IMPROVEMENTS IN MECHANISM FOR PREPARING SOLES, AND FOR SEWING THE SAME UPON BOOTS AND SHOES
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Robert Lake, of the "International
Patent Office," No. 8, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Consulting Engineer, for the Inven-
tion of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MECHANISM FOR PREPARING SOLES, AND FOR
SEWING THE SAME UPON BOOTS AND SHOES."-A communication from
abroad by Lyman Reed Blake, of Boston, Massachusetts, United
States of America.
Scaled the 5th September 1868, and dated the 5th March 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Robert Lake
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 5th March 1868.
I, WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the "International Patent Office,"
No. 8, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of
Middlesex, Consulting Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MECHANISM FOR PREPARING SOLES,
AND FOR SEWING THE SAME UPON BOOTS AND SHOES," a communication, to bę
as follows:-
This Invention relates to improvements upon parts of the mechanism,
and their mode of operation, which are shown and described in the

page_text: Specification of an Invention for which Letters Patent have been
granted to George Haseltine, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of
August, A.D. 1864, No. 2113.
The said Invention consists in an improved form and arrangement of
two knives or cutters by which a string or long continuous chip is
removed from a sole to afford room for embedment of what is known
as the chain of a tambour or crochet stitch, the said form and
arrangement being such as by mere adjustment of one knife with
respect to the other to change the area of the cross section of the
chip removed.
The said Invention also consists in a peculiar method of working
the thread whirl or carrier, which being located in the end of the
horn of a sole-sewing machine, operates to lay the thread into the
hook or barb of the needle each time the needle is at or about at its
lowest point of stroke.
The old method shown in the Specification of the Patent above
referred to has been to give a partial rotation of the whirl around
the needle when at or about at its lowest point of stroke, the whirl
fleeting or rotating back to its starting point before the needle again
descends. In this old method therefore one-half of the movement of
the whirl is inoperative in actually placing the thread in the hook or
barb of the needle, and as the whirl is necessarily small and is sub-
jected to great strain it wears rapidly so that it is an object to reduce
its movement to a minimum.
It has also been proposed to move the whirl continually in one
direction giving one complete rotation of the whirl to each complete
double or up and down stroke of the needle, so that at each complete
revolution the wheel shall lay the thread in the hook of the needle,
but this method of operation involves more than the necessary amount
of movement and is objectionable, in that the rotation of the whirl
must be uniform and cannot be accelerated at the time when the
needle is at its lowest point of stroke.
My improved method of operating the whirl is to cause it to start
from a rest when the needle arrives at or about its lowest point, and
to revolve partially around the needle as far as is necessary to lay
the thread carried by the whirl into the hook of the needle. At this
point the whirl rests till the needle having made its upward stroke

page_text: again in descending arrives at or about its lowest point of stroke.
The whirl then turns back to its first starting point laying the thread
which it carries into the hook of the needle. The whirl so operated
has no unnecessary amount of movement, so that its wear is reduced
to a minimum and its oscillations or partial rotations can be made
rapidly so as to lay the thread in the hook of the needle just as it
turns its lowest point of movement, the whirl resting during most of the
time occupied by the stroke of the needle.
The knives which I use to cut the channel to receive and cover the
stitches employed to hold soles to boots and shoes are made as follows:-
The leading knife is formed as a triangular prism with one angle
operating as a cutting edge, and the side opposite to the said edge
is as broad as the diameter of the tubular knife which is located
directly at the back of the said side. It will be obvious that as the
two knives are moved up and down with respect to each other so will
the tubular knife edge be covered by or uncovered from the back of the
leading knife so as to cut out a chip, the cross section of which shall
be either a full circle or a fraction thereof according to the size of the
chain of the stitches which is to be covered. These knives are to be
used with the mechanism and are to be adjusted as in the former
Specification herein-before referred to. The channel formed by the
operation of these knives is peculiar, there being two small flaps
which when rubbed down over the seam formed and to be covered,
meet over the centre line of the seam. This avoids the objectionable
wide flap which has heretofore been formed wholly from one side and
enables me to form a channel quite near to the edge of the material
to be sewed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Robert Lake in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 5th September 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ROBERT LAKE, of the "International Patent Office," No. 8, Southampton
Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Consulting
Engineer, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said William Robert Lake, Her special licence
that I, the said William Robert Lake, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Robert Lake, 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 of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MECHANISM FOR PREPARING SOLES, AND FOR SEWING THE
SAME UPON BOOTS AND SHOES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said William Robert Lake, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and
seals, should particularly 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 William Robert Lake, do hereby
declare the nature of the 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 accom-
panying Sheet of Drawings forming a part of this Specification :-
The said Invention relates to improvements upon parts of the
mechanism and their mode of operation shown and described in the
Specification of an Invention for which Letters Patent have been
granted to George Haseltine, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of
August, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
sixty-four, No. 2113.
The said Invention consists, first, in an improved form and arrange-
ment of two knives or cutters by which a channel is formed in leather
or other material for reception of stitches made to secure soles to boots
or shoes, and for securing by sewing one piece of material to another,
a portion of the leather or other material being. removed in the form

