A NEW OR IMPROVED AUTOMATIC. FEED FOR SEWING MACHINES
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Gordon de Luna Byron
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 8th August 1874.-A communication from abroad by
George Merrill, of New York, in the United States of America.
I, GEORGE GORDON DE LUNA BYRON, of 89; Chancery Lano, in the
County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "A NEW OR IMPROVED AUTOMATIC. FEED FOR SEWING MACHINES,” (a
communication to me from abroad. by George Merrill, of New York, in
the United States of America,) to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is by a simple addition or attachment to
a sewing machine to give the feed bar of the same a universal motion.
I shall in the following describe the Invention as applied to a Wheeler
&Wilson machine. For this purpose pattern whcols or strips with
depressions and indentations are applied, whereby two sets of levers
are moved inward or outward as the pattern moves. The levers are
connected with sliding bars, to one of which the feed bar is attached,

page_text: so that the fabric to be sewn may be fed in any direction in accordance
with the pattern desired to be produced. A stud with its end turned
up is secured to the frame of the machine; on this stud there is a
wheel which receives intermittent rotation from the sewing machine
shaft and is connected to the pattern wheel, against which a lever is
pressed by a spring. This lever is made of two parts, and its outer end
is jointed to a bar whichi extends outward from the frame of machine;
the lever is by means of jointed rods, springs, and levers connected to.
the feed bar in such a way that the upper portion of lever is moved in
an opposite direction to that of the other portion. On the main-shaft-
of the machine there is a wheel with a double-sided cam of the same
width as the space between, projections on the aforesaid jointed rods,
so as to pass freely between them when. rotated. There is a bell-crank'
lever jointed to the aforesaid bar extending outward from the frame of
machine, and by a link connected to the outer end of the feed bar.
The feed bar receives the usual up-and-down motion and also a motion
from side to side, and backwards and forwards. When tho pattern
whool is rotated so that the end of lever comes on the high or projecting
parts, the feed bar feeds the work forward, and when the end of lever
comes on the smaller or depressed part of pattern wheel the double-
sided cam moves the lever back, reversing the feed. The same system
is applied to the lower wheel and set of levers, and by means of the
aforesaid bell crank the feed bar is moved from side to sido in tho
same manner, a projection on the pattern causing the work to be fed
towards the operator, and' a depression causing it to be fed from the
operator, so that by moving one one distance and the other another
any desired motion or direction of feed may be given to the fabric..
The length of stitch is regulated and determined by the distance tho
levers
arc moved inward or outward from the central line.
Instead of a pattern wheel a strip with irregular edges may be used,
moved in any suitable manner where a large or elaborate pattern is
desired to be made. By this arrangement any desired size or shape of
pattern can be made automatically for, use upon shoes, harness, gloves,
carpet bags, wearing apparel, and so forth, requiring no skill on the

page_text: Instead of an intermittent motion to the wheel connected to the
pattern wheel, a continuous motion may be used by means of a screw
and worm wheel.
The work may be fed by pattern, if desired, but the plan above
described is preferred.