Improvement in Spring Motors for Sewing and other Machines.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 21st May, 1889
Complete Specification Left, 27th Sept., 1889-Accepted, 2nd Nov., 1889
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvement in Spring Motors for Sewing and other Machines.
We ANNIE WARREN PEARCE and LAURA HENRIETTA JOHNSON, of Greenwood,
Abbeville County, South Carolina, United States of America, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention to be as follows :—
This Invention relates to a spring motor which may be readily adapted for driving
sewing machines, dentists' and jewellers' drills, and other light machines.
The motor comprises a casing which may be detachably connected to the machine
to be driven, by clamping arms and set screws. Or it may be permanently connected
to the machine.
In this casing is mounted a main shaft about which is coiled a spring, one end of
which is attached to the shaft and the other to a fixed point. The shaft is provided
with
winding handle and has a toothed wheel loose upon, but connected with, it by
ratchet and pawl gear. With this toothed wheel gears a pinion on a countershaft
which is the second motion shaft for driving the machine. It is provided with
ratchet and pawl gear for preventing the motion of the shaft when the motor is
not required to run or the spring is being wound. The pawl is adjustable so that
when the motor is running it may be held out of engagement with the ratchet wheel,
the adjustment being effected by binding screws movable in slots one of which acts on
the spring of the pawl so as to exert but slight pressure on it when the motor
is running, but putting pressure on the spring when the main spring is being wound
so as to prevent accidental jumping of the pawl. Fast on the end of the countershaft
is a disc provided with arms terminating in clamps adapted to embrace the rim or
other part of the fly wheel of the sewing, or other, machine to be driven, in such a
way that the motor may be readily connected and detached. When the clamps
embrace the periphery of the wheel, they are provided with boxes having elastic
bearing blocks pressed against the wheel rim by screws. An adjustable brake is
applied to the periphery of the disc, said brake having an elastic shoe.
DL: 01 M 1980
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvement in Spring Motors for Sewing and other Machines.
We ANNIE WARREN PEARCE, and LAURA HENRIETTA JOHNSON, of Greenwood,
Abbeville County, South Carolina, United States of America, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
:-
The object of our invention is to provide a simple, cheap, and effective spring
motor, which may be readily adapted for use in connection with sewing machines,
dentists' and jewellers' drills, etc., and it consists in certain novel features of
construction and combinations of parts, as will be hereinafter fully described in
the annexed specification and particularly pointed out in the claims, reference being
had to the accompanying drawing, in which:
Figure 1 is a front view of our improvement applied to a sewing machine.
Figure 2 is a side view thereof.
Hius 2 is a central vertical section and

page_text: In the accompanying drawing; A, denotes a casing which may be detachably
connected to the machine bed a³, by the projecting arms or extensions a* a*, which
pass under said bed and are secured thereto by screws as shown.
When, however, the motor is designed to be permanently attached to the machine,
the stand which carries the treadle and fly wheel may be dispensed with and the
machine body and motor placed in a suitable box-like frame, which can be set on a
table or elsewhere.
The frame or casing A, consists of two vertical plates a a, which are braced
together by the cross bars a¹ a¹.
Journaled about centrally within the casing is the main shaft B, to which is
connected one end of the power spring. C, the opposite end c, of which is connected to
one of the cross bars a' as shown in the drawings.
The main driving gear is mounted upon said shaft, and d d¹, indicates the ratchet
and pawl mechanism connecting said gear with the shaft.
A shaft E, is mounted in the plates a a in front of and in the same horizontal
plane with the shaft B, and is provided with a pinion b, which engages the
gear D.
The outer end of the shaft E is extended through the plate a and is provided upon
such end with a ratchet wheel 6', with which engages a pawl F, pivoted to the
plate a above the wheel 61 as shown, and which is normally held in contact by
means of the spring G.
A diagonal slot H, is arranged in the plate a adjacent to the spring G and in which
is adjusted a thumb nut I. The said nut is adjusted in the upper end of the slot
when the motor is at work, and in the lower end when the spring is being
wound up.
To hold the pawl out of engagement with the wheel 61 when it is desired to run
the machine, the same is provided with a thumb nut F', which engages a segmental
slot F. By slightly tightening the nut F¹ the pawl may be held in a disengaged
position.
By this arrangement it will be seen that but a slight pressure is exerted upon the
spring G when the motor is running, thereby permitting an easy movement of the
pawl F, and exerting a great pressure upon the spring when the main spring
is being wound up, and thereby preventing any accidental jumping of the pawl F.
The inner end of the shaft E is extended at E', to which end is secured a disc J,
provided with projecting arms J¹, which are adapted to fit over or into the driving
wheel of the machine intended to be operated.
When the arms J₁ clamp over the rim of the driving wheel K, they are provided
with metallic boxes L, having elastic, preferably rubber, bearing-blocks M, retained
therein and which are adjustably clamped to the driving wheel K by means of
suitable thumb screws N N.
By this means the arms may be readily attached or detached from the driving wheel
of the machine.
O, denotes an adjustable brake secured to one of the plates a, which is adapted to
be readily applied to the periphery of the disk J, said brake being provided with an
elastic bearing shoe o, as shown.
From the foregoing description taken in connection with the drawing, the advantages
and operation of our invention will be readily understood.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is :-
1. A spring motor, consisting of a casing, spring-actuated gearing mounted
therein, one of the gear shafts projected at each side of the casing being provided
at one end with a disc J, having arms adapted to detachably connect the motor with
the driving wheel of the machine to be driven, a ratchet wheel at its opposite
end, and an adjustable pawl for engaging the same, substantially as shown and
described.

page_text: 2. The combination, with the casing A, the shaft E, the intermediate gearing
for operating it, and the ratchet wheel, mounted thereon, of the adjustable pawl F,
the spring C, and the diagonally-adjustable nut I, operating upon the spring C,
substantially as and for the purposes specified.
3. The combination, with the shaft E, the intermediate gearing for operating it,
the ratchet and pawl mechanism connected therewith, and operated as specified, of the
disc J, secured upon the inner projecting end of said shaft, provided with projecting
arms JJ, having boxes L, at their outer ends, said boxes being provided with
adjustable bearing blocks whereby said arms are detachably secured to the rim of the
driving wheel, substantially as and for the purpose hereinbefore described.
Dated this 97th
1 September 1980
A. W. PEARCE,
L. H. JOHNSON.
By A. M. & Wm. Clark,
53, Chancery Lane, London, Patent Agents.