IMPROVE- MENTS IN SEWING MACHINES
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Bolton at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 3rd August
1864.
I, CHARLES BOLTON, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Commercial
Traveller, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN SEWING MACHINES," to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to that part of sewing machines by which the fabric
or material to be sewn is fed into the machine, which said part is commonly
called the feeder, and consists of the improvements herein-after described in
the said feeders.
In machines of the kind called table machines I employ a feeder consisting
of a vertical bar or plate, the upper end of which is serrated. This feeder is
capable of a rising and falling motion, and also of a vibratory motion. The
head of the feeder is situated in a slot in the table and immediately under the
part called the pressure foot. On the end of the shuttle shaft is a cam, which
on the rotation of the said shaft acts on the feeder in the following manner :-
The cam first strikes against the bottom of the feeder and lifts it in a nearly
vertical line. As the cam proceeds in its rotatory motion it comes against a
projecting arm on the bottom of the feeder, and thereby communicates a
motion of partial rotation to the said feeder. When the cam escapes from the
said arm it ceases to act on the feeder until, by the rotation of the shuttle
shaft, it is again brought round and made to perform the action described.
As the feeder is raised its serrated top rises out of the slot in the table and

page_text: grips the fabric or material to be sewn between the said serrated top and the
pressure foot. By the motion of partial rotation which the feeder next per-
forms the fabric or material is carried forward into the machine. When the
cam ceases to act on the feeder the said feeder falls and makes a motion of
partial rotation in a direction contrary to that it was made to perform by the
cam. These return motions are effected by a coiled spring. By the action
described the feeder is made to advance the fabric or material into the machine
on each rotation of the shuttle shaft.
In sewing machines of the kind called arm machines I employ a feeder
bent at right angles at or near its middle, and I actuate the said feeder by
means of a sliding wedge attached to and worked by the shuttle driver. This
wedge may either work under the horizontal arm or head of the feeder or
against the lower end of the vertical arm. When the pressure foot has a
rising and falling motion it is only necessary to give a sliding horizontal
motion to the feeder. In this case I give the said sliding motion by means of
a cam of the kind herein-before described and a coiled spring, the advance
motion being given by means of the cam, and the return motion by means of
the spring. The action of the cam on the feeder is simultaneous with the
descent of the pressure foot. Instead of the sliding horizontal motion of the
feeder in the last-described improvement, the feeder may turn upon an axis at
or near its 'middle, and. be acted. upon by the cam so as to have a vibratory
motion.
"