Improvements in the Manufacture of Hat Leathers or Sweat Bands, and in Apparatus Employed in such Manufacture.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 22nd "ec., 1893
Complete Specification Left, 12th July, 1894-Accented, 25th Aug.,
1894
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Hat Leathers or Sweat Bands,
and in Apparatus Employed in such Manufacture.
We GEORGE WORSLEY Junior, and JOSEPH BRELSFORD of the Firm of
Worsley and Brelsford, Manufacturers, ALBERT ERNEST WORSLEY Commercial
Traveller, all of Cross Gate Works Audenshaw near Manchester in the County of
Lancaster, and FRANCIS CREE Junior, Machinist, of 211 Hyde Road, Haughton,
Denton, in the County of Lancaster, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
to be as follows:-
1
This invention relates to such sweat bands (for silk hats, felt hats, straw hats
and other head gear) as are provided with an edging formed of a reed or spring
attached to the edge of the said sweat band by a folded covering strip of woven
material as described in the Specification of Letters Patent granted to William
Morgan Brown No. 69 dated the 5th day of January 1878 and to Henri Adrian
Bonneville No. 102 dated the 9th day of January 1879.
The object of this invention is to improve the method of and means for attaching
the trimming or spring edging to the leather sweat bands of hats, and to render the
trimming of such sweat bands more economical than heretofore, and to dispense
with the necessity for bevilling the edge of the leather and thus reducing its
width.
It has hitherto been the custom, in stitching the edging to leather sweat bands,
to use a sewing machine with two needles which form two rows of stitches, the one
through the leather and the folded covering strip of the reed or spring, and the
other through the said covering just beyond the edge of the said leather.
According to this invention however we use a machine of special construction
These pass
which has only one needle and which makes only one row of stitches.
through the leather and the cover of the reed or spring close to the latter, which
during the sewing is situated below the stitching, and can be turned over afterwards
so as to extend beyond the edge of the leather, as hereafter described. The stitch
is not a plain stitch but the loop formed by the needle as hereafter described
is caught, by a suitable hook, from beneath the leather and brought round the edge
of the leather and the reed cover and carried by a second hook into such a position
that the needle will at its next descent pass through the reed cover, and the leather,
in the "bight" of the loop, which it will thus lock round the edge of the leather,
and the next loop formed by the needle will be brought round the edge of the
As the row of
leather to be locked by the next descent of the needle, and so on.
stitching is quite near to the edge of the leather and the loops above described
enclose the edges of the reed cover, it will be evident that the latter is much
narrower than where two rows of stitching are made through the said cover and the
edges thereof are extended beyond the inner row; thus a great saving of the
covering material is effected, little more thau one half of the width hitherto
necessary being required for our improved method.
We also prefer so to form the guide for the reed and the cover that the lower
edge of the latter extends beyond the upper edge, and the passing of the loop from
beneath the leather will curl or double the lower edge over the upper edge, and
thus the raw edges of the covering material (which is a strip cut from a piece of

page_text: suitable fabric) will be protected by our invention, whereas the edges beyond the
stitching have hitherto been left raw.
Or the guide may be made to fold-in the raw edges of the covering strip either
inwards or outwards, or to fold one edge over the other, to be so fastened by the
stitching.
Hitherto also it has been customary to cut the strips of covering fabric at
a considerable angle (say 45°) across the piece, so that when the edge of the
leather is flanged the fabric can expand or yield to any extent according to the
stretching of the leather. Hence if the leather is unequal in thickness the stretch-
ing is unequal and this inequality is sometimes visible and unsightly.
We however propose to cut the strips of covering fabric at angles varying
according to the amount of stretch required, and instead of flanging the leather we
stretch the fabric by a mechanism hereafter described after it is attached to
the leather, and the stitching will cause the latter to stretch evenly with the
fabric.
The machinery or apparatus which we use for the above described "process is
constructed as follows.
The needle of the sewing machine is fixed in a vertically sliding needle bar
actuated by a crank plate on the driving shaft as usual. The needle plate
however is slotted, and an opening is made through the bed plate of the machine so
that a hook can pass through the same.
