Improvements in Sewing Machines.
Year: 1898

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Sewing Machines.
I, WILLIAM BIRCH, of Milton Street, Broughton Lane, Manchester, in the County
of Lancaster, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement:-
This invention relates to improvements in that type of sewing machines which
are used by piece dyers and finishers for securing together the ends or selvedges of
cotton, woollen or other fabric when milling, washing, scouring, dyeing or other-
wise treating the same.
Hitherto such fabrics have been sewn together by the said machines with their
ends or selvedges over-lapping. This manner of sewing fabrics together allowed
the ends or selvedges to curl and the joint being double and triple the thickness
of the fabric, the liquor is prevented from freely passing through which is very
detrimental.
The object of my invention is to provide the said type of sewing machines with
means which, after, a stitch has been made, draw the thread through the needle
and thereby provide slack thread in length sufficient to allow the ends or selvedges
of the fabric to be secured together to abut, or to have a space between them,
which obviates the curling and permits the liquor to penetrate the ends or selvedges
as uniformly as the other parts of the fabric.
In accomplishing this I employ in connection with the needle of a sewing
machine of the type referred to, hook or hooks intermittently rotated or oscillated
from any suitable moving part of the sewing machine and adapted to catch the
thread between the needle and a stitch made and draw the same through the needle
so as to form a loop of slack thread which when the ends or selvedges are brought
opposite each other, is drawn back and forms the connection between the two ends
or selvedges.
And in order that my invention may be more fully understood I have caused to
be appended hereunto two sheets of drawings marked with letters of reference
indicating like parts in the various figures.
Fig. 1, Sheet I, is a side view and Fig. 2 an end view of a sewing machine
provided with my improvements. Fig. is a detached plan, Fig. 4 a sectional
end view at line A-B of Fig. 1, Fig. 5 is a detached side view of Fig. 1, and
Fig. 6 a plan of Fig. 5. Figs. 7, 8, 9 & 10 show the manner of securing the fabric
ends or selvedges together.
Fig. 11, Sheet II, is a side view and Fig. 12 a detached plan of a modification
of my invention.
Referring to Sheet I, when arranging the said hook or hooks hereinafter termed
the "thread slackener" a, to rotate intermittently, I form it of a number of pins a¹
the lower ends of which are bent outwardly so as to catch the thread between the
needle 6 and stitch c made and draw the same through the needle in loop fashion
to one side, see Figs. & 6, which figures show the "thread slackener"
the act of catching the thread.
a just in
In order to prevent the loop of slack thread & formed from being drawn back
again, a number of the said pins are employed, say three, so that during the time
a loop is being drawn the previously formed one is still retained by one of the
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