IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING MACHINES
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Arthur Charles Henderson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 2nd
October 1867.-A communication from abroad by Benoni Jones and
Alexandre Rouyer, both of Paris, in the Empire of France.
I, ARTHUR CHARLES HENDERSON, of No. 31, Charing Cross, in the County
of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING MACHINES," a communication from abroad
by Benoni Jones and Alexandre Rouyer, both of Paris, in the Empire of
France, to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to produce with one machine all the various
species of stitches at present known, that is to say, the chain, the lock, and the
shuttle stitch.
The apparatus, as usual, is mounted on a table standing on cast-iron feet,
and supported by a cast-iron plate with openings therein for the play of the
various parts. In the centre of the table is a shaft cushion bearing the pivot
of a semicircular batten or frame, at the upper end of which the needle is
fixed; this batten is connected to the pivot by means of a curved arm forming
part of the batten, near the centre of this latter is a slot, through which the
driving shaft passes, on this the several parts necessary for working the
machine are mounted. In the first place it bears an eccentric ring to which
a rod is connected, the opposite end of which is attached to a small shaft
having a socket, and fixed to the semicircular frame, producing an alternate
movement of the needle and shuttle. At the lower extremity of the batten &

page_text: concentric slide bar is attached, in the slot of which a small roller runs,
connected to a lever turning on a pivot; the upper end of the lever is furnished
with an opening acting on a pin fixed on the shuttle carriage. The peculiar
form of the slide bar gives to the roller and lever at each revolution of the
eccentric a horizontal and intermittent backward and forward motion, which
is communicated by the lever to the shuttle carriage, and consequently to the
shuttle itself. The peculiar form of the semicircular frame or batten renders
it perfectly equipoise, no matter what its position. The shuttle works in a
slide block fixed on the one hand to the bed or plate of the machine, and on
the other to the sewing plate, the latter being attached to the machine by
means of a support which will be mentioned hereafter. The front of the slide
block is provided with a groove, in which two shafts slide fixed on the shuttle
carriage, and passing one before and the other bebind the shuttle, to guide it
in its horizontal backward and forward motion. The front slide has a spring
piece entering an opening made in the shuttle, allowing it a certain play in its
course, and at the same time prevents its escaping the shuttle when the back-
ward movement takes place. The object of this arrangement is to let the
thread of the needle pass round the shuttle when the latter moves forward to
enter the loop of thread formed by the needle, the curved form of which
facilitates the formation of the loop, since the thread acts the part of cord to
the bow formed by the needle, permitting the shuttle and hook to catch the
thread without hindering the progress of the needle or loosening the thread.
The rack is borne on a kind of plate sliding on a block support, bearing the
sewing plate. The rack plate is secured on one side by a screw passing
through a slide, and on the other by a square screwed to the bed plate; a
spiral spring is attached to the screw and to a pin on the plate, which is
furnished with a buffer resting against a small eccentric fixed at the end of
the driving shaft. At the opposite end of this buffer is an adjustable slide
plate acting as a counter buffer on the same eccentric; its regulation is effected
by means of a nut screw working in the plate forcing the slide to advance or
recede as desired to suit the length of the stitch required, so as to regulate the
same whilst the machine is in motion. The hook is invariably fixed at the
end of the driving shaft, and should be fixed at a certain angle, so as to catch
the thread exactly at the proper time. An opening is made in the slide block
of the shuttle to leave room for its rotation. The click piece, which is
movable is fixed at the lower end of a spring shaft enclosed in a box, which is
maintained by an iron support fixed on the bed plate. The thread is delivered
from a large bobbin mounted on a shaft fixed at the end of the table, and
passing through a guide borne by a support supplied with glass pullies and

page_text: springs; from thence it passes over a second guide fixed at the top of the
batten, and then to a third attached to the click support, from whence it
passes to the needle guide at the end of the batten.
It will be seen by the foregoing description that when the batten descends
the thread is drawn at the same time by the needle and guide, which forces it
to wind, but as soon as the batten rises the thread, requiring to be sufficiently
loosened to admit of the passage of the shuttle, is slackened till the shuttle has
passed and re-tightened in the descent of the batten.
Motion is communicated to the machine by means of a fly wheel worked
with a pedal commanding the pulley of the driving shaft.
In lieu of the ordinary crank the wheel is furnished with two buttons or
knobs, both out of the centre of the pivot, in such wise that the pedal works
twice to each revolution of the wheel, which causes it to work easily and
noiselessly, which cannot be done with the ordinary wooden or iron pedal in
connection with the driving wheel as at present employed.