IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING MACHINES
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Callebaut, of 2, Rue Sainte Appoline, Paris,
France, and of 4, South Street, Finsbury, London, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING MACHINES."
Sealed the 31st October 1862, and dated the 20th August 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Callebaut at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
20th August 1862.
I, CHARLES CALLEBAUT, of 2, Rue Sainte Appoline, Paris, France, and
of 4, South Street, Finsbury, London, do hereby declare the nature of my
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING MACHINES," to be as follows, that is
to say:-
My improvements are applicable to sewing machines.
The first part of my Invention has for object to obtain a double whip stitch,
either crossed or zig-zag on the edge of the stuff. To obtain this stitch I
employ a two-thread shuttle 'machine, which, as also its stuff propeller, may be
of any suitable construction, and this part of my Invention consists in adding
thereto a hook or a piece of mechanism, answering the same purpose, operating
as follows, and worked by the machine. When the needle after forming a
loop has risen above the table, this hook is made to catch hold of the thread
037

page_text: to turn it over the edge of the fabric, and bring it back underneath, so as to
forni a second loop, through which the shuttle passes; this movement of the
hook takes place at the same time as the stuff advances. When required to
make the ordinary back stitch, the movement of the hook is suspended, and
the needle and shuttle continue alone to work. This arrangement is well
adapted for sewing on the edge of the fabric, but I employ other arrangements
for sewing in the middle of the stuff, as described in the second part of my
Invention.
To carry out the second part of my Invention, I suppose a machine, in
which the movement of the needle carrier and stuff propeller is obtained by a
horizontal shaft placed at the upper part of the machine. On this shaft I
place a pinion, cogging with a wheel placed on an axis fixed by a bracket to
the machine, and double the diameter of the pinion. This wheel carries a
segmentary or excentric piece, which acts on a roller, mounted on a lever,
connected with the stuff propeller, in such manner that if the ordinary move-
ment of the propeller is in a transversal direction, the excentric piece of the
double diameter wheel, will propel the stuff in a longitudinal direction, and
thus I obtain a simultaneous movement of the fabric in a transversal and
longitudinal direction, and form the zig-zag stitch. If the ordinary back
stitch only is required, the double diameter wheel must be rendered immo-
veable.
The third part of my Invention consists in employing the same arrangement
of wheels of different diameters to obtain at intervals a retrograde movement
of a length equal to that of a half stitch, so as to form a superposed stitch,
which both gives strength and elasticity to the sewing, which is well adapted
for knitted fabrics or other elastic articles.
The fourth part of my Invention consists in employing a guide for unrolling
and assisting the sewing of the knitted fabric, composed of several flexible
blades, between which the knitted fabric to be sewn is engaged, and of a
moveable piece for regulating the width of the tuck.
The fifth part of my Invention consists in employing a guide for hemming
umbrellas or other like articles, in which it is necessary to make an edgeing,
formed with a groove of a spiral form, somewhat similar to hemming guides
with the exception that the centre is formed of a rather thick part, in which a
hole is made for the passage of the edgeing.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Callebaut in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
19th February 1863.
TO ALL 10 WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
CALLEBAUT, of 2, Rue Sainte Appoline, Paris, France, and of 4, South Street,
Finsbury, London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Charles Callebaut, Her special licence, that I, the said Charles
Callebaut, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others.as
1, the said Charles Callebaut, 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, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain'
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IM.
PROVEMENTS IN SEWING MACHINES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Charles Callebaut, 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 Seal
Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE that I, the said Charles Callebaut, 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 thereof, reference being had to the Drawing hereto annexed, and to
the figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say :-
The first part of my Invention consists to obtain a stitch, or properly called
a cross stitch, on the edge of stuff, represented Figs. 1, 2, & 3; the form of
this point or stitch is represented Figs. 2 & 3. I suppose a machine with two
threads and with a shuttle, having the power to make the ordinary point or
stitch; when I want to obtain the cross stitch on the edge of the stuff, I raise
to the inferior part of the shaft a an excentric with a gorge b, which commands
a lever c; at the extremity of this lever is placed a hook d, destined to produce
the cross stitch; with this effect after having formed the loop, in which passes
the shuttle, the needle remounts and passes underneath the table; the book d