This hook is slightly curved and provided with a suitable slot extending from
about the centre towards the upper end, the latter being attached to one end of a
suitable rocking lever mounted upon a horizontal pivot. At the other end of this
lever is a bowl actuated by a cam mounted on the main shaft of the sewing
machine.
A fixed pin or stud passes through the slot in the hook and thus as the latter is
depressed by the lever and cam aforesaid, its hooked end will pass through the bed
of the machine and move forward through a loop in the thread which has been
formed by the descent and partial ascent of the needle. The hook then catches
this loop of thread, and is brought back and above the needle and bed plates
by means of the cam above named.
A second hook carried upon an arm which is fixed upon a vertical rocking spindle
is now moved by the said spindle sideways so as to remove the loop of thread from
the first hook, this rocking motion of the spindle being obtained by a lever thereon
provided with a bowl actuated by a second cam on the main shaft of the machine.
A projection from the face of this cam then pushes a sliding rod forwards and the
other end of this sliding rod pushes forwards a lever held against it by a suitable
spring. The end of this last named lever works in a slot or opening in (or is
otherwise connected to) a sliding rod or bar to which the second named hook is
attached and which is carried in a suitable slide or groove in the arm which
is mounted on the vertical rocking spindle above described.
This sliding rod or bar carries the second hook with the loop or thread forwards
beyond the needle, which is at that moment raised. The rocking arm then causes
the book to move slightly so that the needle in its descent will pass through the
loop. The hook is then withdrawn (by the sliding and rocking notions) from the
loop which is thus locked by the stitch of the needle.
The sewing thread before passing the eye of the needle is taken between the
needle bar and a spring lever which holds it when the needle is down so that
the loop can be formed ready for the first hook to catch it.
When however the
needle bar is raised this spring lever comes against a fixed projection which pushes
it away and allows the sewing thread to be loose so that the said hook can draw up
the loop.
We also use a circular feed motion constructed as follows:- Upon a suitable stud
mounted at a slight angle (to a horizontal line) upon a fixed bracket in front of
the needle bar, we mount a feed disc the lower edge of which inclines slightly
towards the needle and is milled or roughened to act upon the leather sweat band

page_text: and recessed at its inner side to allow for the thickness of the covered reed or
spring.
This feed disc holds the leather down in a recess in the needle plate, which is so
situated that the edge of the leather with the reed and its cover is inclined
upwards towards the needle and the latter will penetrate the leather obliquely.
The result of this will be that when the covered reed is turned back after the
stitching is completed the thread will hold the edge of the leather snugly down
against the covering material and the bevilling of the edge of the leather and the
consequent reduction of the width of the same will not be requisite.
We impart an intermittent rotary motion to the feed disc to feed the leather past
the needle preferably by the following means.
Upon the end of a lever mounted on the stud which carries the feed disc
we mount an eccentric provided with an arm extending from the centre of the feed
dise and suitably connected to a cum, which when the feed motion is to be worked
raises the arm and causes the eccentric to wedge against the edge of a circular
ridge or shoulder formed on or attached to the feed disc, which will thus be caused
by the further rising of the arm to make part of a revolution (as the centre thereof
will become the fulcrum) and feed forward the leather band ready for the
next stitch.
As soon as the cam begins to lower the arm the eccentric is unlocked from
the disc which holds the leather until the arm is raised again.
When the reed cover has been stitched as above described to the whole length of
the leather sweat band the reed is turned over so that the edge over the cover will
lie somewhat behind the edge of the leather and the reed will form a continuation
thereof at a slight distance therefrom.
The trimmed edge of the leather is then passed between two revolving discs of
different diameters and so coned that the leather is not touched thereby but
the doubled reed cover is nipped between them and stretched; the effect of so
stretching the reed cover will be that the stitching will stretch the leather as
before described evenly throughout the whole edge and the sweat band will
thus fit closely to the hat and more evenly than when the leather is flanged for this
purpose.
.
1000
GEO. DAVIES & SON,
4, St. Ann's Square, Manchester, Agents for the Applicants.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Hat Leathers or Sweat Bands,
and in Apparatus Employed in such Manufacture.