page_text: of a long strip or string to give room for the reception of the thread,
generally the chain portion of the tambour or crochet stitch, also in
giving an improved form to the channel by the knives combined and
arranged in accordance with this Invention.
The said Invention consists, secondly, in a peculiar method of
working the thread whirl or carrier of the sewing machine, which
whirl being located in the end of the horn or taper inclined work
support of a sole-sewing machine, operates to lay the thread into the
hook or across the barb of a hook or crocket needle each time the
needle is at or about at its lowest point of stroke.

page_text: By this Invention one following knife of a size sufficient to remove
material enough to accommodate the largest sized thread, suffices by
mere relative adjustment of the leading and following knives, to
remove strings or strips of material of any cross area less than the
whole cross area, which the following knife is capable of removing.
As seen in the Drawings the leading knife is made as a triangular
prism, attached to a body suitable for confining the knife in position in
a channelling machine, the edge of the knife being shewn at 1, and
the back by the surface between 2 and 3, which is of a width equal
to the diameter or width of the following knife which is best made as
a tube forming part of a body, by which attachment is made to a
suitable channelling machine or machine by which soles are moved
under and subjected to the action of the knives.
The tubular part of the knife is represented by a. Now it will be
scen readily that the tubular knife may be adjusted so as to be
entirely below the leading knife, as shewn in Figure 1, in which case
the groove formed would be circular in cross section as seen at the
left of Figure 5, or the adjustment might be similar to that shewn
in Figure 2, in which case the grooves formed would be partially
circular as seen in the other two channels in Figure 5, while if the
adjustment is such as is shown in Figure 3 with the following knife
entirely covered by the leading knife, then a mere slit would be
formed and no material removed. The leading knife besides cutting
a mere slit in the leather or other material, displaces it and throws a
portion up at each side of the slit above the general surface of the
leather, but when the seam is sewed in the channel the displaced
leather is rubbed back into place and covers the chain of stitches
occupying the place from which the following knife removed a strip
of material. The dotted lines in Figure 5 are intended to represent
surfaces, so that in the said Figure the channels are represented as
deep sunken or shallow. The improved channel formed as shewn and
described is free from the objectionable features of the old channel
such as is shown in Figure 6, in which there is a flap formed more
or less tangentially to the groove, which flap is liable to be displaced
in wear and requires cement to hold it in place. Moreover, the flap
prevents locating the seam as near to the edge of the sole as is desirable,
and to obtain a flap which is thick enough to remain in place the groove
has to be so deeply sunken in the sole as to impair its strength at the line