page_text: comes and seizes the thread and brings it underneath in order to let the shuttle
come and pass to make the new loop, the same movement of the hook operates
at the same time as the stuff moves the length of the stitch obtained; the length
of the stitch is determined by a guide e, which comes against the object that is
stitched. If you want to obtain much longer, you lengthen the guide from the
needle, the hook d is articulated to produce the different movements that are
necessary; the movement vertical is given by the excentric b; the movement
backwards and forwards is obtained by means of two buttons f and g; the
button pushes the hook forwards to seize the thread by the means of a cam h,
when the lever c redescends the spring i produces the movement backwards
to bring the thread round to the edge of the stuff; the button g comes and
acts in its turn to bring the thread to the shuttle, and disengages the thread
from the hook. A stretcher m is effected by the movement of sewing a
cross point, independant of the other stretcher n. When you want to obtain a
point or an ordinary stitch, you engage the extremity of the lever c in the
stop k, and there is only the needle and the shuttle working; a spring 1 forces
the lever to move in the gorge of the excentric when you make the cross stitch.
I ought to say here that the shuttle employed in this machine is a shuttle of
two points, because of its functions of going backwards and forwards.
Well,
I have described and represented in the Drawings a machine producing the
result announced, I desire that it should be well understood that it is only
an example, and that I can employ all other combinations to obtain the same
result.
The second part of my Invention, described in Figs. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9,
shows a disposition permitting to obtain the point in a zig-zag, Fig. 7, in the
middle of the stuff. The Fig. 4 is a side view of the carrier; Fig. 5 an opposite
view of the operator; & Fig. 6 is a front view of the machine. The needle
carrier a can be put in any way, and also the shuttle on the axis c, carrying
the excentric, or all other acting mechanics moving the needle carrier. I
wedge a cog wheel d, working with another wheel e of a larger diameter; this
wheel carries a cam f, that carries in its rotary movements a lever g, having
its centre articulated g¹, to its upper part a roller bowl h, it receives its motion
from the cam f, and crossing at a lower part of the lever g, having the form
of a fork, in which is engaged the branch of the doe's foot or carrier of the
stuff i, which is articulated on i¹, a screw ; leaning against the middle of the
wheel e, rules the length of the stitch in its way; the movement of taking in
the other way is produced by means of the cam k that acts on an elbow lever 1,
articulated in 1; a screw m it is to rule the length of the stitch in its way
with this disposition; the carrying is for ordinary stitching in the way of the

page_text: arrow n, Fig. 7; when you employ the mechanism for the zig-zag stitch, the
thread takes the direction Fig. 8, the wheel e having a diameter double the
other wheel d, the revolution of the cog wheel d producing the stitch repre-
sented Fig. 8, & two revolutions of the cog wheel d, & a revolution of the
wheel e produce the stitch complete, Fig. 9; if you move one or the other of
these screws ; or m, you can vary the length of the stitch in one way or the
other. If you want to do the ordinary stitch, it is sufficient to tighten the
screw j, and the roller bowl h, it does not receive the motion of the cam f, the
motion of the zig-zag stops untouched, and the carrying will do anything but
follow the course of the arrow, Fig. 7. I could also employ the machine repre-
sented Fig. 10, it only shows the extremity of the shaft n is placed an excentric
moving system of the lever printing the movement of the carrying lever.
give the second example only to show that you can use different combinations
of machinery to arrive only at the first result.
I
The third part of my Invention, represented Figs. 10, 11, 12, and 13,
consists in obtaining with the shuttle machine a very elastic stitch, very
convenient to sew flannel or other elastic stuffs. To obtain this result I place
an excentric r, on which rolls a roller bowl r', fixed on a lever; the ruler of
the stitch & commands the carrier of the stuff or the doe's foot s¹, all the
motion produced by the excentric 7, each represented on the carrier of the
stuff; the wheel e is double the diameter of the other d, that commands the
needle, the wheel e could make a revolution every other two stitches, as it has
presented itself for my Invention of the cross stitch; the excentric calculated
to produce this effect in a revolution, a length of stitch forward, and a half a
length backwards. I obtain the stitch represented Fig. 12, which is very
elastic, and at the same time very solid; when you only wish to make the
ordinary stitch you undo the screw x, and you place the piece y in communica-
tion with the cam wheel z, and the roller bowl ¹ does not act.
The fourth part of my Invention consists of a guide, to unroll or stitch the
knitting, Figs. 16, 17, and 18; this guide is composed of two flexible blades
a and b, brought together on the flat side c; a third blade d is flexible in one
part of its length, and enlarges on c; a button hole f is practicable in the third
part to receive a moveable piece, a slide g, destined to regulate the length to
fill the cavity.
The fifth part of my Invention consists of a guide, for the purpose of
hemming umbrellas, and it is shown Figs. 19, 20, 21; it is composed of a
-slide-or-groove a, rounded at one end and flattened at the other; near the
middle of the centre there is a hole b, where you place a cotton cord;. the

page_text: form of this orifice is calculated so that the stuff can well envelope the cotton
cord; the guide is fixed on the machine by means of a screw c.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I would have it understood that what I
claim, is,―
Firstly, the disposition described higher up in Figs. 1, 2, and 3, the Drawings
permit me to do the cross stitch on the edge of the stuff, by means of a shuttle
machine, by the adding of a hook, which seizes the thread and makes the
outline of the stuff.
Secondly, the disposition, represented Figs. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, permits
me to obtain the cross stitch or zig-zag in the middle of the stuff.
Thirdly, the disposition represented in Figs. 10, 11, and 12, it permits me to
bring the stuff back on itself the length of a half stitch, to obtain a stitch much
more elastic.
Fourthly, in a guide, represented Fig. 16, 17, and 18, to unroll or help stitch
the knitting.
Fifthly, in a guide to hem umbrellas or any other analogous articles, repre-
sented Figs. 19, 20, and 21.
In witness whereof, J, the said Charles Callebaut, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
CH. CALLEBAUT, AINE. (L.8.)