Improvements in Tucking Mechanism used in connection with Sewing Machines.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 25th Ap, 1892
Complete Specification Left, 26th Oct., 1892-Accepted, 26th Nov., 1892
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Tucking Mechanism used in connection with
Sewing Machines.
I ROBERT POTTER of 168 Meadow Street, Moss Side, Manchester, in the County
of Lancaster, Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be
as follows:
My invention relates to tucking attachments for sewing machines or to apparatus
adapted to be applied to or used in connection with sewing machines such apparatus
being used to gauge the width of the tuck and to guide the material being sewn
as is well understood.
In such apparatus a tuck guide is used in connection with a creasing plate the
two parts guiding the material creasing it to form a tuck and determining the
distance between one tuck and another. The creasing plate has been fixed but
the tuck guide has been adjustable.
Previously to my invention the tucks have been sewn upon material which was
to form a garment say for example a skirt. In the sewing together of breadths of
such tucked material it has not been conveniently possible to make satisfactory
junctions of the ends of the tucks.
The principal object of my invention is to enable the tucking to be effected after
the breadths have been united in the skirt form. I mount the creasing plate to
slide to and fro so that when the circuit of the skirt is nearly completed the plate
can be withdrawn out of the way of the tuck already sewn so as to permit the
starting point of the tuck to pass forward to the needle so that the circuit can be
completed. The said plate may be carried by a sliding part mounted in any suitable
manner and adapted to be acted upon by the hand or foot of the operator acting
upon a lever or cam or upon a handle or part as may be most suitable to the nature
of the sewing machine. In one construction intended more particularly for applica-
tion to existing machines the plate is connected by an arm with a part which is
mounted in a slide so as to guide the plate to move in a straight line. The said
sliding part is acted upon by a lever to move the plate, a spring imparting the return
movement.
A gauge capable of being set to the required width of tuck might determine the
movement of the said sliding part. To facilitate the adjustment of the tucking
gauge I fit it to slide in guides or I mount it upon a sliding part so that it is guided
to move in a straight line and I connect the said sliding part with a lever whereby
the gauge can be slid in or out as required and be fixed by means of a nut or locking
appliance acting on the said lever. A cam or equivalent appliance might take
the place of the lever. A scale might indicate the distance between the tucks.
Dated this 23rd day of April 1899
E. K. DUTTON & Co.,
5, John Dalton Street, Manchester, Agents.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
() Improvements in Tucking Mechanism used in connection with
Sewing Machines.
I ROBERT POTTER of 168 Meadow Street, Moss Side, Manchester, in the County
of Lancaster, Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and
in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and
5 ascertained in and by the following statement and accompanying drawings
-
My invention relates to tucking attachments for sewing machines or to apparatus

page_text: adapted to be applied to or used in connection with sewing machines such apparatus
being used to gauge the width of the tuck and to guide the material being sewn as
is well understood.
In such apparatus a tuck guide is used in connection with a creasing plate or knife
the two parts guiding the material, creasing it to form a tuck and determining the
distance between one tuck and another. The creasing plate or knife has hitherto
been fixed but the tuck guide has been adjustable. Previously to my invention the
tucks have been sewn upon material which was to form a garment say for example
a skirt. In the sewing together of breadths of such tucked material it has not been
conveniently possible to make satisfactory junctions of the ends of the tucks. The
principal object of my invention is to enable the tucking to be completely effected
after the breadths have been united in the skirt form. I mount the creasing plate
to slide to and fro so that when the circuit of the skirt is nearly completed the plate
can be withdrawn out of the way of the tuck already sewn so as to permit the
starting point of the tuck to pass forward to the needle so that the circuit can be
completed. The said plate may be carried by a sliding part mounted in any
suitable manner and adapted to be acted upon by the hand or foot of the operator
acting upon a lever or cam or upon a handle or part as may be most suitable to the
nature of the sewing machine. In one construction intended more particularly for
application to existing machines the plate is connected by an arm with a part which
is mounted in a slide so as to guide the plate to move in a straight line. The said
sliding part is acted upon by a lever to move the plate a spring imparting the
return movement. A gauge capable of being set to the required width of tuck
might determine the movement of the said sliding part. To facilitate the adjust-
ment of the tucking gauge I fit it to slide in guides or I mount it upon a sliding
part so that it is guided to move in a straight line and I connect the said sliding
part with a lever whereby the gauge can be slid in or out as required. A cam or
equivalent appliance might take the place of the lever. A scale might indicate the
width and distance between the tucks.
