IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF BINDERS FOR SEWING MACHINES
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Baldwin Woodruff, of Cheapside, in the
City of London, Mechanical Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF BINDERS FOR SEWING MACHINES."
Sealed the 12th December 1865, and dated the 4th August 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Baldwin Woodruff
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
4th August 1865.
I, GEORGE BALDWIN WOODRUFF, of Cheapside, in the City of London,
Mechanical Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF BINDERS FOR SEWING MACHINES,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a novel construction of binder for sewing machines,
the object being to produce a binder that will admit of ready adjustment to
suit different thicknesses of material to be sewn, and also the various widths of
binding used, and that will also facilitate the binding of curved edges. The
binder admits of several modifications, but in all cases the presser will require
no adjustment to suit changes in the work.
In my improved binder I use the ordinary clip with its hooked ends for
receiving the edges of the binding, and the pressure I expand laterally, thereby
converting it from an elastic finger bar into a broad presser plate. The presser
plate is secured to the table of the machine and connected by a hook with the
presser foot, so as to be readily detachable therefrom at pleasure. Or it may
be independent of the table and form the foot of the ordinary presser bar.

page_text: This presser plate when attached to the table has the clip secured to it, and it
is pierced for the needle to pass through it, and is slotted to receive projections
from an underlying guide plate which projects for the work to slide past;
this guide plate is adjustable to suit the width of the binding material; instead
of attaching the hooked clip to the presser plate it may be clamped to the
table of the machine. The hooked ends of the clip project through slots made
in a shaped guide, attached to or forming part of the guide plate, and which
serves to lap the binding as it is drawn through the guide over the edge to be
covered. To assist the operation of lapping the binding over the edge of the
material to be bound (which material passes through the guide together with
the binding) the shaped space in the guide is led up to by a curved guard
or expanded mouth. The shape of this mouth, and the direction which the
guide takes with respect to the direction of the feed, will depend somewhat
on the character of the work in hand. Thus, for binding curved edges it will
be found desirable to set the > guide at an angle to the guard, past' which the
work is slidden to bring it under the action of the needle. The presser plate
is made of this steel, and in order to put an equable pressure on the work
underlying this presser plate, one part of which work is of greater thickness
than the other owing to the addition thereto of a double thickness of binding,
a recess is formed below the presser plate to allow for this additional thickness,
and thus no tendency. is created for "the binding to become displaced while it
is on the point of being secured by sewing. The presser plate whether attached
to the table or forming the presser foot, will put an elastic pressure on the
work and will be free to yield to any excessive thickness of material, and it
will be lifted out of action when the-work is required to be changed or ad
justed by raising the presser bar-in the usual way. When the clip is not
secured to the presser plate it will require adjustment to-suit the different
widths of binding. The presser when not attached to the table is made fast
to the presser bar by a clamping screw. that it may be readily. removed
therefrom when ordinary sewing is required to be performed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Baldwin Woodruff in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 3rd February 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
BALDWIN WOODRUFF, of Cheapside, in the City of: London, Mechanical s
Engineer, send greeting..

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-ninth year of Her. reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and. successors, give.and grant unto me, the said
George Baldwin Woodruff, Her special licence, that I, the said George
Baldwin Woodruff, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such otherş
as I, the said George Baldwin Woodruff, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF BINDERS FOR SEWING
MACHINES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said George
Baldwin Woodruff, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed.in the
Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said George Baldwin Woodruff, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):
This Invention relates to a novel construction of binder for sewing machines,
the object being to produce a binder that will admit of ready adjustment to
suit different thicknesses of material to be sewn, and also the various widths of
binding used, and that will also facilitate the binding of curved edges. The
binder admits of several modifications, but in all cases the presser will require
no adjustment to suit changes in the work.
In my improved binder I use in combination with the well-known > shaped
guide, which laps the binding over the edge to be covered, the ordinary clip
with its hooked ends for receiving the edges of the binding, and I make the
same relatively adjustable, and the presser by which the work is kept down
firmly upon the table I expand laterally, thereby converting it from an elastic
finger bar as heretofore into a broad presser plate. The presser plate is
secured to the table of the machine and connected by a hook with the presser
foot so as to be readily detachable therefrom at pleasure; or it may be inde-
pendent of the table and form the foot of the ordinary presser bar. This
:

page_text: presser plate when attached to the table has the clip secured to it, and it is
pierced for the needle to pass through it..
In the accompanying Drawings Fig. 1 shews the improved binder applied
to the table of a sewing machine; Figures 2, 3, and 4 shew the binder
detached, and in plan, edge, and end views, and Fig. 5, in longitudinal section.
a is the clip made with hooked ends for receiving the edges of the binding
material to be applied to the fabric under the operation of the sewing machine:
The upper half of this clip is secured to the lower half by means of a swivel
joint which will allow of its being turned aside to facilitate the insertion of the
work in the binder. The work is kept down to the table by the elastic presser
plate b, which is virtually an expansion laterally of the ordinary elastic finger
bar used for the like purpose in the binders in common use. "To this presser
plate the clip a is made fast by means of a screw a'. The presser plate 6 is
secured to the table of the machine by a clamping screw c, Fig. 1, and it is
connected by a hook d with the presser foot e, so as to be readily detachable
therefrom at pleasure. The plate b, besides being pierced for the needle to
pass through it is slotted to receive projections f¹,f, from an underlying
guide plate f, which carries the shaped guide f" before mentioned. This
plate is shewn detached at Fig. 7. The projections f¹ form guides for the
work to slide past in its progress under the needle. The guide plate f is ad-
justable in respect of the vertical needle to suit the varying widths of binding
material employed, which must lie in a folded position with its edges bearing
against the turned or hooked ends of the clip a, and its back against the guide
f. The hooked ends of the clip a project through slots made in the shaped
guide f², attached to or forming part of the guide plate f, and which serves
(as above stated) to lap the binding as it is drawn through the guide over the
edge of the fabric to be covered as shewn at Fig. 1. To assist the operation
of lapping the binding over the edge of the material to be bound (which
material passes through the guide together with the binding) the shaped
space in the guide is led up to by a curved guard or expanded mouth. The
shape of this mouth, and the direction which the guide takes with respect to
the direction of the feed will depend somewhat on the character of the work
in hand. Thus, for binding curved edges it will be found desirable to set the
> shaped guide at an angle to the guard f¹, past which the work is slidden to
bring it under the action of the needle as shewn in the plan view at Fig. 8.
The presser plate 6 is made of thin steel, and in order to put an equable
pressure on the work underlying the presser plate, one part of which work is
of greater thickness than the other, owing to the addition thereto of a double
thickness of binding, a recess is formed below the presser plate to allow for this

page_text: additional thickness. This recess is shewn clearly in the sectional view
Fig. 5, and by its use the tendency which is noticed in ordinary binders 'for
the binding to become displaced while it is on the point of being secured' by
sewing is entirely removed. Instead of attaching the hooked clip a to the
presser plate 6 as shewn at Figs. 1 and 2, it may be clamped to the 'table
of the machine as shewn at Fig. 8, or it may be clamped to the guide plate f
as shewn at Fig. 9. The presser plate, whether, attached to the table, or
forming the presser foot will put an elastic pressure on the work, and will be
free to yield to any excessive thickness of material, and it will be lifted out of
action when the work is required to be changed or adjusted by raising the
presser bar in the usual way. When. the clip a is not secured to the presser
plate, as is the case at Figures 8 and 9, it will require adjustment to suit the
different widths of binding. The presser when not attached to the table is
made fast to the presser bar by a clamping screw, as shewn in edge and side
views at Figures 6. This allows of its being readily removed from the presser
bar, when ordinary sewing is required to be performed.
A further modification of the binder is shewn in plan view at Fig. 10; in
this instance the guide plate f, (which is shewn detached, and in plan, edge,
and end views at Figures 11, and carries the shaped guide as before), is
fitted with a guard consisting of a plate 9 placed over a part 9 of the plate f,
corresponding thereto, and is rivetted to the plate f. The ends of the plate g,
and the corresponding edge g' of the plate f, are put over at right angles to
meet each other, and they are notched so as to interlock and form a shoulder
that will contract or expand vertically according to the pressure put upon them
by the overlying presser plate. The shoulder thus formed by the edges 9, 9',
act in place of the projections f¹ in the first described arrangement, and serve
to guide the work as it is slidden forward under the needle.
bis the presser plate overlying the plates f, g, and shaped as shewn in the
detached view Fig. 12. It is provided at its forward end with a hook 6*, for
connecting it with the presser foot e of the machine, and is pierced at 1 for the
needle to pass through, and at 2 to receive the clamping screw which connects
it to the table of the machine. It is also slotted at 3 to receive the screw,
which secures the clip a, shewn in edge view at Fig. 13 to the presser plate,
and a slot 4 is made in it to receive a projection from the plate f, below which
projection allows for the facile adjustment of the guide plate; a slot 5 is also
made in the plate 6 to facilitate the adjustment of the binding in turning
corners.
This arrangement of binder admits of being applied to sewing machines
generally, whereas, that shewn at Fig. 1 will not admit of such general applica.
.

page_text: tion; by reason of the projections f coming in the way of such a presser foot
as is shewn at Fig. 10:
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "Improvements in the
Construction of Binders for Sewing Machines," and explained the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that under 'the above
in part recited Letters Patent I claim, the improvements in the construction
of binders above described...
A: !
In witness whereof, I, the said George Baldwin Woodruff, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, the Third day of February, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six."
GEORGE BALDWIN WOODRUFF. (L.S.) ·