at each intermission to
an amount or angle which is determined by the action of the pawl on
one, two, or more teeth, there being no way in which the movement of
the disc can be made through the space represented by any fraction of
one of the ratchet teeth. This difficulty has heretofore been remedied
by providing means by which the movements of the disc may be made of
any extent, instead of being confined to fixed divisions of a circle like
those of ratchet teeth, and one object of the present Invention is to
accomplish the desired result by a more direct application of the feed
mechanism to the rotating clamp disc.
Another part of this Invention relates to means for automatically
effecting the change in the feed movement for the eye part and slit part
of the button hole respectively, and the said Invention embraces an
improved method of effecting the same result, as also an improvement in
the construction of the friction feed devices.
The said Invention consists partly in making the clamp disc with
provision for direct application thereto of the griping devices of a friction
feed mechanism, and in combining therewith the mechanism for ope-
rating the friction feed pawl. Said mechanism and the disc preferably
have directly connected with them the devices by which change of feed
movement for the eye and slit is automatically effected, such change
being effected by directly combining with the friction feed pawl two
stops, with one or the other of which the pawl is brought into contact
on the back stroke to regulate or determine the extent of its forward or
fred movement. The pawl strikes one stop at each back movement
while either side of the slit is being worked, and the other stop is auto- 3
matically brought into position to be struck by the pawl when the cyc is
reached, each stop determining the extent of feed and its variation for
the eye and slit parts respectively, the change from stop to stop being
automatically effected both to change from one side of the disc to the
eye, and from the eye to the opposite side of the slit.
Another part of the said Invention relates to the thread interlocking
and loop spreading devices, and consists in spreading and interlocking

page_text: the loops of the needle and those of the thread carrier by the recipro-
cating movements of one bar and slide, and by the eccentric rotative
movements of the carrier and the looper, the position of the stationary
loop spreading beak in relation thereto, the passage of the points of the
looper into the bowing thread at the needle side, and the needle thread
into the loops formed thereto being rendered more certain.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Robert Lake in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 18th March 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William Robert Lake, Her special
licence that I, the said William Robert Lake, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Robert Lake,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN BUTTON HOLE SEWING MACHINES," a communication to me from abroad
by Amos Lawrence Wood, of Boston, Massachusetts, United States of
America, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William
Robert Lake, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to
be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Robert Lake, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same

page_text: is to be, performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement, reference being had to the accompanying
Drawing forming a part of this Specification :-
In certain classes of machines for making or stitching button holes a
cloth clamp wheel or disc is used for holding the cloth in which is made
the hole to be stitched, various devices being used to impart longitudinal
and semicircular movements to the said clamp to present the cloth along
the sides and around the circular eye in succession to the stitch forming
mechanism.
In some machines this disc receives its rotation from a pawl acting on 1
ratchet teeth cut in the edge of the disc, the fault of this contrivance
being that the disc can only be moved in rotation at each intermission
an amount or angle which is determined by the action of the pawl on
one, two, or more teeth, there being no way in which the movement of
the disc can be made through the space represented by any fraction of
one of the ratchet teeth. This difficulty has been remedied by providing
means by which the movements of the disc may be made of any extent
desired, instead of being confined to fixed divisions of a circle like those
of ratchet teeth, and one object of the present Invention is to accomplish
the desired result by a more direct application of the feed mechanism to
the rotating clamp disc.
Another part of this Invention relates to means for automatically
effecting the change in the feed movement for the eye part and slit part
of the button hole respectively, and the said Invention embraces an
improved method of effecting the same result, as also an improvement in
the construction of the friction feed devices.
This part of the said Invention consists partly in making the clamp
dise with provision for direct application thereto of the griping devices of
a friction feed mechanism, and in combing therewith the mechanism for
operating the friction feed pawl, said mechanism and the disc preferably
having directly connecting with them the devices by which change of
feed movement for the eye and slit is automatically effected, said change
being effected by directly combining with the friction feed pawl two
stops, with one or the other of which the pawl is brought into contact
on the back stroke to regulate or determine the extent of its forward or
feed movement. The pawl strikes one stop at each back movement
while either side of the slit is being worked, and the other stop is auto-

