IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING MACHINES
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical
Draughtsman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING
MACHINES." A communication from abroad by Benjamin Porter
Howe, of the City and State of New York, United States of
America..
Sealed the 19th May 1871, and dated the 2nd January 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 2nd January 1871.
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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING
MACHINES," to be as follows:-
This Invention is applicable to different kinds and forms of sewing
machines including most of those now manufactured or in use, and
relates to an adjustable needle bar box or needle bar guide by which the
'

page_text: needle, whether coarse or fine, can be readily adjusted in a positive manner
and made to operate in any required proximity to the shuttle race,
shuttle hook, or other device used for securing the loop of the needle
thread.
Provision also is made by this Invention for hanging the lifting lever
which raises or lowers the device used to hold the material down on the
table so that said lever in different adjustments of the needle bar box or
needle bar guide is relieved of shake and made to occupy a fixed relation
to said box or guide with which the presser or pressure device is
connected.
In carrying out this Invention I construct the needle bar box or guide
separately from the bracket arm of the sewing machine and connect it to
the front end thereof by means of a screw or screws which pass freely
through the bracket arm and fit into tapped holes in the box or guide.
The lower screw passes through a cylindrical projection on the end of
the bracket arm which projection is threaded to receive a set nut. This
nut is flanged and furnished with a milled edge, and is intended to bear
up against the guide box and to hold it firmly in position when adjusted
by the connecting screws, so as to bring the needle of the needle bar in
proper relation to the shuttle race, the shuttle or hook, or other looping
device. Mounted upon this nut which forms a fulcrum is the lever
which serves to lift the presser foot or presser wheel out of action, and
as this nut is kept in contact with the needle bar guide box the position
of the presser foot or wheel relatively to the needle (when the same are
in action) will always be the same.
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 30th June 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the 30
County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Second day of January, in the year

page_text: of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, Her special
licenco that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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 there-
after 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 Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING MACHINES," being a communication to
me from abroad by Benjamin Porter Howe, 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 my, 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 Scal 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 ascertained in and
by the following statement, reference being had to the Drawing here-
unto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thercon (that is
to say):
This Invention is applicable to different kinds and forms of sewing
machines, including most of those now manufactured or in use, and
relates to the setting of an adjustable needle bar box or needle bar guide
by which the needle, whether coarse or fine, can be readily adjusted in
a positive manner and made to operate in any required proximity to the
shuttle racc and shuttle or the hook or other device used for securing
the loop of the needle thread.
Provision also is made by this Invention for hanging the lifting lever
which raises or lowers the device used to hold the material down on the
table so that said lever in different. adjustments of the needle bar
box or needle bar guide is relieved of shake and made to occupy a fixed

page_text: relation to the box or guide with which the presser or pressure device is
connected.
In carrying out these improvements it is a necessary prerequisite that
the needle bar box or needle bar guide be constructed separately from
the stationary arm post or frame which supports the needle arm, and
the Invention consists in providing for the support and adjustment in a
positive manner of said needle bar box or needle bar guide by means of
a screw or screws arranged to pass freely through the stationary arm or
frame which supports the needle arm and made to fit a female thread
or threads in the needle bar box or guide in combination with a set nut
arranged to fit a screw thread on a boss which projects from the portion
of the stationary frame in proximity to the lower adjusting screw, which
nut also serves as the bearing for the lifting lever by which the pressure
device is raised from off the surface of the material and moved out of the
way when required.
In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 represents in side view the front
portion of a sewing machine constructed in accordance with the In-
vention; Fig. 2 is a sectional view of the same; Fig. 3 is a front view
of the stationary arm or frame which supports the needle arm;
and
Fig. 4 is a like view of said part with the lifting lever of a pressure
wheel in its place on the set nut which screws on to the boss of the
stationary arm, showing also the pressure wheel and its connection in
dotted lines. Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts
throughout the several Figures.
,
A is the frame which supports the needle arm, and B, B, the needle bar
box, which may either be constructed in two parts vertically in line with
the needle bar C, or be provided with adjustable caps b, b, in front; C' is
the needle arm. The needle bar box B, B, is suitably attached at its
upper end preferably by a screw D'to the front portion of the frame A
to provide for its adjustment below or bodily towards or away from the
face of the frame by means of a screw D¹ and set nut E. These upper
and lower screws D, D', are both arranged to pass freely through the
face portion of the frame A with their heads bearing on the back of the
latter, and with the forward portion of their shanks made to screw into
female threaded or tapped holes.c, c', in the needle bar box B, B.
Arranged to screw on to a boss d which projects from the face of the
frame A and which is preferably in concéntric relation with the lower
screw D' is the flanged set nut E that serves as the screws D, D¹, arc

page_text: turned to the right or to the left to bear up against the back of the
needle bar box alike for the purpose of setting said box outwards or of
providing for its adjustment inwards by the screws accordingly as said
nut is turned to the right or to the left. When adjusted this nut also
serves to form a steady support for the needle bar box, and it furthermore
answers as the fulcrum or bearing for the lifting lever F which operates
the presser that bears down on the material to be sewn, such presser
being of any suitable description but preferably in the form of a wheel G,
and the lifting lever F preferably being so constructed or bent and the
presser wheel so hung and connected that in being raised by the lever F
it is also turned out of the way. By thus making the flanged set nut E
the fulcrum or bearing of the lifting lever F the latter in all adjustments
of the needle bar box is relieved of shake and made to retain a fixed
relation to the box with which the pressure device or its bar is connected,
so as to work in proper relation with the needle. In this way or by
these means is a ready provision made for bringing in a positive manner
the needle in any required proximity to the shuttle race and shuttle or
the hook or other device used for securing the loop of the needle thread
and of holding the same at its set. Such adjustment secures the loop
of the thread formed by the action of the eye-pointed needle being
properly presented to the loop-securing device, and so that the needle
moves close to said device without coming in contact therewith, thus
avoiding the breaking of the needle and preventing the dropping or
missing of stitches. The loop-securing device is supposed in the Drawing
to be a shuttle working in a race (of which e is the face) immediately
below the table H, and in suitable proximity to which the needle fis
represented as operating, but the Invention is equally applicable where
other loop-securing devices are used.
Having now set forth the nature of the Invention of "Improve-
ments in Sewing Machines," as communicated to me by my foreign
correspondent, and explained the manner of carrying the same into
effect, I wish it to be understood that under the above in part recited
Letters Patent I claim,-
First. Providing in a positive manner for the adjustment of the needle
relatively to the loop-securing device by means of a screw or screws and
a set nut in combination with a separate needle bar box or needle bar
guide and the frame which carries the needle arm, as above described.

page_text: Secondly. The combination with the flanged set nut E on the threaded
boss d of the lifting lever F in the manner and for the purpose above
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have here-
unto set my hand and scal, the Thirtieth day of June, in the year of 5
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.