We GEORGE WORSLEY Junior, and JOSEPH BRELSFORD of the Firm of
Worsley and Brelsford, Manufacturers, ALBERT ERNEST WORSLEY Commercial
Traveller, all of Cross Gate Works Audenshaw near Manchester in the County of
Lancaster, and FRANCIS CREE Junior, Machinist of 211 Hyde Road Haughton,
Denton in the County of Lancaster, 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 such sweat bands (for silk hats, felt hats, straw hats and
other head gear) as are provided with an edging formed of a reed or spring attached
to the edge of the said sweat band by a folded covering strip of woven material as
described in the Specification of Letters Patent granted to William Morgan
Brown No. 69 dated the 5th day of January 1878 and to Henri Adrien Bonneville
No. 102 dated the 9th day of January 1879.
The object of this invention is to improve the method of and means for attaching
the trimming or spring edging to the leather sweat bands of hats, and to render the

page_text: trimming of such sweat bands more economical than heretofore and to dispense with
the necessity for bevilling the edge of the leather and thus reducing its width.
Our invention will be readily understood from the following description on
reference to the accompanying drawings.
On Sheet 1 Fig. 1 represents in perspective part of a hat leather with the edging
partly sewn thereon.
Fig. 1ª is a similar view of part of the leather with the edging sewn on and
turned over as hereafter described.
Figs. 2, 24, 25, 2, 2", illustrate methods of turning in the raw edge of the reed
cover hereafter more particularly referred to. Fig. 2 shews a detached section
of the guide necessary to deliver the reed and cover in the manner seen at
Figs. 1 and 2.
Fig. 3 is an elevation showing means for flanging or stretching the edge of the
leather after the edging has been applied thereto.
On Sheet 2 Fig. 4 is an elevation partly in section and Fig. 5 a sectional plan
view of a machine for sewing the edging to the leather.
Figs. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 are views of detached parts hereafter
more particularly referred to.
"
On the drawings the Figs. 1 to 3 inclusive are drawn upon an enlarged or
exaggerated scale and Figs. 6, 9, 10, 11 and 15 are drawn full size the other figs.
being drawn to a smaller scale.
It has hitherto been the custom, in stitching the edging to leather sweat bands,
to use a sewing machine with two needles which form two rows of stitches, the one
through the leather and the folded covering strip of the reed or spring, and the
other through the said covering just beyond the edge of the said leather.
C
According to this invention however we use a machine of special construction
which has only one needle and which makes only one row of stitches. These pass
through the leather a and the cover of the reed or spring c close to the latter,
which during the sewing is situated below the stitching, as seen at Fig. 1 and cau
be turned over afterwards (see Fig. 1^) so as to extend beyond the edge of the
leather a as hereafter described. The stitch is not a plain stitch but the loop
formed by the needle as hereafter described is caught, by a suitable hook, from
beneath the leather and brought round the edge of the leather a and the reed
cover b and carried by a second hook into such a position that the needle will at its
next descent pass through the reed cover, and the leather in the bight of the loop,
which it will thus lock round the edge of the leather, and the next loop formed by
the needle will be brought round the edge of the leather to be locked by the next
descent of the needle, and so on, as will be readily understood on reference to
Fig. 1. As the row of stitching is quite near to the edge of the leather and the
loops above described enclose the edges of the reed cover, it will be evident that
the latter is much narrower than where two rows of stitching are made through the
said cover, and the edges thereof are extended beyond the inner row; thus a great
saving of the covering material is effected, little more than one half of the width
hitherto necessary being required for our improved method.
с
We also prefer so to form the guide e, see Fig. 2*, for the reed c and the cover b
that the lower edge of the latter extends beyond the upper edge, (as seen at Fig. 2
and the right hand end of Fig. 1) and the passing of the loop from beneath the
leather a will curl or double the lower edge over the upper edge as will be seen
clearly on Fig. 1 and thus the raw edges of the covering material 6 (which is a
strip cut from a piece of suitable fabric) will be protected by our invention, whereas
the edges beyond the stitching have hitherto been left raw.
Or the guide may be made as will be readily understood by competent sewing
machine mechanics to fold-in the raw edges of the covering strip either inwards
see Figs. 24, 2B, 2°, or outwards see Fig. 2b, or to fold one edge over the other to be
so fastened by the stitching.
