IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING MACHINES.
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Bolton Giffen and Joseph
Dold at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 22nd October
1881.
THOMAS BOLTON GIFFEN and JOSEPH DOLD, both of Glasgow, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain. "IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING MACHINES.
"
This said Invention has reference to special improvements upon and additions to
the mechanism of sewing machines for sewing button holes, and especially to those
mechanical motions and machines in which the sewing is completed along the two
sides and ends of the part of the cloth or article of clothing where the button
hole is required, first, before actually cutting the hole in the centre between the
rows of sewing; and the present improvements are for the purpose of making the
button hole mechanism of these sewing machines perform the sewing accurately
round the edges of the button holes after they have been cut, preferably before
being placed in the machine to get sewn, which improvements enable such button
hole sewing mechanism and machines to work or make the sewing much more
neatly and firm round the button holes than heretofore.
In these sewing machines the part of the article or fabric where and in which
the button hole is to be sewn, is placed as near as possible by sight over a thin
carrying and moving plate close over the needle hole in the upper sewing bed-
plate of the machine, where it is secured to the reciprocating feeding arm of the
machine, also carrying a spring pressing gripper or foot, which secures the fabric
while sewing to the thin moving feed-plate under the needle, both the plate and
gripping foot having slots in them as long and wide as the sewing of the largest
button hole to be made in the machine for the needle to pass down through for sewing
the two rows of stitching from the upper side while being traversed backward
and forward along the two sides of the slots, the shuttle thread below the bed-
plate securing each stitch of the needle thread on the under side as formed. The
essential improvements and novelties of the Invention consist, first, in cutting the
slit or button hole in the proper place and to the length desired, either before being
placed in its carrying reciprocating slotted feeding plate, or arm and gripper, or
afterwards, but in either case before being sewn. And second, in lengthening the

page_text: said carrying feeding plate or arm out in front of the sewing plate of the machine, and
in fitting and jointing another plate or arm to its under side, and so hinged or jointed
at the under outer end of the carrying arm with a retaining blade or other spring,
as either to fold and be secured up close to the under side of its carrying arm or
hang vertically or freely quite down out of the way. This under hinged plate is
fitted with a short sliding projecting tongue on its inner face and end, so that when
folded up the tongue projects up through the centre of the slot in the carrying plate
or arm. And when so folded up the inner edge of the tongue just clears the front
side of the bed-plate of the sewing machine with its under edge over it, so that
its carrying slide can then be pushed a little forward to carry the front edge of the
tongue over the bed-plate, nearly in a line with the needle. Then the slit cut for
the button hole is slipped over the tongue, which is rounded on top for effecting
this by the fingers of the attendant, or with the assistance of a slotted steel hand
presser or other equivalent, which presses it close down with the inner end of the
slit or hole drawn close up to the front edge of the tongue, when the ordinary
slotted upper spring gripper is then pressed securely down as usual to secure the
part of the article or fabric to be sewn. The tongue and its slide are then alid
back, and its carrying plate folded down vertically. When the sewing machine is
set on, and the sewing of the button hole completed as heretofore, only by reason
of the hole having been previously cut and set by the new tongue piece, which also
leaves the hole wide enough for the needle to pass down through, and so carry all
the stitching of the inner two rows of stitches down over and round the loose cut
edges of the slit cloth and hole, so binding all the loose threads or "raw edges" in
a very superior manner, analogous to the effect obtained in a hand sewn button
hole. This sliding tongue might be made sharp on top and edges, like a short
broad lance, so that if the fabric is first fixed in the slot carrying the feeding plate
and gripper by the folding up of the lance shaped tongue, it would cut the hole,
while the sliding of the lance tongue would cut the slit to any desired length of
hole.