IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING MACHINES
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Hunter Henry Murdoch, of No. 7, Staple Inn, in the
County of Middlesex, Patent Ageut, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
SEWING MACHINES." A coinmunication from abroad by Louis Dryfoos, of
New York, in the United States of America.
Sealed the 21st August 1877, and dated the 22nd May 1877.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Hunter Henry Murdoch at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 22nd May 1877.
HUNTER HENRY MURDOCH, of No. 7, Staple Inn, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent. "IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING MACHINES." [A communication from
abroad by Louis Dryfoos, of New York, in the United States of America.]
The invention relates to sewing machines specially adapted to "quilt" goods,
and employing a "gang" of needles for making simultaneously a number of parallel
rows of stitches, and consists in the application and use in combination with a
gang" of needles of annular presser feet, each annular foot surrounding its corre-
sponding needle. These presser feet are so actuated as to relax their pressure upon
the goods, and are lifted off from them during the intervals of the formation of
stitches, while during the formation of the stitches they press upon the goods with
spring pressure produced by a helical spring surrounding the needle.
"
In order to produce figured quilting, such as zig-zag, or undulatory, or other
lines, the feed is effected by a mechanism, substantially as follows:-For practical
purposes, for instance, for the borders of skirts of conical or cylindrical form, the
material to be quilted is fed to and from the cloth plate which is common to all
the needles by means of conical or cylindrical rollers, and several pieces of goods
to be quilted may be united, so as to avoid interruptions in the work.
These
pieces may afterwards be separated.
The feed is intermittently regular in line at right angles to the line of
needles.
The sewing mechanism, together with needles, however, is mounted in a frame
called sewing frame," having a laterally reciprocating movement.
The mechanism for operating the feed consists of a friction clutch clasping the
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page_text: feed shaft, the clutch being operated by a vibratory lever, whose movement
causes it first to close upon the shaft and then to rotate the same.
Such or a similar device may be employed for either feed; that is, for the
cloth feed and the feed of the sewing frame.
The length of feed is regulated by suitable means of adjustment of the vibra-
.tory lever at the end thereof, which acts on the clutch, and whereby the lost
motion of the lever may be increased or decreased at pleasure.
With the moveable sewing frame is combined a pattern wheel, to give the frame
a movement in relation to the feed cloth, so as to produce in connection there-
with the proposed design or quilting lines.
This pattern wheel may be changeable according to such designs, or it may
be provided with removeable and interchangeable patterns.
.Instead of the friction clutch device, the sewing frame may be actuated by
a lever which receives its movement and transmits the same to the sewing frame
from a pattern wheel, the pattern of which is cut on the sides of the rim. The
lever to this end is provided with friction rollers which engage the pattern rim
of the wheel.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Hunter Henry Murdoch in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 20th
November 1877.
HUNTER HENRY MURDOCH, of No. 7, Staple Inn, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent. "IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING MACHINES." A communication from
abroad by Louis Dryfoos, of New York, in the United States of America.
The invention relates to sewing machines specially adapted to "quilt" goods
and employing a gang of needles for making simultaneously a number of parallel
rows of stitches, and consists in the application and use in combination with a
gang of needles of annular presser feet, each annular foot surrounding its corres-
ponding needle. These presser feet are so actuated as to relax their pressure upon
the goods, and are lifted off from them during the intervals of the formation of
stitches, while during the formation of the stitches they press upon the goods
with spring pressure produced by a helical spring surrounding the needle.
In order to produce figured quilting, such as zig-zag, or undulatory, or other
lines, the feed is effected by a mechanism, substantially as follows:-For practical
purposes, for instance, for the borders of skirts of conical or cylindrical form, the
material to be quilted is fed to and from the cloth plate, which is common to all
the needles, by means of conical or cylindrical rollers, and several pieces of goods
to be quilted may be united, so as to avoid interruptions in the work. These
pieces may afterwards be separated.
