IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING MACHINES
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Pickles Binns at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 14th Novem-
ber 1863.
I, JOSEPH PICKLES BINNS, of Guildford Place, Farringdon Road, in the
County of Middlesex, Machinist, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING MACHINES," to be as follows:-
My improvements in sewing machines relate to the class of machine
which perform the work with a needle and a shuttle, and consist in the par-
ticular arrangement of the parts which carry those instruments, as also to the
parts for feeding and holding the material to be sewn, which arrangements are
such that with a single and comparatively inexpensive machine I am enabled to
perform all kinds of work executed by other sewing machines, and also to close
boots and shoes, and otherwise to sew tubular or hollow work with as much
facility as ordinary work, such work, it is well known, being at present only
performed by an expensive machine and at some inconvenience to the operator.
According to my Invention I make a machine which is in appearance some-
what like that known in the trade as Howe's machine, consisting of a table
(on which the work is laid) having an arm raised from it which carries the
cranked lever extending along over the table, and by which the needle carrier
is operated, while the shuttle moves in a chase below the surface of the table
in a direction at right angles to the position of the arm and lever above alluded
to, while immediately in front in the ordinary machine is the feeding wheel
on which the foot presser rests; this also presses on the material being sewn
to hold it down while the needle rises to form the loop, such foot presser being

page_text: close to the work, and, in fact, the needle in many machines passes through it.
I dispose the supporting arm needle carrier, cranked needle lever, and shuttle
in positions precisely as heretofore, but the chase in which the shuttle is sup-
ported and moves is formed in a piece partially detached from the table, that
is to say, a slot or opening is cut in the table on each side of the shuttle race;
these slots proceed from one side of the table and pass across the table to a
greater or lesser extent according to the length of tube or hollow piece it may
be desired to sew, the table being made broad in like proportion; the shuttle
is thus carried within the hollow work it is desired to sew. To render this
practicable, instead of the feed wheel being close up to the shuttle and its axis
beneath it, I reverse its stud or axis and remove the feed wheel forward from
the shuttle to the extent required. I also dispose the foot presser in position
suitable to press on the feed wheel, which is the only office performed by such
foot presser. To hold the cloth or other material down while the needle rises
to form the loop as usual, I employ a second foot presser which holds the
cloth down at such time but ultimately rises with the needle carrier, being
carried up by it to free the material for its onward progress; this action
allows immediate and close inspection of the work, stitch by stitch, as it pro-
gresses. The shuttle being carried in a support and race as described is not
driven directly by the cranked cam lever as usual, but by means of a long rod
placed longitudinally with the shuttle, the back end of which is attached by a
connecting rod to the cam lever before mentioned.
Another part of my Invention relates to the foot or feed presser, and
consists in the application of a swivel thumb-piece to the top of that instru-
ment, which acts as a stop when the presser is raised, and is so connected
with the spring which forces the presser downwards that the tension of the
spring shall be but slightly or not at all affected by being moved from the
upward to the downward position, or vice versa.