IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING MACHINES
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alfred Baillot at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th March
1865.
I, ALFRED BAILLOT, of Brussels, in the Kingdom of Belgium, Engineer, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING
MACHINES," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists, firstly, in so arranging and combining the parts of
sewing machines that (without taking the machine to pieces or having to
replace one part by another) the operator may change or vary the kind of
stitch he wishes to produce, and with the same machine perform the three
stitches generally used. For this purpose the machine is provided with two
hook needles, the one formed for producing the stitch called the single thread
chain stitch, and the other formed to produce the double thread chain stitch.
The machine is also provided with a shuttle for working the shuttle stitch.
The two hook needles are attached to an angular plate, the end of which
works on a pivot fixed to a slide, which slide works in a suitable slot formed
in the bed plate, and being actuated by suitable cams and springs gives to the
hook needles the required motion. By causing the hook needle plate to
revolve partially round its axis or pivot. in one direction or the other, one or
the other of the said hook needles is brought into position with the needle

page_text: for work according as it is required to work the chain stitch with one thread,
or the chain stitch with two threads, and the hook needle plate is held in
position by a suitable spring, and the hook slide is so arranged that when it
is required to work with the shuttle the said hook slide may be pushed back
out of the way so as to be disengaged from its cam, and a suitable spring
keeps it in this position till it is again required to work. Motion is com-
municated to the machine through a cam spindle situated under the bed plate,
upon which spindle the driving pulley is actuated in the ordinary manner.
Upon the said cam spindle is also the cam giving motion to the hook slide,
and the cam actuating the feeder for feeding and holding the material to be
sewn, and upon the surface of the said feeder cam is an excentric arm taking
into suitable slots formed on the shuttle lever and the needle holder lever,
and giving the required motion thereto. The said hook slide cam acts upon
a roller working on a spindle projecting from the under side of the end of the
hook slide, the upper end of which is fixed to the end of the hook slide, and
at the bottom end of the said spindle there is a crank with a suitable aperture
into which takes the hooked end of a spring blade, which spring causes the
slide to move forward until a stop piece situated at the side of the said
slide takes into a slot in the said slide and arrests its forward movement,
then the said spring by its continued action causes the slide to move slightly
round the stop, and carries the thread beyond the point of the needle in order
to make the chain stitch. The hook slide cam completes the motion of the
hooks.
This Invention relates, secondly, to the feeder of sewing machines for
feeding and holding the material to be sewn, and the object of this part of the
Invention is to prevent the material sewn from being stained by grease or oil
spots proceeding from the lubrication of the parts of the machine situated
above the said material. To effect this the pressure foot for feeding the
material is attached to the end of a double lever extending at a suitable height
over and to near the back of the machine, where being curved downwards it
passes through the bed plate, and its lower arm projects forwards to the cam
spindle near the front of the machine, and rests upon the cam which gives it
motion. Upon the inner side of the back of the said feed lever. is a spherical
pin or projection working in a spherical bearing in the axis of the machine,
and on the outer side of the back of the said lever is a horizontal arm, in the
end of which is a horizontal groove in which engages the point of a screw.
fixed in a bearing on the side of the after part of the machine; the said
lever is thus capable not only of oscillating vertically upon its axis, but being
mounted on one side on a spherical pin, and on the other side the point of a

page_text: screw taking into the horizontal slot in the end of the horizontal arm, the
said lever is capable of a partial horizontal rotary motion. The feeder cam
acts upon the end of the lower arm of the feeder lever and communicates to
it, firstly, a horizontal motion (limited by a set screw against which it strikes
and which regulates the stroke of the feed motion) this motion draws
the material forward; secondly, an upward motion which liberates the
material; thirdly, a horizontal motion in the opposite direction to the
first; and fourthly, a downward motion which brings back the pressure
foot upon the material; all the. parts which require lubrication, and upon
which the said feeder lever moves, being situated at the back end of the
machine are at a distance from the material to be sewn, and the grease or oil
cannot fall upon and stain such material, as often happens in machines of the
ordinary construction.