The feed is intermittently regular in line at right angles to the line of
necilles.
The sewing mechanism, together with needles, however, is mounted in a frame,
called sewing frame." having a laterally reciprocating movement.
The mechanism for operating the feed consists of a friction clutch clasping the
feed shaft, the clutch being operated by a vibratory lever, whose movement
causes it first to close upon the shaft, and then to rotate the same.
Such or a similar device may be employed for either feed; that is, for the
cloth feed and the feed of the sewing frame.

page_text: The length of feed is regulated by suitable means of adjustment of the vibra-
tory lever at the end thereof, which acts on the clutch, and whereby the lost
motion of the lever may be increased or decreased at pleasure.
With the moveable sewing frame is combined a pattern wheel, to give the frame
a movement in relation to the cloth feed, so as to produce in connection there-
with the proposed design or quilting lines.
This pattern wheel may be changeable according to such designs, or it may
be provided with removeable and interchangeable patterns.
Instead of the friction clutch device, the sewing frame may be actuated by
a lever, which receives its movement and transmits the same to the sewing frame.
from a pattern wheel, the pattern of which is cut on the sides of the rim. The
lever to this end is provided with friction rollers, which engage the pattern rim
of the wheel.
Having now described the nature of this Invention, I will proceed to describe
the manner in which the same is to be performed, reference being had to the
accompanying Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon.
Figure 1 is a perspective view of the machine; Figure 2 is a rear elevation
of the same.
Figure 3 is a side elevation, on an enlarged scale, of the mechanism, through
the intermediary of which the feed is effected.
Figure 4 is a pattern of the stitching made by the machine.
I shall give but a general and brief description of such parts of the machine
as are not immediately related to the improvements.
The first part of the present improvement consists in combining with each
and every needle bar or holder a an annular vertically-yielding presser foot b,
attached to and moving up and down with the bar, and surrounding the needle.
The presser feet thus press the goods only during the formation of the stitches.
They rise with the needles, and their pressure on the goods is entirely taken off
when the needles are out of the cloth. They are made vertically-yielding by
being in part composed of spirally-coiled wire springs, as shown.
The needle-holding frame (marked A) moves up and down in guides in the
laterally reciprocating sewing frame B; this up-and-down movement being
imparted by a rock shaft C, which is operated by a crank and driving shaft D,
through the medium of a connecting rod E, jointed to a slotted arm on shaft C,
in which arm its joint pin is adjustable to or from the axis of shaft C, in order
to regulate the length of needle streke. The driving shaft D is rotated by gear-
ing F, G, the gearing wheel F having fixed bearings, and being connected with
the shaft D by a spline and groove connection, which permits the shaft to
laterally reciprocate with the sewing frame, independently of the driving gear.
The regular forward feed of the goods is effected by feed rollers, intermittently
rotated by means of a mechanism, so organized that the length of feed may be
varied at pleasure. The feed rolls are shown at H. They are intended in this
instance to feed the conical bodies of skirts or skirt borders, and are therefore
for this purpose made conical. The cloth to be sewed passes over the cloth
plate T, under and back of the lower roll, thence up between the two rolls, and to
the front of the upper roll, over which it finally passes. The rolls are made
conical only for the purpose above mentioned. To feed straight goods, they are
made cylindrical. They do not move with the sewing frame. They have no
movement of lateral reciprocation, but revolve in bearings formed in a stationary
frame H. They act intermittently, resting during the formation of the stitch,
and feeding the goods when the needles are out of the cloth.
.
