Improvements in Sewing Machines for use in the Manufacture of Boots and Shoes.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 8th Aug., 1893-Accepted, 7th Oct., 1893
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
[Communicated from abroad by JOSEPH ELI BERTRAND, of 54, Lincoln Street,
Boston, in the County of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, United States of
America, Machinist.]
Improvements in Sewing Machines for use in the Manufacture of
Boots and Shoes.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine Lake & Co., Patent Agents,
45 Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, 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:-
This invention relates to sole sewing machines of the class in which curved
needles and awls and rotary shuttles are used. The said invention is an
improvement upon the machine shown and described in the Specification of
British Patent No. 11,015 dated July 15th 1890, and it consists in certain novel
features of construction, arrangement and combination of parts as hereinafter
described.
In the accompanying drawings,
Figure 1 is a plan of the head of a machine embodying this invention.
Figure 2 is a front elevation of the same.
Figure 3 is an end elevation of the same, looking towards the right of
Figure 2.
Figure 4 is a transverse vertical section on line 1, 1 on Figure 2.
Figure 5 is a similar section on line 1, 2, on Figure 2, with some of the parts
beyond not shown.
Figure 6 is a diagram, illustrating the positions of the several parts of the stitch
forming mechanism, when the loop of thread is drawn out below the work, and the
shuttle is commencing to pass through said loop.
Figure 7 is a similar diagram illustrating the position of the loop measuring and
stitch tightening finger when the loop of thread has been drawn out above the work
and the needle is in position to seize the upper thread.
Figure 8 is a similar diagram showing the positions of the same parts when the
stitch has been tightened and the lock of the stitch is drawn into the work.
Figure 9 is a vertical section on line 3, 3 on Figure 4.
Figure 10 is a plan of the loop measuring and stitch tightening finger and its
crosshead, or carrier, removed from its guideway.
Figure 1 is a side elevation of the presser foot and its supporting and operating
ever.
Figures 12 and 13 are respectively a plan and a side elevation of the stay arm
for supporting the needle above the work, and
Figure 14 is a partial sectional plan through the right hand end frame and the
ight hand needle shaft supporting stand and showing the feeding mechanism with
the exception of the cam for operating the same in plan.
In the drawings A is the base plate of the head of the machine B B the end
frames D is the cam shaft having secured thereon the cylinder cams E E' and E'
he cam disks F F F F F and F and the driving wheel G; G' and G* are stands
n the bearings in which is mounted the needle and awl carrying shaft b, and to which
s secured the shuttle-race or bearing G³, all of which, except the cylinder cams E
nd E, are constructed, arranged and operate substantially as in the before recited
Letters Patent.
In the said prior Patent, the shuttle had imparted thereto an intermittent oscil-
ating motion about its axis by means of the cylinder cam E, a cam lever having a

page_text: segment of a gear at one end; the shaft N, the shuttle driver N' and a pinion secured
upon the rear end of said shaft.
In my present invention the shuttle M has imparted thereto an intermittent
rotation about its axis, always in the same direction. To accomplish this I provide
the shuttle operating shaft N with two cranks N₁ and N which are respectively
connected by the links N° and N' to the lower ends of the levers N8 and N° the
upper ends of which are fulcrumed upon some fixed portion of the machine, and are
provided at or near their middle with cam trucks which engage respectively with
the paths of the cylinder cams E and E said cranks being set at right angles to
each other, and the paths in the cams E and E' being so formed and arranged
relative to each other that there can be, practically no dead centre, i.e. one or the
other of said cams will always be acting to advantage upon said shaft except when
the cam trucks are travelling in the straight or stand still portions of the paths of
the cams E and E'.
The shaft N is mounted in bearings N' and N', and N³ is the shuttle carrier of
substantially the same construction as in said prior Patent.
In the said prior Patent the curved awl and needle were arranged side by side
with their piercing ends in the same direction but mounted in separate radius arms
or levers wbich were mounted upon the shaft b so as to be adjustable toward and
from each other, to vary the distance between the perforations made in the
material.
In my present invention the shaft has secured thereon a single radius arm c in
place of the two in said prior Patent, and the needle c' and awl care set in opposite
sides thereof in the same vertical plane and with their piercing ends pointing in
opposite directions so that they enter the work at different times and from opposite
sides, the awl first piercing the material and then the needle entering the hole made
thereby from the opposite side.