Hitherto also it has been customary to cut the strips of covering fabric at a con-
siderable angle (say 45°) across the piece, so that when the edge of the leather is

page_text: Hanged the fabric can expand or yield to any extent according to the stretching of
the leather. Hence if the leather is unequal in thickness the stretching is unequal
and this inequality is sometimes visible and unsightly.
We however propose to cut the strips of covering fabric at angles varying
according to the amount of stretch required, and instead of flanging the leather we
stretch the fabric by a mechanism hereafter described after it is attached to the
leather, and the stitching will cause the latter to stretch evenly with the fabric.
The machinery or apparatus which we use for the above described process is
constructed as follows:-
The needle of the sewing machine is fixed in a vertically sliding needle bar fi
actuated by a crank plate on the driving shaft as usual, or by any convenient
means. The needle plate g however is slotted and an opening is made through the
bed plate of the machine so that a hook i can pass through the same, see Fig. 5.
The book i is slightly curved and provided with a suitable slot it extending from
about the centre towards the upper end, the latter being attached to one end of a
suitable rocking lever & mounted upon a horizontal pivot at k+. At the other end
of this lever is a bowl k¹ actuated by a cam ³ mounted on the main shaft 7 of the
sewing machine.
A fixed pin or stud passes through the slot it in the hook i and thus as the
latter is depressed by the lever k and cam kaforesaid, its hooked end will pass
through the bed of the machine and move forward in order to catch into a loop
in the thread which has been formed by the descent and partial ascent of the
needle, see detached view Fig. 6. The hook i then catches this loop of thread
and is brought back and above the needle and bed plates by means of the cam k³
abovenamed into the position shewn by dotted lines on Fig. 4.
A second hook m carried upon an arm m³ which is fixed upon a vertical rocking
spindle m² (see also Fig. 5 and detached view Fig. 7) is now moved by the said
spindle sideways so as to pull the upper part of the loop of thread from the first
hook, this rocking motion of the spindle m² being obtained by a lever m³ thereon
provided with a bowl m' actuated by a second cam m on the main shaft of the
machine. A projection from the face of this cam or by preference another cam m®
on the shaft then pushes forwards a lever m' (shewn also detached at Fig. 8) held
against the said cam m if required by a suitable spring m. This last named
lever m² is connected to a sliding rod or bar m' to which the second named hook m
is attached and which is carried in a suitable slide groove or socket in the arm m¹
which is mounted on the vertical rocking spindle m³ above described.
This sliding rod or bar m³, which is at first in the position shewn on Fig. 5 and
detached diagram or plan view Fig. 9, carries the second hook m and with it the
upper part of loop of thread a forwards beyond the needle f, see diagram or plan
Fig. 10, which is at that moment raised. The rocking arm m' then causes the
book m to move slightly into the position shewn by Fig. 11 so that the needle ƒ in
its descent will pass through the loop. The hook m is then withdrawn (by the
sliding and rocking motions) from the loop . which is thus locked by the stitch of
the needle f.
The sewing thread before passing the eye of the needle is taken between the
needle bar and a spring lever f (see detached elevation Fig. 12 and plan
Fig. 13) which holds it when the needle f is down, so that the loop can be formed
ready for the first hook i to catch it. When however the needle bar f' is raised
this spring lever comes against a fixed projection (see Fig. 12) which pushes
it away and allows the sewing thread to be loose so that the said hook i can draw
up the loop x.
Any suitable feed motion may be applied to this machine but we propose to use
a circular feed motion constructed as follows:-Upon a suitable stud n mounted in
a hinged bearing n at a slight angle (to the horizontal line) see Fig. 4 and
detached view Fig. 14 upon a fixed bracket n' in front of the needle bar f1 we
mount a feed disc o the lower edge of which inclines slightly towards the needle f
see Fig. 4 and is milled or roughened to act upon the leather or sweat band and

page_text: recessed at its inner side as seen at o' to allow for the thickness of the covered
reed or spring.
This feed disc holds the leather down in a shallow recess in or against a slightly
raised part of the needle plate (as seen at Fig. 15) which is so situated that the
edge of the leather a with the reed c and its cover is inclined upwards towards
the needle and the latter will penetrate the leather a obliquely.