The intermittent movement of rotation is produced as follows:-The lower roll
is the one that is positively acted on. The other roll has movable boxes acted on
by springs, which cause it to bear with a yielding pressure on the lower roll, the
two rolls being geared together, as shown. The shaft or journal of the lower rol!
is at one end prolonged to extend beyond its bearings, and on this prolonged end
is mounted a hub, the periphery of which is encircled by a spring ring-like

page_text: clasp e, which is not a continuous ring, but has separate ends, one of which, d,
carries a yoke d¹. The other end e, directly above the end d, is free, and nor-
mally is somewhat separated from the other. Pivotted at f in the yoke d is a
lever g, whose shorter arm overhangs the end e, and whose longer arm is in con-
tact with a cam tappet or eccentric h on the driving shaft, said part / being of a
width sufficient to allow it to reciprocate with the sewing frame without quitting
the lever. When the longer arm of the lever is raised by the cam, its shorter arm
bears on the end e of the spring clasp, and first forces it down toward the other
end, and so causes the clasp to clutch the hub. The continued movement of the
lever now causes the hub to make a movement of partial rotation, thus operating
the feed roll. The extent of movement of the roll is determined by the amount
of lost motion of the lever, and this lost motion is regulated by means of a
screw in the shorter arm of the lever, which may be caused to approach the
end e of the clasp, more or less as required. This in effect constitutes a friction
clutch, which is caused to engage and operate the feed by means of a vibratory
lever, which is caused to act on the clutch, sooner or later, in its stroke, accord-
ing to the length of stitch required. The lever is held down to the eccentric h by
a spring h¹.
The same kind of mechanism is employed to give movement to the laterally
reciprocating sewing frame. In this case however, as seen in the Drawing, the
mechanism is duplicated, one friction clutch i and lever j being required to move
the frame in one direction, and one friction clutch k and lever being required to
move the frame in the other direction. The mechanisms are mounted; one on one
side and the other on the other side of a central flange m on a shaft n, which is
rocked back and forth by the action of the clutches, and is connected with the
sewing frame by a rod o, jointed at one end to an arm projecting from the sewing
frame, and at the other end to a radial arm projecting from the shaft n, or from
the flange m thereon. The levers and are held by springs p, p, against the
pattern cams, by which they respectively are acted on; and this brings me to the
last portion of the improvements which relates to the pattern mechanism, or
mechanism for giving to the sewing frame the lateral movement required for
the particular pattern to be made. For this purpose a permanent wheel J is
used, gearing with the driving mechanism, and carrying on its opposite faces
the cams s, which operate the levers of the friction clutches. These cams are
removeable from the wheel, and may be replaced by others, so that with the
same wheel any number of pattern cams can be interchangeably used.
The cam points s may be in one piece with the central disc s¹, or they may be
made separate from the disc, and attached independently of one another to the
wheel.
The wheel is of a size to make one element of the design or pattern, so that at
each revolution of the wheel one element of the design will be completed. For
instance, the cams shown in the Drawing will make the zig-zag pattern shown in
Figure 4, and that pattern is composed of a number of elements, each of which
While the series of cams on one side of
consists of up and down lines in V form.
the wheel act on one lever, the other is opposite the open space on the cam disc
on the other side of the wheel. Thus the one set of cams acting on one lever by
a series of intermittent impulses draws the sewing frame in one direction. Those
cams then become inactive, and the opposite set commences to act on the other
lever, causing the frame to move in a similar manner in the other direction; thus
in conjunction with the regular forward feed causing a pattern to be produced like
that shown in Figure 4. A much simpler mechanism to give movement to the
laterally reciprocating sewing frame is shown in Figures 5 and 6.