In order to make my invention properly understood I will now proceed to
describe the same with reference to the annexed two sheets of drawings
:
On Sheet 1, Fig. 1 is a side elevation, and Fig. 2 a plan of a sewing machine
fitted with my improved tucking appliance.
On Sheet 2, Fig. 3 is a front elevation of the preceding figs. The other fig.
illustrates a detail the consideration of which will arise in the course of the
description.
The arm and frame of the machine is marked A and the sole B. The parts to
which my invention relates are almost all carried by or connected to a sliding
plate C which is mounted to slide to and fro on the sole B of the machine.
The sliding movement is imparted to this plate by the double lever a a'. The said
lever or rather the lower lever a is pivotted at a to the sole B. The inner end of
the lever is connected by an adjustable stud a³ to the sliding plate C which is thus,
together with all of its attached parts, moved in accordance with the movements of
the lever a. The lever a projects over a sector b which is secured to the side of
the sole and which is marked with a graduated series of nicks b' corresponding to
different widths of tucks. A sneck a projecting from the lower side of the lever a
engages with the nicks b' so as to hold and lock the lever. a in position. The
upper half a¹ of the lever is pivotted upon the lower half a at a³, and the said
upper half is connected by the link c with the sliding plate d to which the tuck
guide e is pivotted. The screw which pivots the link c to the lever a¹ has a
centre point at its lower end which enters a groove in the lower half a of the lever.
Thus the two halves of the double lever are practically held together so as to form
one lever when setting the width of the tuck-while at the same time the upper half a¹
can when requisite be independently moved so as to push the tuck guide e forward
and move it back so as to alter the spacing between the rows of tucks. At that end
of the sliding plate C which is opposite from the tuck guide e I secure a bracket f
to the plate. In this bracket there slides a rod g. Upon the rod is a collar g

page_text: and at the end another collar g² between which latter and the end of the bracket
I place a coiled spring g³ which presses upon the collar g² and tends to keep the rod
normally in the same position. To slide the rod in the bracket I use a cam lever h
pivotted at upon an arm i which extends from and is screwed to the back of the
needle box. This cam lever h is turned by the handle 2 so as to bring the cam
face against the bowl gt which is carried on a stud projecting from the rod g through
a slot in the boss of the bracket fas clearly appears in the drawings. It will be
plainly seen that by turning the cam lever into the position shown in dotted lines
Fig. 1 the rod g will be moved forward against the pressure of the coiled spring.
The amount of the said movement will be governed by the position into which the
sliding plate C has been moved by the lever a as before described.
For example if the lever a has been moved as far forward over the graduated
sector as is possible, then the sliding plate C will have been moved as far back
as possible and the maximum of movement will be given by the cam lever / to the
rod g; whereas if the lever a has been moved as far back as possible over the
sector, then the cam lever gives the minimum of movement to the rod g.
Under either condition however the result is the same viz.: that thei nner edge
of the creasing plate or knife E is moved to the same constant position just
out of line with the needle j. It will be observed that the creasing plate or
knife E is carried on the inwardly bent end of the rod 7 and is moved
in or out in exact accordance with the movements of the said rod. This
movement of the creasing knife is a very important part of my invention
as will be plain from what follows. As I have already said my chief
object is to enable the operator completely to finish the sewing of the tuck upon_a
closed up or cylindrically shaped garment such for example as an underskirt. In
machines where this has been already partly done, the creasing knife E has been a
fixture. The disadvantage of this will be at once apparent. For example referring
to Fig. 4 on Sheet 2 I there show a portion of a garinent D which we will suppose
is the edge of a made up cylindrically shaped under-skirt. If the creasing knife E
were a fixture as in the old machines and the seam had been started for example at
the point marked X (the feed going in the direction of the arrow) as soon as the
starting point X of the seam came round to the position shown in Fig. 4 it could
go no further because the creasing plate formed a fixed barrier between it and the
needle. The consequence was that the garment had to be removed and the sewing
of each tuck separately finished. Now by means of my invention this great dis-
advantage is quite done away with for, as soon as the point X reaches the creasing
knife as in Fig. 4 I simply move the cam lever into the position shown in dotted
lines in Fig. 1 and thus shift the knife E to one side as shown in crossed dotted
lines in Fig. 4 leaving an unobstructed path for the completion of the seam in the
machine. In starting the next tuck seam the knife E is brought back by simply
moving the cam lever back to its old position. It will be noticed that whatever
position the sliding plate C may have been moved into by the lever
the proper
amount of movement is always imparted to the knife to bring it out so as just to
clear the line of stitching. The cam lever I have described for shifting the knife E
is the most useful and effective method I have at present devised for moving the
creasing knife E out of the way of the line of stitching, but it will be evident to
mechanical experts that many other ways of shifting the said knife or plate might
be devised, and the method of mounting it might also be varied. For example it
might be carried on an arm or rod supported independently of the slide C or sole
of the machine, and might be moved by merely pushing it to and fro between stops;
or excentrics or wedges or adjusting screws might be used to impart the requisite
movements. The pith and gist of this part of my invention is that whereas the
creasing plate or knife E has hitherto been a fixture, I make it movable either by
some such ready means as I have described and suggested or by any other suitable
and similar means so that it can be moved to one side out of the path of the line of
stitching.
