IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING NEEDLES."
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Tomlinson Bousfield, of Loughborough Park,
Brixton, in the County of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
SEWING NEEDLES."-A communication.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Tomlinson Bous-
field at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 13th August 1857.
I, GEORGE TOMLINSON BOUSFIELD, of Loughborough Park, Brixton, in the
County of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN SEWING NEEDLES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in sewing needles. For
this purpose the eye of a sewing needle may be made, as heretofore, near one
end or at a greater or less distance from the ends. The eye is made by
punching or drilling in the ordinary manner, but it has a slit or opening from
the outer surface made into the eye, in such manner as to admit of the thread
being introduced intermediate of the length of the thread, in place of having
a pointed end of the thread passed through the eye. The sides of the opening
or slit out from the eye of a needle spring together when the thread has been
forced through it into the eye, and the entrance of the slit at the external
surface of a needle into the eye is made somewhat open, so as readily to
receive the thread, and yet the entrance is so formed or rounded as not to
catch the fabric when the needle is being passed through and through it in
the act of sewing.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Tomlinson Bousfield in the Great Seal Patent Office,
on the 13th January 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
TOMLINSON BOUSFIELD, of Loughborough Park, Brixton, in the County of
Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent bearing date the Thirteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said George Tomlinson Bousfield, Her special licence that I, the said George
Tomlinson Bousfield, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, 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, with the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING NEEDLES," being a communication from abroad,
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said George Tomlinson
Bousfield, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, 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 Drawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
My Invention relates to the manner of forming the eyes of needles so that
the thread can be introduced into the same from the side of the eye at any
part of the length of said thread instead of inserting the end of the thread
through the eye in the manner that has heretofore been adopted, thereby my
needles are adapted for blind persons, or for those with weak eyes, or for use
in the evening, or under circumstances where the user has but an inferior
light.
The said Invention is applicable to needles to be used by hand or in sewing
machines, and the peculiarity of the same consists in forming a spring opening

page_text: or mouth in one side of the eye of the needle of such a form as not to catch
in the cloth or other material being sewed as the needle passes through the
same.
In the Drawing, Fig. 1 shews the needle for ordinary hand sewing, con-
siderably magnified for the better illustration of the peculiar eye; Fig. 2 is
a similar view of a like needle with an eye slightly varied from that of Fig. 1;
Fig. 3 shews a machine needle with an eye corresponding to that of Fig. 1;
and Fig. 4 shews a machine needle with an eye corresponding to that of
Fig. 2. Similar marks of reference indicate the same parts. a is the shank
or body of the needle; is the point of the same; c is the eye. In Fig. 1
the eye c is formed with a spring opening or mouth in its side, as at 1, and
the side of the eye near the mouth is turned around, as at 2, so that the
same will not catch in the goods through which the needle may pass. The
solid side of the eye is to be extended, as at 3, sufficiently to cause the
pressure of forcing the needle through the goods to act directly in the line of
said solid side of the eye. It will now be apparent that the needle is threaded
by drawing a loop of the thread into the said mouth 1 sideways of the eye,
the said mouth springing open for the thread to pass, and closing as said
thread draws to the back end of the eye. The above description applies also
to the machine needle of Fig. 3, and the only difference in the construction
of the needles Figs. 1 and 3 is, that the eye c of the latter Figure is nearer
the point and in the body of the needle, the part of the needle to the rear
of the eye being attached in the sewing machine with which it is used.
The eyes shewn in Figs. 2 and 4 are substantially the same as the fore-
going, except that the opening or mouth is located at another part of the eye.
In this case the two sides of the eye extend from the shank, and one side of
the cyc is turned around sufficiently to fit tightly against the opposite side
of the eye in the form of a hook, as at 4, and the straight side 5 projects
slightly to the rear of the eye, so as to receive the pressure that forces the
needle through the goods, and form a corner or mouth, into which a loop
of the thread is drawn, which springs the sides apart and passes into the
eye.
The machine needle, Fig. 4, is made with a similar eye that is located near
the point, and the spring opening or mouth extends any desired distance to
the rear of the eye in the form of a slit or separation in the body, as shewn
at 6, 6.
These needles and their eyes are to be made by any usual device, such as
dies, cutters, or punches, and are to be ground and polished as required. It
will thus be seen that the thread can be drawn into the eye with the greatest

page_text: facility, instead of threading the end of said thread through the eye, and the
hooked end of the eye at the mouth is either turned away from the point of
the needle or protected by the part against which it lies, so as to pass freely
through the cloth or goods to be sewed.
I do not claim an open-eyed needle, nor a needle with a spring attached to
any part of it; but what I claim as the Invention, and desire to secure by
Letters Patent is, a sewing needle having a self-closing eye, with a slit or
mouth leading from the inside, and made to terminate at a point more or less
remote from the eye, through which slit or mouth the thread may be forced
into the eye, in the manner and for the purposes substantially as described
and shewn.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
HENRY WILLIAM CARPMAEL.
(L.S.) GEO. T. BOUSFIELD.