The shaft has also mounted loosely thereon the loop spreader e, the needle
guide with the pinion g attached thereto, and has firmly secured thereon the
pinion h for rotating said shaft, and the grooved collar i to serve in connection with
a suitable arm engaging therewith to impart an end wise reciprocation to said shaft
for feeding the shoe or other article being sewed, all substantially as in said prior
Patent.
The shaft balso has loosely mounted thereon the needle stay or supporting
arm the outer end of which has formed therein the slot or groove f³ see
Figure 12 in which the needle lies when the work is being fed, the said outer end
of said stay arm being connected to and movable with the presser foot when said
foot is moved up and down, and at the same time is movable laterally with the
needle and awl and the shaft ö for the purpose of feeding the work when the needle
is in the position shown in Figure 3.
The connection of the stay to the presser-foot / may be accomplished in any
convenient manner but I prefer to form a slot l'in the presser-foot as shown in
Figure 2, and insert the outer end of the stay arm within said slot as shown in
Figures 3 and 5..
By this construction and arrangement of the stay arm f' and presser foot / in
combination with the needle guide f, the needle is firmly supported both below and
above the work at the time when the work is being fed so that it is impossible for
the needle to be sprung out of shape or position by the strain of feeding the work.
This is a very important part of my present invention.
The needle carrying radius arm c the pinion and the collar i are so attached to
the shaft b as to be movable therewith both about its axis or in the direction of its
length while the needle guide f, the stay arm f', and the loop spreader e are so
mounted on said shaft as to be freely movable about the same, and at the same time
movable with said shaft in the direction of its length.
An oscillating motion is imparted to the shaft and the needle arm c, by means
of the lever H provided with the toothed segment H', and the cam F', as in the said
former Patent.

page_text: The needle guide fis independently oscillated by the lever I having the toothed
segment I¹ to engage the pinion g, and the cam F³ as in said prior Patent.
In the prior Patent cited the presser-foot was attached directly to a vertically
reciprocated bar and was movable only vertically or in a direction tangential to the
curve of the movement of the needle and awl.
That arrangement was satisfactory for certain kinds of work as the sewing of the
outer sole of a boot to the welt after said welt, inner sole and the upper were
secured together, but it has been found by practical test that in performing some
kinds of work, viz.: the sewing on of the soles of turned shoes or sewing welts to
inner soles a better result can be obtained by having the presser-foot arranged to
move in an are of a circle approximately the same as that in which the needle and
awl move.
To accomplish this the presser-foot is secured to or formed in one piece with
the lever or arm J provided with a hub J', which is mounted upon the shaft b with
said hub J fitted to a bearing in the stand G2 concentric with the axis of said
shaft 6, said arm J being connected to the stand G2 by means of the nut e¹ so that
it cannot be moved in the direction of the length of said shaft b when the work is
being fed, while it is free to be moved about the axis of said shaft to lift or depress
the presser-foot.
The rear end of the lever J has pivoted thereto one end of the link C', Figure 4,
the other end of which is pivoted to the rear end of the lever C³ fulcrumed at d
and pivoted at its front end to the lower end of the bar 12, mounted in a vertical
position in a bearing in the tie girt C and movable vertically by the lever K and
spring K' substantially as in said prior Patent.
The bar is held in place in its bearing by the cap C³ and has secured to
opposite sides thereof two steel blocks and in the rear faces of which are cut
ratchet teeth with their engaging shoulders facing downwards with which the
pawls mand m' respectively engage at different times, according to the thickness of
the work beneath the presser-foot, to automatically raise said bar 12 and thereby
cause the presser foot to be raised from the work moving in a path concentric to
the axis of motion of the needle and awl.
In the machine shown and described in the before mentioned prior patent the two
blocks and were provided with ratchet teeth the shoulders of which faced in
opposite directions, one of said ratchets being used to raise the presser-foot and the
other to lock it against any possibility of its being lifted at certain times, and the
pawls were of the simple form having only one engaging point each.
This has been found to be unsatisfactory because, in order to provide for
the variations in the thickness of stock, the teeth were necessarily too fine, and
the pawls were not strong enough to be durable.