page_text: matically brought into position to be struck by the pawl when the eye is
reached. Each stop determines the extent of feed and its variation for
the eye and slit respectively, the change from stop to stop being
automatically effected both to change from one side of the disc to the
eye, and from the eye to the opposite side of the slit.
Another part of the said Invention relates to the thread interlocking
and loop spreading devices, and consists in spreading and interlocking
the loops of the needle and those of the thread carrier by the recipro-
cating movements of one bar and slide, and by the excentric rotative
movements of the carrier and the looper, and the position of the
stationary loop spreading beak in relation thereto, the passage of the
points of the looper into the bowing thread at the needle side and the
needle thread into the loops formed thereto being rendered more certain.
The Drawing at A, B, and C represents the mechanism or part of the
machine embodying the first part of the said Invention, or the parts
relating to the feed mechanism. a denotes the rotary clamp disc, having
cut in its upper surface the cam groove that imparts the requisite
movements to the cloth clamp, and in its opposite surface a cam groove c
that controls the devices for producing the automatic change of the
O stitch for the eye and slit. In the under surface of the disc is cut or
formed a guide slot d for receiving the friction pawls; this slot is made
wide enough to receive two pawls or pawl wedges e, f, to one of which
the actuating lever g is pivoted, as seen at h, while to the other the
short arm of the lever is pivoted, as seen at i. The outer edges of the
5 respective pawls are made circular to correspond to the curves of the
opposite sides of the circular slot d, while the inner edges of the pawls
abut and are made straight, each pawl being a wedge with one circular
or curved side and one straight side. The long arm of the lever g is
pivoted to a lever k, one of whose arms is connected by a link / to a
lever m, fulcrumed at n, and having reciprocating movement imparted
to it by a cam o, into which a pin projects from the lever. The other
arm of the said lever k has a pin p, contact of which with the edges of
the pawl lever determines the movement or extent of movement of the
pawl lever. The rear end of the pawl lever has two faces q, r, one of
which is brought into contact at proper times with a stop 8, and the
other at proper times into contact with a stop t. The stop is fixed to
an arm «, attached to or connected with one arm of a lever », whose
other arm has a pin w extending into the cam groove c of the clamp

page_text: disc a.
The cam groove is composed of two parts, cach concentric with
the centre of motion of the disc, but eccentric with the other, and the
two are connected as shown.
When the pin is in the part a of the cam groove c the end of the
arm & stands in the position seen at B in the path of back movement of
the facer of the lever, the stitches being then formed along the slit of
the button hole; but when the part y of the cam groove reaches the
pin w, the arm t is thrown out of the path of movement of the face r.
The pawl lever is then thrown further back at each back movement, or
until the face q comes against the stop 8, thereby ensuring a longer feed
movement of the disc. The forward or feed movement of the pawl lever
is always to a fixed point, but such movement commences from a point
determined by the extent of back movement of the said lever, the latter
moving back until arrested either by the stop & or the stop t, and its
length of forward movement being greater or less in accordance with the
particular stop which arrests it. The length of either the eye stitch or
the slit stitch is adjustably regulated by making each stop s, t, adjustable
in position, as will be readily understood. When the link t is moved
forward it causes the lever k to press the long arm of the pawl lever out-
wardly, thereby causing the arm to drive the pawl wedge fagainst the
pawl wedge e, causing the outer edge of each to bind against the adjacent
wall or edge of the pawl groove. The forward movement of the pawl
lever then effects the feed movement of the clamp disc. When the pawl
lever starts it first loosens the grip of the pawl wedge ƒ upon the pawl
wedge e, and then draws back both pawls without their imparting move-
ment to the clamp disc. The back movement of the pawl lever is
effected by the movement of the link and lever k (actuated from the
cam), and the action of a spring a² upon a pin 6 projecting from the
pawl wedge. The movement of the link is fixed or constant, while
the back movement of the pawl lever is determined by the position of
the stops s, t, and the particular one of them against which the pawl
lever is arrested. Provision is made for the lost motion by means of the
lever k, which moves the lever g, and swings with respect thereto the pin p,
striking the lever, when it or the pawl lever will move forward together
or as one. To increase the friction of the pawl levers upon the clamp disc
the walls of the groove are inclined, as seen at C, the width of the groove
increasing from its mouth, and the edges of the pawl wedges are similarly
bevelled, as seen at C, so that as the said pawl wedges are forced against
said walls, their curved edges act as wedges laterally, and the upper
"

