AN IMPROVEMENT IN SEWING MACHINES
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
GG, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical
Draughtsman, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN SEWING
MACHINES." -A communication from abroad by Nathaniel Wheeler,
of the City and State of New York, United States of America.
Scaled the 15th September 1870, and dated the 1st April 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent
Newton at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 1st April 1870.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery
Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN
SEWING MACHINES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a novel construction of feed for sewing
machines, which feed is more particularly applicable to the well-known

page_text: Wheeler and Wilson machine, the object being to simplify the construc-
tion of the feed and to render it noiseless.
The dog or toothed or roughened surface (which rises from below the
table and takes hold of the work and moves it forward by a step-by-step
motion the length of a stitch at a time) is carried by a horizontal sliding
frame which moves in guides standing up from the bed plate. Below the
dog and hinged to the sliding frame is a steel piece which bears upon a
lifting cam that gives the upward motion to the sliding frame, and thus
causes the dog to rise into contact with the work. This hinged piece is
made adjustable by means of a screw which passes down through the frame
and bears upon the inner face of the hinged piece for the purpose of
forcing it nearer to the axis of the cam shaft, and thus increasing the
action of the lifting cam as desired. In rear of the dog is a second steel
piece also hinged to the sliding frame and pendent therefrom. This
steel piece bears against an inclined face cam, it being held thereto by
means of a spring which acts on the sliding frame to give it its return
motion. The adjustment of this hinged piece determines the amount
of traverse motion the dog shall receive and consequently the length of
stitch to be sewn. Fitted to the sliding frame is a thumb screw with a
conical point which bears against the inner face of the pendent hinged
piece, and on being turned will press out the hinged piece to bring it
into contact with a different portion of the rotating cam face, and
thereby change the amount of traverse motion of the sliding frame and
the dog which it carrics.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 28th September 1870.
i
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lanc, in
the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the First day of April, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, Her special

page_text: licence that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors, ad-
ministrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Alfred Vincent
Newton, 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 "AN IMPROVEMENT IN SEWING MACHINES," being a communication
to me from Nathaniel Wheeler, of the City and State of New York,
United States of America, upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under 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 Alfred Vincent Newton, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement, reference being had to the
Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon
(that is to say) :—
This Invention relates to a novel construction of feed for sewing
machines, which feed is more particularly applicable to the well-known
Wheeler and Wilson machine, the object being to simplify the con-
struction of the feed, and to render it noiseless.
In the accompanying Drawing I have shewn so much of a Wheeler
and Wilson sewing machine as will serve to explain the present Invention.
Fig. 1 is a plan view of the parts of the improved machine situate below
the table; Fig. 2 is a side clevation shewing so much of the working
parts of the machine as are situate below the table; Fig. 3 is a longitu-
dinal section of the frame which carries the feeding dog or roughened
feeding surface shewing it in its raised position; Fig. 4 is a transverse
section taken in the line 1, 2, of Fig. 3; and Fig. 5. is a partial inverted
plan of this frame and its fittings.
a, a, is the dog or toothed or roughened surface, which rises from below
and through a slot in the table to take hold of the work and move it

page_text: forward by a step-by-step motion the length of a stitch at a time. This dog
or feeding surface is carried by a horizontal sliding frame A which moves in
guides B, B, standing up from the bed plate C. Below the dog a and
hinged to the sliding frame is a steel piece 6 which bears upon a lifting
cam D that gives the upward motion to the sliding frame and thus
causes the dog to rise into contact with the work that lies upon the
table and is held down upon it by the presser E, Fig. 2.
This hinged
bearing piece b is made adjustable by means of a screw c, which
passes down through the frame, and bears upon the inner face of
the hinged piece (as in the arrangement of silent feed for which I
obtained Letters Patent dated April First, One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-seven No. 970) for the purpose of forcing it nearer to the
axis of the cam shaft, and thus increasing the action of the lifting
cam as desired. In rear of the dog is a second steel bearing piece d
also hinged to the sliding frame and pendent therefrom. This steel
piece bears against an inclined face cam D', it being held thereto
by means of a spring B' which acts on the sliding frame to give it
its return motion. The adjustment of this hinged piece d determines
the amount of traverse motion the dog shall receive from the cam D',
and consequently the length of stitch to be sewn. Fitted in a
threaded socket of the sliding frame is a thumb screw e formed with
a conical point which bears against the inner face of the pendent hinged
piece d.
By turning this thumb screw so as to move it inwards the
hinged piece will be pressed outwards, and in proportion as the hinged
piece approaches a vertical position the traverse motion of the sliding
frame will be contracted. By turning the thumb screw in the opposite
direction and allowing the hinged piece to take an inclined position
the shoulder of that piece will come in contact with the chamfered part
of the cam face, and in proportion as the thumb screw is drawn
back so will the inclination of the hinged picce & increase. This change
of position of the hinged piece will bring its shoulder into contact with
a different portion of the rotating cam face and thereby increase the
traverse motion of the sliding frame and the feeding dog which it
carrics, and proportionately increase the length of the stitches made by
the machine. The spring B presses upon the tail end of the frame A,
and upon a pin projecting from the tail piece, and it has besides the
retracting action already mentioned a tipping action which together
serve to keep the bearing pieces b and d in constant contact with their
respective cams, the spring yielding to the pressure of the cams as they

page_text: come into action to lift the feeding dog a into contact with the work and
give it its forward traverse motion. It will now be understood that the
action of the feed must necessarily be silent, as the hinged bearing pieces
never leave the acting surfaces of their acting cams.
Having now set forth the nature of the Invention of "An Improve-
ment in Sewing Machines," as communicated to me by my foreign corre-
spondent and explained the manner of carrrying the same into effect, I
wish it to be understood that under the above in part recited Letters
Patent I claim,-
First. Adjusting the traverse motion of the dog or roughened feeding
surface by the means above described.
Second. In combination with the sliding frame A and feeding dog a
I claim, the hinged bearing pieces b and d for receiving the silent
pressure of the rotary cams D and D¹, and transmitting motion to the
feeding dog.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have here-
unto set my hand and scal, the Twenty-first day of September,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
seventy.