IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO Agents, Southampton Buildings. BUTTON-HOLE SEWING MACHINES
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 16th October 1879. A communication
from abroad by George Gowring, of Okeland, California, United States of
America.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent
"IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO
Agents, Southampton Buildings, London.
BUTTON-HOLE SEWING MACHINES." A communication from abroad by George
Gowring, of Oakland, California, United States of America.
The object of these improvements is to effect the complete finish of a button hole
by a single operation of the button hole sewing machine. The said improvements
will also allow the button hole to be left partially worked, as it is where the same
are not employed. To effect this object I have constructed a device consisting of a
foot rest, a button hole guide slot, a shifting slide, and a shifting lever. This lever
may be used as one mode of operating the shifting slide, although it is not essential
to its operation, as the slide may be moved and adjusted by any other suitable
means or device.
The clamp with the said improvements attached is constructed with the following
parts, that is to say:-A clamp bed plate, a guide button and pivot on which the
clamp is operated, a button hole guide slot as ordinarily used, a clamp-plate spring
with guide roll, a clamp plate which operates upon the said clamp bed plate, a
button hole guide slot, a shifting slide and slot adjusting plate, a shifting lever,
gauge boles, a main guide and feeding pin, spreading clamp feet, a spreading cam,
a clamp cam to clamp the feet upon the cloth, a clamp guide slot in the clamp bed
plate, and a cloth rest.
The clamp is required to be moved over in order to stitch across the end, as the
feed is constant in a direct line, hence, the necessity of adjusting the button hole
guide slot to throw the clamp over and sew across the end of the button hole in
a curved line; this effect may be produced by securing the same motion with a cam
or other mechanical equivalent, but I have employed this device as the simplest and
best adapted to the button hole machine as at present constructed. The following
is the operation of the button hole sewing machine with my said improvements
attached, that is to say:-The clamp being placed upon the clamp bed plate, the
guide button in the button hole guide slot, and the pin in the clamp guide slot, and
the clamp being drawn back, so that the button rests in a recess of the slide when

page_text: the same is thrown to the left as the feed is operated, and the clamp moved forward
carrying the button hole in position under the spreading clamp feet, the angle of
the recess in the shifting slide and slot adjusting plate guides the clamp around so
as to cross the back end of the button hole, where the sewing is commenced, when
it strikes the straight side of the button hole guide slot and passes straight forward
to the eyelet part or front of the button hole. The guide pin has now reached the
curved part of the clamp guide slot, and is rapidly fed around, forming the eyelet,
and again reaching the straight part of the slot sews down to the back end to the
point of commencement. At any time while the button is out of contact with a
recess in the shifting and slot adjusting plate, the shifting lever is moved over
forming the button hole guide slot, and when the button is reached the cam is
swung back crossing the end of the button hole, and double sewing the end in a
curved line to correspond with and exactly overlap the sewing at the commence-
ment, thus forming a inost complete and perfect finish, the strongest part of the
button hole being at this point. In case it is desired to leave the button hole
partially finished, as in machines heretofore used, it is only necessary to commence
and stop the feed at the end of the straight side of the button hole guide slot, and
the finish is precisely the same as now effected where my improvements are not
used.
The advantages which I obtain are as follows, namely:-I double the product of
the button hole sewing machine by completing at the same and a single operation
what the machine without the same leaves half done, and the button hole has a
superior finish, both as regards its appearance and durability, making the part
which has heretofore been the weakest the strongest and most durable.