IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING MACHINES
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Hayes, of Bow Lane, in the City of London,
Machinist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING MACHINES:"
Sealed the 3rd March 1865, and dated the 15th October 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Hayes at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 15th
October 1864.
I, JAMES HAYES, of Bow Lane, in the City of London, Machinist, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING
MACHINES," to be as follows:
My Invention of improvements in sewing machines has for its object to
construct a lock loop stitch machine which will work with great rapidity and
certainty, there being no liability for the interlocking threads to miss the
loops.
This object is effected by a peculiar method of combining or interlocking
the threads and forming the loops.
In this machine there are two threads to form the stitch. One thread
passes from its bobbin through an eye in a vertical needle, which moves up
and down above the table, the other thread passes through an eye at the end
of an instrument called a looper which moves to and fro horizontally below the
table. These needles are worked by two excentrics on the main or driving
shaft, and a third excentric on the same shaft actuates the feed motion for
moving forward the work as the sewing operation proceeds. In order to form

page_text: a loop from the lower thread for the upper needle to pass through, a recipro-
eating or vibrating instrument with a small hook at the end is brought
forward to catch the thread from the looper as the latter moves back. By
this means an open loop for the vertical needle to pass through is produced,
and is held until the-upper thread is secured, when the lower loop will slip
off the end of the hook and the stitch will be completed. In order to ensure
the opening of the lower loop it will be drawn by the vibrating hook round a
conical or blunt-pointed projecting piece or stud attached to the under side of
the table. This projecting piece or stud acts as a shoulder to keep open the
under loop when formed, and thus allow ample room for the vertical needle to
pass through. The hooked instrument for catching the loop of the lower
thread is secured to the end of a vibrating lever, which is actuated by the
excentric which works the feed-motion. All the principal motions of the
machine are thus derived from excentrics on the main shaft, and by this
means I am enabled to obtain such a smooth, steady, and noiseless motion
that the machine may be driven at very great speed without the risk of
leranging any of its parts.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Hayes in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
15th April 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL.COME, I, JAMES
HAYES, of Bow Lane, in the City of London, Machinist, send greeting...
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria; by Her Letters
Patent; bearing date the Fifteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-four in the twenty-eighth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said James Hayes, Her special license that I, the said James Hayes, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James
Hayes, 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
SEWING MACHINES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said James
Hayes, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner

page_text: 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 James Hayes, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement,
reference being had to the. Drawings hereunto. annexed, and to the letters and
figures marked thereon (that is to say.)
The object of this Invention is to simplify the construction of chain stitch:
sewing machines, and to enable them to work with great rapidity and certainty,
the liability of missing the loop being removed.
In the accompanying Drawings Fig. 1 shews the improved machine in side
elevation, a portion of the stand being broken away to shew the parts beneath
the table; Fig. 2 is a sectional plan view, a portion of the table being broken
away to shew some of the working parts; Fig. 3 is a front elevation, and
Fig. 4 a back elevation of the machine; and Fig. 5 is a cross section taken
in the line 1, 2, of Fig. 2.
'
A. is the cast-iron table and frame. From the face of this table stands up
the curved bracket arm B, which carries at its forward end the guides for the
needle bar C and presser bar D as usual. Below the table. and working in
suitable bearings is the longitudinal driving shaft E. At its outer. end this
shaft is fitted with a driving pulley and fly wheel E', and an excentric. C',
(which is shewn by dots at Fig. 4). The excentric C¹ is embraced by the
strap C² of the connecting rod C³, which is coupled by a ball-and-socket joint
to a rock lever C, pivotted at C³ to the bracket arm B. At its forward end
this rock lever C is jointed to the needle bar C, and thus it imparts through
the action of the excentric C¹ the requisite up-and-down motion to the vertical
needle. The loop formed by the thread carried down by the vertical needle
below the cloth to be sewn, and shewn at F, Fig. 5, is taken up by an eye-
pointed instrument, termed. the looper, marked G. This looper is provided
with a second eye, through which the thread from the bobbin G* passes, and.
thence to the eye at the point. Between these eyes is a groove to receive the
looper thread and keep it free of the vertical needle thread. The looper is
carried by the looper bar G'; which slides in a fixed guide .below.the.table
at right angles to the driving shaft. The looper receives its motion from an
excentric G2 on the shaft E, which excentric is surrounded by a metal strap
connected by a coupling rod.G with the looper bar. The éxcentrics C' and
G are so timed that the needle is first caused to descend and pierce the cloth.
and carry down a loop of the thread which it has drawn from its bobbin, the:

page_text: tension of the thread being regulated in any well known or approved way:
As the needle rises, and the loop begins to open, the looper enters the loop of
the needle thread and carries the thread which it has taken from its bobbin.
The needle then continues to rise; and-in doing so it leaves its loop upon the
stem of the looper.
The next operation is to secure the loop of the looper thread. This is done
by the hooked instrument H, which fits into a socket in one end of a cranked
rock lever H', having its fulcrum at H. This rock lever receives motion from
an excentric H on the shaft E, which excentric is surrounded by a metal
strap attached to a rod H, which connects it to the rock lever H. When
the looper G, having received the loop of the vertical needle thread, has
'commenced its return motion, the hooked instrument H will advance-and
catch up the loop of the looper thread. It will then rise and lay the loop over
a conical stud I fixed on the under face of the table and near, where the table
is pierced to allow the needle to descend after piercing the work. This conical
stud will spread or open. the loop, and the hooked instrument will hold the
loop on the stud until the needle in its next descent has passed through the
loop; the instrument H will then retire, leaving the loop of the looper on the
stem of the needle. In this way the chain stitch is certainly and rapidly
formed, the needle thread holding the loop formed by the looper and the
looper thread holding the loop formed by the needle. For feeding the cloth
past the needle, so as to produce a succession of stitches, the feed plate K is
affixed to a carrier. K', which is operated by an excentric pin.K² on the inner
end of the shaft E. This excentric pin works in a slot cut in the carrier K',
near its front end, and serves both to support and operate the carrier. The
rear end of this carrier is forked to allow of its playing upon a fulcrum pin K³:
Bearing against the side of this fulcrum pin, see Fig. 2, is a loose plug K;
fitted into the carrier, and having behind it a coil spring K, which keeps
it in contact with the fulcrum pin, and thus gives the carrier a tendency
to recede from the pin. This tendency is, however, checked by an adjustable
cam-shaped stop K, which is operated. by a handle with which it is provided.
By means of this cam the carrier is set up to any required degree, so that the
excentric pin K2 will, in rotating, press against the end of the slot in which it
works, and thus drive forward the carrier and with it the feed plate a distance
equal to the length of stitch required. The rotation of the pin K2; by reason
of its working in an elongated slot of a width only about equal to the diameter
of the pin (see Fig. 5, where it is shewn in dots) will also give the rise and
fall to the feed plate, thus throwing it up into contact with the work (which
at that time is pressed. down by the presser foot as is well understood):

page_text: to give it the traverse motion and lowering the feed plate when it is to make
its back motion.
From the above description it will be understood that when the machine is
once properly timed it will continue to act efficiently and almost noiselessly,
all the motions being derived from excentrics on the main shaft.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention, and explained the manner
of carrying it into effect, I wish it to be understood that under the above in
part recited Letters Patent I claim,―
First, transmitting motion to the working parts of chain stitch sewing
machines through excentrics on the driving shaft, in the manner above
described.
And, secondly, the use of the stud for opening the loop of the looper thread
as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Hayes, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Fifteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord One,
thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
Witness,
J. W: MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
JAMES HAYES. (L.s.)