page_text: broad surfaces are also forced against the broad surface of the groove.
By making the disc itself with the friction pawl receiving groove, and
applying the friction pawls and the eye and slit stitch regulating
mechanism directly to the disc, there is no necessity for employing an
intermediate gear mechanism.
The Drawing respresents at D, E, and F respectively a reversed plan
of the stitch forming mechanism, a section on the line z, z, and a
detail view enlarged of the mechanism, embodying the last part of the
Invention.
The eye pointed thread carrier a¹, that carries the under thread, and
the thread spreading looper 6' are fixed to the inner side of a gear ring c²,
which is located just beneath the plate d³, and is surrounded by a cir-
cular guide wall, in which it rotatively moves a plate e¹ projecting under
the gear teeth, and keeping the ring in place. The ring is eccentric to
each path of vertical movement of the needle, and its reciprocating
rotative movements are imparted to it by a pinion f¹ on a vertical
spindle g', that carries a pinion ³, driven by a horizontally reciprocating
gear bar on the end of a slide k³, whose other end is actuated by a
cam on the vertical shaft x. m³ denotes the button hole cord or bar
passing from a spool through a suitable guide to an eye o' in the plate d²,
through which eye it passes up into the button hole slit in the usual
manner. In front of the eye o' is a guard p' extending down from the
throat plate. The angles of the throat q' on one side of the guard extend
back, as seen at ³, and on one side of the throat is a beak . When the
needle is descending through the button hole slit, and just as its point is
passing through the throat plate, the gear ring is turned (by the cam)
to carry the under thread carrier forward, and as the point of the carrier
approaches the needle, the latter having completed its descent begins to
rise bowing out the thread at its side. The carrier point passes close to
the needle and through the bow, and the needle rising and the carrier
continuing to move forward the needle loop is drawn around the shank
of the carrier. The forward circular movement of the carrier causes its
thread to be extended from the eye of the carrier across the bend of the
carrier shank to the notch or angle of the throat, the needle then
descending again the carrier is started back so that the needle point
passes between the thread of the needle carrier (held in the notch)
and the carrier shank, thus interlocking the needle thread and carrier
thread. The needle previous to its descent has been moved laterally so

page_text: that it passes through the cloth at the requisite distance from the slit
required in the working of the button hole. The back movement of the
carrier is then completed, the loop slipping from the carrier shank, the
carrier thread being passed through it, and the needle point remaining
below the throat plate. As the looper approaches the needle, the i
latter starts up, and the point of the looper passes into the bow formed
at the side of the needle; as the needle rises and the looper goes forward
the latter carries this bow or loop over the beak t, one side of the loop
being drawn over one side of the beak, and the opposite side of the
thread over the opposite side of the said beak, the carrier thread being
also thrown over the back of the same. The needle next descends and
passes through the previous loop of its own thread, the said loop being
so spread open by the beak as to ensure the passage of the needle point
through it, the needle in this descent passing close to the point of the
said beak and through the button hole slit, having been moved laterally
since its last descent.
Having thus fully described the said Invention, as communicated to
me by my foreign correspondent, and the manner of performing the
same, I wish it understood that I claim,-
First. The clamp disc formed with the slot for receiving the friction
pawl wedges, and having the friction pawl mechanism and the me-
chanism for automatically regulating the change of stitch for the eye
and slit relatively arranged and operating as herein described.
Second. The friction pawls or pawl wedges, each made with one
curved edge to fit the circular wall of the groove and with an inner
straight edge, the two inner edges sliding upon each other, as herein
described.
Third. The friction pawl groove made with the inclined edges or walls,
and the pawls made with corresponding inclined edges fitting thereinto,
as herein described.
Fourth. The rotatively reciprocating looper ring carrying the thread
carrier and looper, as herein described.
Fifth. In combination with the ring looper and thread carrier the
notch in the throat and the loop spreading beak, as herein described.
Sixth. The looper, thread carrier, and loop spreading mechanism, all
controlled and brought into action by the reciprocating bar or slide, as
herein described.

page_text: Seventh. The gear ring, pinion shaft, pinions, and reciprocating rack,
constructed, combined, and operating as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Robert Lake, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.
Witness,
"
JAMES EDWARDS,
8, Southampton Buildings,
London.
'
W*. ROB³. LAKE. (L.S.)