IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING MACHINES
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henri Adrien Bonneville at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 22nd October 1869.-A communication from Jean Sabot,
residing at St. Etienne, in the Empire of France, Mechanic.
I, HENRI ADRIEN BONNEVILLE, of the British and Foreign Patent
Offices, 18, Chaussée d'Antin, Paris, in the Empire of France, and 10,
Sackville Street, Piccadilly, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN SEWING MACHINES," a communication from Jean Sabot, a person
resident at St. Etienne, in the Empire of France, Mechanic, to be as
follows:-
The Invention communicated to me consists in a sewing machine
distinct from the various existing systems both with regard to its new
mechanical combinations and to the new results obtained by it, that is to
say, the stitches are executed by a combined movement similar to that
made by a workwoman with her hand, and it produces not only the
ordinary running stitch, but also the back, the cross, and the overcast
stitch, that is to say, the most useful of stitches. It is doubtful if any
machine has as yet made the back and the overcast stitch. This

page_text: machine has three principal movements, 1st, the mechanical movement
in operating the needle; 2ond, the mechanical movement necessary for
drawing the thread for tightening the stitch; 3rd, the important
mechanical movement which operates that mechanism commonly called
the presser foot which carries the stuff and imparts to it the necessary
movements for the execution of the kind of stitch desired. With regard
to the first movement, the needle has two points and the thread is
attached at its middle, which is slightly grooved on each side and has
three eyes. The thread is passed successively through these three eyes,
and is thus attached without there being any knot or projection of the
thread on the needle in consequence of its being lodged in the said
groove of the needle. This needle is placed in a piece perfectly
ressembling a human hand above the stuff. This hand at a suitable
moment opens after having pierced the stuff with the needle, so as to
leave the needle which works vertically for another hand similar in all
respects to the former and placed under the stuff to take hold of. Thus
it follows that the needle sews precisely the same as if with the hand of
a workwoman. Each hand is the continuation of the extremity of a
horizontal bar, producing a reciprocating movement through an eccentric
mounted on the main shaft of the machine and through a spring. Each
of these arms has two rods or vertical guides sliding in holes worked in
supports. Each hand after having followed the movement of the arm
opens or shuts itself to let go or take hold of the needle by the following
means: The hand and the arm consist of two parts placed or combined
together like an arm and a hand cut in two longitudinally. One of
these parts tilts on to the other, the pin being in the middle of the
apparatus, so that if the end of the tilting part opposite to the hand is
withdrawn the hand closes, and if it is left in its former state the hand
opens. This opening and closing movement of the hand is operated by
a copper sector of a suitable thickness, which by turning with the
shaft of the machine upon which it is mounted penetrates into a
recess between the two parts of the arm and progressively distances
the one that tilts from the other, in consequence of the gradual
contraction of the opening left in the desired place between these
two parts of the arm. The length and the position of the sector are
calculated for it to act at the desired moment, that is, when the needle
shall have penetrated half its length through the stuff, and that the
other hand shall have seized hold of the needle, which it will leave go
of by the same means. There are consequently two sectors, each acting

page_text: on one arm alternatively and not simultaneously. The thread having
thus passed through, as the vertical movement of each arm is not more
than equal to the length of the needle, the thread cannot be drawn
sufficiently to tighten the stitch. The second movement is consequently
employed as follows for this purpose:-A hook placed in front of the
needle and immoveable before the stitch is made retires with the thread
until the stitch be tightened as done in hand sewing. To operate this,
said hook is fixed to a carriage which can run on two rails of a longth
equal to the length of the necessary thread. These two rails are parallel
to the arms with the hands which take hold alternatively of the needle.
The same system of hook and carriage exists under the stuff as above it,
and each of these hooks and carriages acts one after the other by means
of the ascent or descent of a long vertical rod provided with a brass
spring which completely surrounds it. This rod ascends or descends by
means of a contrivance oscillating up and down; in operating this move-
ment it acts on a square placed at each of its ends, and each connecting
its carriage. It follows that each carriage moves alternatively, but as
the carriage is only to move the same length of road as the length of the
necessary thread which becomes constantly shorter, the end of each
square which is connected to the long ascending rod is provided with a
ring in which the said rod can slide, so that when this said rod ascends
it does not always guide the square, and consequently the hook with the
same movement, it suffices that the hook or rather the thread offers a
resistance for the rod to ascend without giving any movement to the
hook. The ring of each square is confined between two brass springs
entirely surrounding the long rod, and through these springs the ring of
the square plays by means of the long rod with the desired elasticity,
according to the varying length of the thread. Thus each hand has near
to it the hook for drawing the thread, which acts immediately after the
hand itself has acted. With regard to the regulating movement of the
presser foot mechanism, which places the stuff in the desired position
for the execution of the stitches indicated above, it is thus operated:
The needle passing always in the same vertical line it is clear that it is
the stuff which must make the necessary movements to obtain these
different stitches. The presser foot is fixed to a rod which can ascend
and descend by means of an oscillating contrivance, whose movement is
regulated by means of a friction roller on the curved parts of a plate
mounted on the shaft of the machine. The presser foot may go back-
wards or forwards by means of a little roller fixed to its supporting rod,
:―

page_text: and which is pushed back by a rising piece, and forwards by a spring.
Finally it can go in an oblique direction and cast itself sideways to make
the overcast stitch by means of a horizontal connecting rod which
advances forwards or retires, and which is fixed to the back end of the
machine. This presser foot is checquered as usual in order to be able
better to guide the stuff, and its leg is jointed so as to produce an
oscillating motion. When it is desired to do the cross stitch or the
over cast stitch, a plate with curved grooves is placed on the back part
of the machine, which forces the connecting rod operating the presser
foot to advance or to retire the required distance, then the presser
foot is carried sideways independant of the motions of ascent and descent
and forwards and backwards. The operating connecting rod is itself
then operated by an oscillating forked contrivance, provided with a roller
on each prong of the fork, the plate with curved grooves mounted on the
shaft of the machine turning between the two prongs of this fork, and
giving the necessary motion to the operating connecting rod of the
presser foot.