IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR SEWING STRAW BRAID OR TAPE FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF HATS AND BONNETS
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Bristow Hunt at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 27th March 1879. A communication from
abroad by Samuel Henshall, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United
States of America.
BRISTOW HUNT, of Serlo Street, Lincoln's Inn, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR SEWING STRAW
BRAID OR TAPE FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF HATS AND BONNETS." (A communi-
cation from abroad by Samuel Henshall, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the
United States of America.)
This Invention relates to certain improvements in machinery or apparatus for
sewing straw-braid or tape for the manufacture of hats and bonnets, and the main
object of the improvements is to so construct a shuttle machine of this class that
the hat or bonnet can be sewed the right side out, thereby obviating the necessity
of turning the hat after the sewing is completed.
In constructing the improved machines according to this Invention the needle
bar is adapted to bevilled guides on the top of the bed or table of the machine,
and its edges are bevilled to accord with the guides.
On the underside of the table are bearings for the driving shaft, which, in addition
to the usual slotted cain for operating the needle-bar, carries two cams and a disk,
from which projects a crank pin.
One of these cams acts on an antifriction roller carried by the short arm of a bell
crank lever, which is hung to a bearing beneath the table, the long arm of the lever
being connected by a rod to an arm on a swinging frame hung loosely to the shaft
of the lower feed roll which is adapted to fixed bearings on the bed of the machine.
The swinging frame carries a spring pawl, which acts upon the teeth of a ratchet
wheel secured to the last mentioned shaft, the point at which the pawl in its
movement commences to act upon the teeth being determined by the upper end of
a lever hung to the same shaft, and having at the lower end an adjusting
Screw.
By manipulating this screw so as to throw the upper end of the lever forward or
backward the pawl will be held clear of the teeth of the ratchet until more or less
of the movement of the swinging frame is completed; thus the extent of rotation
of the lower feed roll, and consequently the length of stitch, can be readily
regulated.
The shaft of the lower feed roll is geared near its rear end to the shaft of the upper
feed roll, the latter shaft being adapted to bearings in a frame pivotted to the

page_text: swivelled lower end of a vertical stem which is arranged to slide in the tubular
upper end of a standard projecting upward from the bed of the machine, the eleva-
tion or depression of the stem being effected by a handled collar acting on a pin
which projects from the upper end of the said stem, and is adapted to a cam slot in
the said collar.
This standard contains a spring which acts on the stem so as to impart to the
same the desired yielding pressure.
Secured to or forming part of the bed of the machine, and projecting in line
laterally with the feed rolls, and in close proximity to the lower roll, is a rigid arm,
in the top of which at the outer end is formed a curved recess, a horizontal opening
being also formed in the end of the arm in line with the needle, for which it serves
as a guide, the point of the needle remaining within the opening when the needle
bar has reached the limit of its rearward movement.
י
Hung to a bearing above the table is an arm which carries at the outer end an
adjustable finger notched at the lower end, and adapted to the recess of the said
rigid arm. The arm has also a rod acted upon by a spring, the tendency of which
is to depress the arm and keep the end of the finger pressed firmly against the base
of the recess.
The arm is raised at intervals by means of the second of the two first mentioned
cams acting through the medium of a pivotted arm and a stud, the parts being so
arranged that such elevation of the arm occurs during the feeding movement of the
feed rolls.
A connecting rod extends from the crank pin of the first mentioned disk to an
arm pivotted to a bearing in the underside of the table near the rear edge of the
same, and another connecting rod extends from this arm to an arm on a toothed segment
which is pivotted to the downwardly projecting flange of the end of the table, and
gears into a pinion on the shaft of a shuttle carrier, the latter being adapted to a
shuttle race contained within a circular casing which is secured to or forms part of
the end frame of the machine.
The operation of the machine is as follows:-When the machine is ready to start
the layer of braid coming up from a roll beneath the machine rests on the lower
feed roll, while the sewed tip is clamped between the layer of braid and the upper
feed roll, and rests upon the end of the said projecting rigid arm, into the recess
of which it is bent by the finger of the movable arm working in connection
therewith.
The point of the needle then moves forward through the bent portion of the the
tip, through the layer of braid, and the groove of the lower feed roll, and enters
the shuttle race, where its thread is interlocked with that of the shuttle.
The needle is then withdrawn, and the said movable arın is raised so that its
finger releases the tip, which is then free to be fed forward by the feed rolls to the
· extent of the length of another stitch. After this feeding operation the finger
descends, bends the tip, and the operation is repeated as before.
As soon as the top of the crown has been completed the said top is bent down
over the circular casing of the shuttle race, and the formation of the side of the
crown at right angles to the top proceeds, and as soon as the latter has been finished
the crown of the hat or bonnet is raised so as to form the rim at a right angle to
the side of the crown.
The use of a vibrating or rotating shuttle and shuttle carrier is an important
feature of this Invention, as the shuttle race demanded thereby is of very limited
dimensions, and does not present any obstacle to the turning down of the top of
the crown in order to form its side.
As the long stitches are always formed on the underside of the braid when the
latter is being sewed, it follows that in the improved machine the said long stitches
are on the inside of the hat (or bonnet) as the latter is delivered by the machine;
in other words, the hat or bonnet is right side out when the sewing is completed.
By this means a serious objection is overcome to which straw-braid sewing
machines with reciprocating shuttles are subject, for in all machines of the latter

page_text: class the bed must be made so large in order to accommodate the shuttle-race that
it is impossible to turn the completed crown down over the bed, the said crown
having to be turned up instead of down, so that the hat or bonnet when completed
by the machine is inside out, and must be turned before it can be blocked, an
operation which has a strong tendency to strain and break the stitches.
Another important feature of the Invention is the rigid arm having a needle
opening and a recess, down onto the base of which the braid is pressed by the said
finger, for by forming the needle opening close to the bottom of the recess the
stitches may be made as shallow as desired without any risk of the needle failing
to puncture the braid.