IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING MACHINES
Year: 1859

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joshua Kidd at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 28th April
1859.
I, JOSHUA KIDD, of Birkenhead, in the County of Chester, Civil Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
SEWING MACHINES," to be as follows:-
My improvements relate to the general construction, arrangement, and
combination of the various working parts of sewing machines, whereby I am
enabled to produce the plain or lock stitch, and also the loop or chain stitch,
in the same machine by means of a slight alteration in its parts. To produce
the plain stitch I have a perpendicular needle slide, moved by a vibrating arm,
on the principle of a bell crank, which is itself moved by means of a crank
pin attached to the main shaft, working in a sickle-shaped slot or cam on the
lower end of the said arm, of which slot the upper half is straight and nearly
perpendicular, and the lower half curved in the same radius as the crank pin
which works in it; by which means the said crank pin performs one quarter of
revolution without moving the said arm. The centre part of the said cam where
the straight part unites with the curved part has a sudden turn outwards
before the radius of the curved part commences, which gives it the sickle
shape, and by which means the needle arm raises the needle sufficiently to
form a loop before it rests to allow for the locking of the stitch. The needle
slide works in suitable grooves in a frame at the end of a fixed arm projecting
over the shuttle plate, the needle arm working on a centre attached to the

page_text: fixed arm, and has a slot at its upper end, by which it works the needle slide,
from which a pin or projection stands out and fits into the said slot. Under
the bed of the machine is a shuttle driver, moving by means of the same crank
pin in suitable grooves; at one end of this driver is a plate projecting down-
wards, in which is a slot or cam formed like the letter J, in which the said
crank pin works. By this arrangement the shuttle driver is propelled out-
wards by the same quarter of a revolution, during which the needle arm rests.
The shuttle moves in a race formed in the shuttle plate, the edges of which
are grooved; the shuttle is formed in the shape of a boat without sides, with
projections similar to keels on its flat and on its round surface, which fit into
the grooves of the race; the shuttle is moved by means of pins fitting into
sockets on the upper side of the shuttle driver. The feed motion is obtained
by means of a perpendicular bar, with a shoe at its base, hanging on a centre
at the back of the needle slide, and is kept down upon the cloth by a spring,
its motion being obtained by a horizontal crank beam fixed above it, which is
moved by the needle arm & needle slide; this beam moves the feeder by
means of a connecting rod. The length of the stitch is regulated by an excentric
guide bar working on a centre, which both guides the feeder and regulates the
length of the stitch. The bobbin to feed the needle is fixed upon the needle
arm, and the thread passes through glass rollers at the lower end of the said
needle arm, and thence to the needle slide, through which it also passes before
it reaches the needle. The loop stitch is obtained by removing the shuttle and
placing a needle in its place, and by giving the same a slight lateral motion.
I claim as new the principle of working the needle and the shuttle by one
crank pin by means of the slots described. Also, the principle of a shuttle
moving in grooves in a race, and supported by the keels described; the
principle of a feeder hanging on a centre and worked by the needle arm and
needle slide; and the principle of the guide bar forming a guide and a
regulator; and I also claim the principle of a machine capable of performing
either kind of stitch, as above described, and the general arrangement of
machinery and parts as herein described and set forth, and which will be more
particularly described in my Complete Specification.