The result of this will be that when the covered reed is turned back after the
stitching is completed the thread will hold the edge of the leather snugly down
against the covering material and the bevilling of the edge of the leather and the
consequent reduction of the width of the same will not be requisite.
We impart an intermittent rotary motion to the feed disc o to feed the leather
past the needle preferably by the following means.
Upon a stud at the end of a lover p mounted on the stud n which carries the
feed disc owe mount an eccentric p+ provided with an arm p¹ extending away from
the centre of the feed disc and suitably connected to a cam 9 (say by a lever p³
and link p as shewn) which when the feed motion is to be worked raises the arm p¹
and causes the eccentric p to wedge against the edge of a circular ridge or
shoulder o formed on or attached to the feed disc o, which will thus be caused by
the further rising of the arm p² to make part of a revolution (as the centre thereof
will become the fulcrum) and feed forward the leather band ready for the next
stitch.
As soon as the cam g begins to lower the arm p' the eccentric p is unlocked from
the disc o which holds the leather until the arm p' is raised again.
When the reed cover has been stitched as above described to the whole length
of the leather or sweat band a the reed c is turned over, so that the edge of the
cover b will lie behind or beneath the edge of the leather a as seen at Fig. 1ª and
the reed c will form a continuation thereof at a slight distance therefrom.
The trimmed edge of the leather a is then passed between two revolving discs rr
of different diameters which are so coned (see Fig. 3) that the leather a is not
touched thereby, but the doubled reed cover bis nipped between them and stretched ;
the fabric expanding in length over the reed which is enclosed therein; the effect
of so stretching the reed cover will be that the stitching will stretch the leather
as before described evenly throughout the whole edge, and the sweat band will
thus fit closely to the hat, and more evenly than when the leather is flanged for
this purpose.
We would remark in conclusion that the principal feature of our invention
consists in attaching a reed or cord to a sweat band by means of a machine
with a single needle and a single thread, thereby dispensing with the use of a
shuttle to obtain a lock stitch and enabling the other parts of our improved process
to be performed, and at the same time saving material and increasing the power of
production.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention and in what manner the same, is to be performed we declare that what
we claim is :-
1. Stitching a cord or edging to a hat leather or sweat band by a single needle
and thread making a single row of stitches, by bringing a loop passed through the
leather or sweat band and the cord or edging from beneath the said leather or
sweat band into such a position that the next stitch or loop is passed through the
said loop and so on throughout the length of the said leather or sweat band.
2. Stitching a reed or spring enclosed in a strip of suitable woven fabric to a hat
leather or sweat band by a single thread and single row of stitches substantially as
herein set forth, the said reed or spring being inside the said row of stitches which
are such that the reed or spring can be and is then turned over bringing the edges
of the covering strip behind or beneath the leather or sweat band substantially as
herein before set forth.
3. Stitching a reed or spring enclosed in a strip of suitable woven fabric to a hat

page_text: leather or sweat band by a single thread and single row of stitches, substantially as
herein set forth, the said reed or spring being inside the said row of stitches which
are such that the reed or spring can be and is then turned over bringing the edges
of the covering strip behind or beneath the leather or sweat band, the covering
fabric being cut at a suitable angle or bias so that it can be stretched in order to
stretch the leather or band to the desired extent by means of the stitching
substantially as herein before set forth.
4. The improved apparatus for attaching edging to hat leathers or sweat bands
constructed substantially as hereinbefore described and illustrated by the annexed
drawings.
5. In machines for attaching edgings to sweat bands the combination of the
single needle and the two hooks actuated and operating substantially as and for
the purposes herein before described and illustrated by the annexed drawings.
6. In machines for attaching edgings to sweat bands a feed wheel or disc
constructed and actuated substantially as herein before described and illustrated by
the annexed drawings.
7. The improved rollers for stretching the edge of the hat leather or sweat band
so fornied as to grip and stretch the reed cover instead of acting upon the leather
or sweat band substantially as hereinbefore described and illustrated by the annexed
drawings.
8. A hat leather or sweat band provided with an edging attached thereto in the
manner substantially as hereinbefore set forth.
ני.
1004
GEO. DAVIES & SON,
4, St. Ann's Square, Manchester, Agents for the Applicants.