To obviate this objection, two pawls pivoted upon opposite sides of the lever L
are used, each provided with a series of teeth corresponding to the teeth on the
bars and the shoulders of the teeth on both pawls facing upward and so
arranged relative to the teeth on the ratchets that when the teeth of one pawl are
in engagement with the teeth of its ratchet the shoulder of the teeth on the other
pawl will be removed from contact with the shoulders of the teeth of its ratchet a
distance equal to one-half the distance between two shoulders of said ratchet, and
vice versa, said lever being operated by the action of the path in the side of the cam
disk F as in said prior Patent.
To lock the presser foot against being lifted when not required, a steel block n
having a series of serrations or ratchet teeth formed in its rear face and extending
transversely thereof is set in the rear face of the bar near its lower end, with
which the locking bolt n', having formed in its front end a corresponding series of
teeth, engages said bolt being mounted in a horizontal position in bearings in the
tie girt Cand having secured thereon the collar between which and the front
part of said tie girt said bolt is surrounded by the spiral spring ³ the tension of
which tends to move said bolt away from the block n.
The bolt also has loosely fitted thereou the collar n between which an the

page_text: fixed collar n² is placed a spring n³ said collar n' being engaged by the forked
upper end of the arm d¹ of the lever D' mounted upon stud d² set in the tie C³ of
the girt C as shown in Figures 4 and 9.
The other arm d³ of the lever D' bears against and is acted upon by the cam
projection D' on the periphery of the cam disk F to force said locking bolt into
engagement with the toothed block n, with a yielding pressure, as shown in
Figure 4.
The pawls m and m¹ are pressed towards the ratchet blocks and 1 by
springs m² and m³ respectively and are held out of engagement with the teeth of
said blocks, when in certain positions, by the pin m' set in the stands m* and m
and extending between said pawls and ratchet blocks as shown in Figures 1,
2, and 4.
This construction, arrangement and operation of the presser-foot, and the means
of locking the same constitute other important parts of this present invention.
In the machine described in the said prior Patent the work was fed while the
needle and awl were in the work, but in the present invention only the needle is in
the work when it is fed, and the feeding of the work is accomplished by moving
the shaft end wise in its bearings through the medium of the cam E', the
lever T, the sliding plate R, the arm R' and the grooved collar i and the length of
the stitch is varied by means of the lever R, the lever T provided with the
segmental slots, the block 8, the segmental ratchet R³, the pawl r³, the sliding
plate R and the arm R', all as in said prior Patent.
P1 is the take up lever constructed and arranged, and operated by the cam
disk Fas, in said prior Patent.
The thread tension wheel 9 is constructed and arranged, and locked against
rotation by means of the lever Q, pawl y' and cam F4, substantially as in said prior
Patent.
The work supporting arm ; and the thread carrier ³ are constructed, mounted
and operate substantially as in said prior Patent.
The loop measuring and stitch tightening finger V is formed as shown in
Figures 5 and 10 and is secured in the crosshead U fitted to and movable endwise
in the dovetailed guideway t in the stand U₁ secured to and pendant from the tie
girt C, said crosshead having pivoted thereto one end of the rod t, the opposite end
of which is adjustably pivoted to the slotted lower end of the lever V, the upper
end of which is pivoted to the upper end of the stand V1, firmly bolted to the rear
edge of the bed A, said lever V having mounted upon a stud set therein, between
its two ends, a cam truck which fits into and is acted upon by the path u¹ of the
cam disk Fall as shown in Figure 5.
In the prior Patent cited the loop measuring finger was pivoted to its crosshead
Bo as to be vibrated about its pivotal connection thereto said crosshead being
mounted in a guideway formed in the bed, and was reciprocated with a constant
and uniform throw by a lever and cam, the length of said throw depending upon
the adjustment of the rod t on the slotted lower end of the lever V, the
cam-path having only one outward and one inward throw, said throws being of
equal length, the stitch being tightened by the pull of the take-up lever P¹.
It has been found by actual test, that, in order to properly tighten the stitch and
draw the lock of the stitch into the work so as to show a fair stitch on both sides
of the work it is better to apply the power to do this to the thread at a point much
nearer the work than the end of the take-up lever, and to accomplish this the loop
measuring finger Va is shaped and mounted as shown in Figures 5 and 10 and has
mounted in its hook end the small grooved sheave the grooved periphery of
which engages the thread to pull out the loop above the work as shown in
Figures 6, 7 and 8.