a,
In making rows of tucking on a garment it is sometimes required that blank or

page_text: It will
untucked spaces should exist between the tucks or rows of tucking as for example
the space D' in Fig. 4. For this purpose I render the tuck guide e easily adjust-
able by connecting it with the lever half a'. For example suppose the width of
tuck has been fixed by setting the lever a to the position shown in Fig. 2.
be understood that while a tuck is being sewn, the last made tuck slides through
the guide e in the usual manner. Now if it be desired to create a space between
the last made tuck and the next tuck I simply move the lever half a¹ to the
required extent, say into the position indicated in dotted lines Fig. 2. By doing
so I also move the tuck guide e into the position shown in dotted lines thereby
creating the desired space between the last made tuck and the next seam.
aware that the tuck guide has been made movable before the date of my present
application, but not by the ready means I herein show and describe. As already
set forth the width of tuck is altered by moving the lever a and thus moving the
sliding plate C and the edge of the creasing knife E nearer to or further from the
needle. The graduated sector 6 may if desired be marked with numerals at
the respective nicks to denote the different widths of tuck.
I am
When operating with my improved apparatus I first move the double lever a a¹
to the nick in the sector which denotes the required width of tuck. It should be
noted that the same motion which adjusts the creasing knife E and sliding plate C
at the proper distance on the inner side of the needle, also adjusts the tuck guide e
at exactly the same distance from the outer side of the needle, the two parts moving
towards and from each other. When the tucking is being sewn the last made tuck
slides upright in the guide e so that the tuck being sewn is made absolutely parallel
therewith. The methods of clearing the creasing knife E out of the way so as to
allow the stitching to be completed have already been described. I have also
fully described the manner in which the formation of spaces between the tucking
is effected by shifting the tuck guide outwards by the lever half a¹.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. The general arrangement construction and combination of parts comprising
my improved tucking mechanism for use in connection with sewing machines sub-
stantially as herein before described and shown.
2. As means for facilitating the sewing of tucking in joined-up or cylindrically
shaped garments or goods the employment of a creasing plate or knife so applied as
to be capable of being easily and quickly moved out of the way of the line of
stitching by some suitable mechanical means so as to permit of the completion
of the seam without removing the goods from the machine as hereinbefore set
forth.
3. As means for facilitating the sewing of tucking in joined-up or cylindrical
goods or garments the movable creasing plate or knife attached to a rod sliding in
a bracket and operated by a cam lever or other similar means against the pressure
of a spring, so as to effect the moving of the creasing plate or knife out of the way
of the line of stitching and thus allow of the completion of the seam without
removing the goods from the machine substantially as herein before described and
.shown.
4. The combination of the lever a with the indicating or nicked sector 6 for
adjusting the width of tuck, arranged and operating substantially as herein before
described and illustrated.
5. The double lever a a¹ and the combination of the same and the lever half a¹
with the sliding tuck guide e for adjusting the width of tuck and for creating the
spaces between the tucking substantially as herein before described and shown.
Dated this 25th day of Octo
E. K. DUTTON & Co.,
5, John Dalton Street, Manchester, Agents.