page_text: of the sewing. In making the old form of channel it is necessary in
order to form grooves of various areas to accommodate different sizes of
threads to make use of following knives of various sizes, while in this
Invention grooves of different areas are formed by one knife, simply
altered in position with respect to the leading knife.
In the old method of operating the whirl or thread carrier the
process has been to give a partial rotation of the whirl around the
needle when at or about at its lowest point of stroke, the whirl fleeting
or rotating back to its starting point before the needle again descends,
so that in this old method one half of the movement of the whirl is
inoperative in actually placing the thread in the hook or barb of the
needle, and as the whirl is necessarily small and is subjected to great
strain, it wears rapidly; and it is an object to reduce its movement to a
minimum to lessen its wear, and also the power required to operate the
machine.
My improved method of operating the whirl is to cause it to start
from a state of rest when the needle arrives at or about at its lowest
point of stroke, and to rotate partially around the needle, say about two-
thirds of a revolution, or as far as may be necessary to lay the thread
carried by the whirl into the hook of the needle, then to cause the whirl
to rest till the needle having made its upward stroke in descending
arrives again at its lowest point of stroke, when the whirl turns back to
its first starting point laying the thread into the hook of the needle.
The whirl so operated has no unnecessary amount of movement, and its
wear is consequently reduced to a minimum, and its movements can be
made rapidly so as to lay the thread into the hook of the needle just as
it turns its lowest point of movement, the whirl resting during most of
the time occupied by the stroke of the needle. The means by which this
mode of operating the whirl is accomplished are not of the essence of
this Invention and may be varied, but those shewn in Figures 7 and 8 are
perfectly effective and cannot be easily excelled. In these Figures the
main shaft of the machine is denoted by 6, the needle bar by c, the horn
which is of the kind that may be rotated by d. The whirl which is
contained in the end of the horn has a bevel wheel formed on its
periphery and is rotated by a pinion on the end of an inclined shaft,
located in the inclined part of the horn, the said inclined shaft being
supplied with a bevel wheel into which meshes another bevel wheel on a
horizontal shaft located in the horizontal arm of the horn, said horizontal

page_text: shaft being driven from an upright shaft by means of bevel wheels, the
upright shaft being concentric with the axis of rotation of the horn and
having at its lower end a spur wheel or pinion e which is operated by
the vibrations of the toothed segment f. This arrangement of gearing
is shown in dotted lines in Figure 7 and is also fully, clearly, and
distinctly shewn in the Specification of the Patent before alluded to.
Now in the said former Specification the segment, which is marked
f in the Drawings accompanying this Specification, is vibrated by
means of lever and link connections from a cam on the main shaft
of the machine which makes one rotation to each complete double
or up and down stroke of the needle, while in this Invention the
segment is vibrated by means of link and lever connections from
a cam which is driven by gearing from the main shaft, so that it
makes one revolution to two complete double or up and down strokes
of the needle. This cam i is double-acting the parts f', f, of the
groove therein being the parts which give motion to the lever g, and
the concentric parts h, h, of the groove being the rests of the cam. In
one revolution of the shaft b which gives a complete double or up and
down stroke of the needle, it will be seen that the cam turns but
half round bringing into requisition but one of the operative parts f¹
and one rest of the cam groove producing movement of the whirl
from a state of rest around the needle, and causing rest of the whirl
till the next rotation of the shaft, which gives another double stroke
of the needle and another start of the whirl from rest causing it to
move back around the needle and again to rest; in the said former
Specification the cam which is similar to cam i and which works
the whirl through the intervention of the means before specified,
necessarily vibrates the whirl both back and forth at cach double
stroke of the needle, while by placing the cam on a shaft which turns
but half as fast as the main shaft the movement of the whirl is reduced
as described.
Having thus fully described the said Invention as communicated
to me by my foreign correspondent, and shewn how the same may be
conveniently and advantageously carried into practice, I claim,―
A leading knife having a breadth of back sufficient to operate as
described, and combined with a following knife of a construction
suited to remove material in strips, substantially as and for the purpose
described.

page_text: Also, forming a channel with the slit leading to a groove substantially
central with the groove, as and for the purpose specified.
Also, the improvement in the operation of the whirl, substantially as
and for the purpose described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Robert Lake, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fifth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE. (L.S.).
Witness,
THO. N. PALMER,
Clerk to Messrs. Haseltine, Lake, & Co.,
8, Southampton Buildings,
W.C.