The path u' of the cam F is provided with two outward throws u² and ³ and
two inward throws u and us, the throw u serving to draw out, and determine the
length of, the loop of thread above the work and the throw 3 serving to impart a
shorter rearward movement of said finger to the position as shown in Figure 8, for

page_text: the purpose of tightening the stitch and drawing its lock into the centre of the
work, this being done after the take-up lever has drawn up the slack of the lower
loop, and while the tension wheel g is locked by the pawl q3 and the take-up lever
is held firmly in its raised position by the cam for operating it.
This is another important feature of this invention and is a great advantage in
that the stitch can be drawn much tighter, without injury to the thread, than by
the take-up lever, as in said prior Patent.
The operation of this invention will be readily understood from the foregoing
without further description here.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me
by my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is :-
1st. In a sewing machine the combination with a needle constructed and
arranged to enter the work and then be moved laterally to feed the work, and
mechanism for moving said needle laterally; of a needle guide on the side of the
work that the needle enters the same, and a needle stay or support upon the
opposite side of the work said guide and stay both being movable laterally with
the needle.
2nd. In a sewing machine the combination with a work support and a presser-
foot, of a needle constructed and arranged to enter the work from the side that
rests upon the work support and a needle stay or supporting arm upon the opposite
side of the work and constructed and arranged to be moved laterally with said
needle to feed the work.
3rd. The combination of a work support; a needle constructed and arranged to
enter the work at the side thereof that rests upon said work support; a presser-foot
constructed and arranged to press upon the side of the work opposite to said work
support; a needle stay or support upon the same side of the work as, and connected
to, the presser-foot, so as to be movable therewith when said presser-foot is raised
or depressed and adapted to be moved laterally independently of said presser-foot
and means having provision for moving said needle and needle stay laterally to feed
the work.
4th. The combination in a sewing machine of a needle and awl operating shaft
mounted in bearings so as to be revoluble and movable end wise therein; a single
radius arm or segment formed in one piece with or firmly secured to said shaft so
as to be revoluble and movable end wise therewith; a curved needle mounted in and
projecting from one side of said arm or segment; a curved awl mounted in and
projecting from the opposite side of said arm or segment; a grooved collar fixed
on said shaft, a loop spreader and two needle guides or supports mounted on said
shaft and movable about its axis said needle guides or supports being arranged
upon opposite sides of the work; a shipper arm engaging said grooved collar;
means having provision for reciprocating said shipper arm to move said shaft
end wise and mechanism for oscillating said shaft to cause the needle and awl to
alternately pierce the work.
5th. In a sewing machine the combination with a work support and presser foot,
a needle and awl constructed and arranged to be reciprocated about a common axis
and a rotary shuttle; of a loop measuring and stitch tightening finger mounted in
a reciprocating cross-head; a pivoted lever; a link connecting said cross-head to
the movable end of said pivoted lever, and a cam provided with a path having two
outward and two inward throws adapted to impart to said looper finger a long and
short rearward and forward reciprocation.
6th. The combination with a curved needle constructed and arranged to
reciprocate in an are of a circle, of a lever mounted upon and movable about the
same shaft as said needle; a presser-foot secured to said lever and movable there-
with; a second lever fulcrumed upon a fixed part of the machine; a link connecting
the rear ends of said two levers; a vertically movable bar pivoted at its lower end
to said second lever; means for automatically lifting said bar and through it the

page_text: presser-foot; and means having provision for automatically locking said bar and
presser-foot in position to clamp the work.
7th. The coinbination with a curved needle constructed and arranged to be
reciprocated in an arc of a circle, of the levers J and C2; the link C₁; the presser
foot carried by the lever J and movable in a plane concentric to the axis of
motion of said needle; the bar 12 provided with the lifting ratchets and 1 and
the toothed locking block n and connected at its lower end to the lever C²; the
lever L the lifting pawls m and m' carried by said lever L; the cam F for
operating said lever; the locking bolt n' and means having provision for automati-
cally reciprocating said bolt to lock and unlock the presser-foot.
8th. In combination with a vertically reciprocating presser-foot operating bar;
a toothed surface formed upon or secured to said bar; the locking bolt n'; the
fixed collar n the loose collar nt and the springs n' and no all mounted on said bolt ;
the elbow lever D¹; and the cam D all constructed and arranged to operate
substantially as described.
5434
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.