IMPROVEMENTS IN MODES OF AND APPARATUS FOR SETTING OR ADJUSTING AND FOR THREADING THE NEEDLES OF SEWING MACHINES
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edmund Squire Norcombe at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 18th January 1876.
1
:
EDMUND SQUIRE NORCOMBE, of 146, Grove, Street, Liverpool, in the County of
Lancaster. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MODES OF AND APPARATUS FOR SETTING OR
ADJUSTING AND FOR THREADING THE NEEDLES OF SEWING MACHINES."
"
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This Invention' consists in arranging a sewing machine or making an independent
appliance so that the needle can be
"set
or adjusted and also threaded with
much less trouble than heretofore, the same mechanism performing both objects.
1st. On the shank of the presser foot I arrange a short stop swivelling loosely on
a portion of the shank turned cylindrical for the purpose, and kept in position by a
spring catch acting in notches in the said stop: This stop is so arranged that when
turned to the back or front it will not interfere with the needle bar or lever, but if
turned so as to project out sideways, it will prevent the needle bar from descending
beyond a fixed point, and will stop it exactly at that point."
2nd. In the presser foot pointing sideways, horizontally straight toward the
needle, I construct a conical groove with the apex at the needle eye.
The upper
quarter of this conical is cut away, and its place supplied by a spring. The positions
of this conical groove and of the stop described in paragraph 1 are so arranged that
the needle must when adjusted be stopped with a stop with its eye exactly opposite
the conical hole. To adjust a fresh needle therefore we have only to put a pin or
fine needle through the conical hole or groove and the needle eye, and bring down
the needle bar to the stop, and then screw the needle tight with the set screw.
Threading the needle is very easy, as the conical groove guides the thread into
the needle eye, & after passing through it is caught by the finger and thumb on
the other side; the thread can then be extracted from the conical groove by letting
it slide out under the steel spring.
3rd. For sewing machines already constructed a portable apparatus can be made
to do the same work as follows:-1st, I construct a bracket with a flat broad top
having a groove to exactly fit the broad part of the needle, forming three quarters
of a circle and extending downward a short distance below; this can be adjusted
by set screw if desirable. The bracket is made of a material of a springy nature,
and the upper and lower parts are in two halves joined in the middle part, and
having a natural tendency to spring together. The foot of this bracket extends
outward so as to come vertically below the groove left for the needle above,
and another vertical groove vertically below the aforesaid one is cut in each half of
T. 077

page_text: the said foot, so that when as is usually the case the two sides press close together,
the two grooves become one vertical hole, usually cut away behind so as to expose
the needle. Horizontally through the foot I pierce a conical hole, one half of it being
cut out of each half of the split foot. This hole is so arranged with reference to the
top of the bracket, that when the later is pressed against the needle bar the eye of
the needle comes exactly opposite tlie conical hole. On the back. or the bottom of
the. bracket I fix a spring grooved so as to press against the point of the needle
below the eye, and exactly regulate its position. I call this the mainspring, a
convenient handle sticking out above the inainspring completes the mechanism.
4th. To apply this apparatus all I have to do is to slide it just over the presser
foot till the smaller diametered part of the pll it touches the bottom of the needle
needle passes. into the upper groove
through the slit; I then raise the apparatus
_bar, by which time the point and the eye have come into position below in the
vertical groove. The needle can now be threaded (or set exactly as in the arrange-
ment first described).
these arrangements, such
5th. Innumerable variation's could be made in either of these aratter
for instance as follows:-The whole bracket could be made in two parts, each side
having a handle pivotted together-in-the-centre like a pair of scrissors or spring
pincers, and with a spring arranged that the natural tendency is for the two halves
of the bracket to be pressing against each other. It can then be pressed against a
needle, the pressure opening the slit sufficient for the needle to pass, closing after it;
the main spring if required could be attached to one of the sides. Again one of the
two sides of the horizontal groove could be hinged below the o other; being xe
spring would keep the hinged side in position: In the detached 'mechanism two
wings of the mainspring grasping the sides would act instead of an extra spring.
One of the two halves of the horizontal hole could be made with a spring, and
parallel motion or a substitute for the said horizontal groove could be stamped out of
flat steel in either one or two pieces, and one or both bent to suit. Any ingenious
man having the ideas above given, could however vary the details ad infinitum
without altering the principle.
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