""
The base plate B of the sewing frame which is mounted on rollers is extended
to form or is rigidly connected with a carrier C, which is arranged to receive its
reciprocating movement from a cam wheel D, and to transmit the same to the
sewing frame. The cam wheel is of peculiar construction, consisting of a cylinder
united by a disc or spokes to the hub or axle E, which is supported in hinges or
brackets G fast to the under side of the frame. The cylinder or flange is cut in

page_text: a manner to correspond to the pattern of the sewing to be executed, or to the
motions to be imparted to the sewing frame. In the example shown in the Draw-
ing, the cylinder is constructed to make a zig-zag quilt. To this end it is divided
along its periphery into, say, 18 equal parts for 18 stitches for each complete revo-
lution of the wheel, or each element of the zig-zag pattern. Nine parts therefore
are cut on the cylinder, so that each shall be a further recess with respect to the
former, each recess shoving the frame with its sewing mechanism forward a dis-
tance, which, in combination with the regular feed motion, will produce an
oblique line. The other nine parts are cut away in such manner, so that each
shall gain upon the preceding recess, until the last of the latter nine shall coin-
cide with the first of the former nine, each of said recesses pushing the frame
backward a similar distance, which, in combination with the regular feed, will
produce an oblique line in the opposite direction to the former, and so on as the
wheel revolves, the frame will be reciprocated by the recesses, cams, or patterns
cut into the cylinder portion of the wheel.
The pattern may be cut in one side of the wheel, or on both, as shown in the
Drawings. In the latter case I prefer to provide the carrier with a roller on cach
cam of the cylinder, to embrace, as it were, the cylinder on opposite ends, and
thus dispense with springs or other means to keep the carrier in contact with the
pattern wheel.
Motion is given to the pattern wheel in any convenient manner by pinions, as
shown, or otherwise.
I have described only so much of the machine as is required to illustrate the
improvements.
The stitch-forming mechanisms, one for each needle, may be of any approved
pattern, embracing tension, take up, spool holder, shuttle, or hook for the under
thread, &c.
Having thus described the aforesaid improvements, I claim in respect
thereof,-
Firstly. The combination, substantially as set forth, with a series of vertically
reciprocating needles, of a like number of vertically yielding and elastic annular
presser feet, one foot for each needle, each presser foot surrounding its needle,
and attached to and moving with the needle bars or holder, and rising from the
cloth plate when the feed takes place.
Secondly. The combination of the laterally-reciprocating sewing frame and inde-
pendent forward feed with a series of needles carried by the said sewing frame,
and a like number of vertically-yielding annular presser feet, one for each needle,
each presser foot surrounding its needle, and attached to and moving with the
needle bar or holder, as shown and set forth.
Thirdly. The described mechanism for operating the feed, consisting of a
friction clutch clasping the feed shaft, in combination with a vibratory pivotted
lever supported on one end of the clutch, and having one of its arms overhanging,
but not attached to the other and free end of the clutch, substantially as set
forth, so that the movement of the said lever shall cause the clutch, first to close
upon the shaft, and then to rotate it, as set forth, and this I claim, whether the
said mechanism be used to operate the lateral or the forward feed.
Fourthly. The combination of the friction clutch, the feed shaft embraced by
the same, and the vibratory lever provided at that end which acts on the clutch,
with means of adjustment whereby the lost motion of the lever may be increased
or decreased at pleasure to regulate the length of the feed.
Fifthly. The combination with the sewing frame of the pattern wheel and
removable pattern cams, one set on each face of the wheel, the one set designed
to move the sewing frame in one direction, the other set in the other direction,
each set acting alternately on the frame, and both being removable to allow
different sets of pattern cams to be interchangeably used on the same wheel.
Sixthly. The pattern wheel with removable pattern cams, one set on each face
of the wheel, in combination with friction clutches and their operating levers,
one set for each set of pattern cams, and a rock shaft, on which said clutches are

page_text: mounted, connected with and imparting a laterally-reciprocating movement to
the sewing frame, substantially as herein shown and set forth.
Seventhly. The combination with a moveable sewing frame carrying the sew-
ing mechanism of a pattern or cylinder, having cut in the rim thereof the
pattern, according to which lateral reciprocating movement is to be imparted to
the sewing frame to produce, in connection with the regular feed of the sewing
mechanism, a given quilting pattern, substantially as shown and set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Hunter Henry Murdoch, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Sixth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven.
H. H. MURDOCH. (L.S.)