IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH SEWING MACHINES
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Reid, of the City of Glasgow, in the
County of Lanark, North Britain, Shirt Manufacturer, for the In-
vention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH SEWING MACHINES."
Sealed the 18th June 1875, and dated the 23rd April 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Reid at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
23rd April 1875.
I, WILLIAM REID, of the City of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, Shirt Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH SEWING MACHINES,"
to be as follows:-
-
This said Invention consists to some extent in improvements upon that
for which Royal Letters Patent were granted to the Petitioner, dated the
15th January 1875, No. 166, and particularly or essentially in making or
winding and using cops or balls of thread for the upper or needle thread
of sowing machines, preferably hollow, to be wound off from the inside

page_text: (as the shuttle thread in the said former Patented Invention) but made
large to give a long continuous supply of this thread without the
trouble of changing. When so wound and used they would be inserted
in a small retaining and protecting box or case secured to the stationary
arm, or other convenient part of the sewing machine; and having a top |
or side lid or cover, preferably with light elastic sides or ends, which
would retain the cop so as to remove it with the cover; the thread
would pass off through a small hole in the centre of one or other of
the ends (or in the side) of the case, in a line with the centre or axis of
the cop and then laterally over a slit or eye under a tension or
"kink," removing spring and pin (as in the said former Invention), and
off laterally round a reversing pin, eye, or other equivalent to the usual
differential tension mechanism of the particular sewing machine to
which these improvements are applied.
G
The cop holding case or retaining cover might have a spring fitted:
within it, or it might be a thin layer of india-rubber or suitable elastic
fabric to hold the cop from falling inwards when it got reduced to a thin
layer or shell. The cop case might be set horizontally or vertically, and
although the cops have been described as preferably made bollow and
unwound from the inside, it is to be understood that they might also
be wound conically in the ordinary manner (as cops or pirns for
weaving with or without a light central paper or other core) and be
wound off from the outside, as such cops and pirns usually are; all
otherwise substantially as herein described, in reference to the unwinding
from the inside of the hollow cop for the upper or needle threads of
sewing machines.
The last improvement consists in unwinding the upper thread from
the hank by mounting it on a reel revolving loosely on the spindle,
secured to a frame attached to the sewing machine, and passing the
thread as it is unwound under the tension and "kink," removing spring
and pin before mentioned, or an equivalent therefor, on its way to
the ordinary differential tension mechanism and needle of the sewing
machine.

page_text: filed by the said William Reid in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 21st October 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
REID, of the City of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Shirt Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-eighth
year of Hor reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said William Reid, Her special licence that I, the said
William Reid, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said William Reid, my exccutors, 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 King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man,
an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH SEWING MACHINES,”
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Reid,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands and scals, 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 William Reid, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement in writing, reference being had to the accompanying
Sheet of Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that
is to say :-
My said Invention consists, to some extent, in improvements upon
that for which Royal Letters Patent were granted to me, dated the 15th
January 1875, No. 166, and particularly or essentially in making or
winding and using cops or balls of thread for the upper or needle thread

page_text: And in order that the nature, novelty, and mode of performing my
said Invention may be properly understood I will now proceed to
describe the several Figures on the accompanying Sheet of Drawings
which I have hereunto appended for the purpose of showing the best
modes and means I am at present aware of for practically carrying the
same into effect. The same letters of reference indicating the samo or
like parts in all the Figures where shown.
Figures 1 and 2 are a side elevation and plan of the upper part of a
sewing machine, as fitted with one modification of my improvements in
connection with the supplying of the upper or needle thread, in which the
thread is first wound in short hanks, and placed on a reel adjacent to the
sewing machine; and Figure 3 shows a front view of the said recl and
its carrying frame, with the hank stretched thereon.
Figure 4 shows another modification of my said improvements in
connection with the upper or needle thread, in which the thread is first
wound on pirns and placed on a spindle fixed on or adjacent to the arm
or frame of the sewing machine, and from which the thread is led to
the needle.
23
The thread to be used for the upper or needle thread in sewing
machines by these said improvements is first wound in an ordinary
manner into short hanks of long unbroken thread, which would recl
from beginning to end from the outside of the hank when placed on the
sewing machine reel to be herein-after described; or these hanks may
be rewound from the usual long hanks on a small_winding reel of a
suitable and ordinary construction, preferably of about eighteen inches
in circumferential length, which hanks so wound may be taken off this
special reel and packed and sold in boxes with the outer or running
end of each hank tied, so as to be easily loosened when the hank is
required to be shaken out and placed on the reel of the sewing
) machine,
Referring to Figures 1, 2, and 3, one of these hanks of thread A so
wound and prepared is shaken out and spread over the outer longitudinal
ribs or stretchers 6 of the new or improved reel B carried by the outer end
journals of its spindle B' in open bearings C' in the upper bow arms of
5 the standard O, secured at its lower end to the table at the back or side
of the arm of the sewing machine. One of the ribs or stretchers 6 at
6¹ is made to oscillate by its radial arms 6" on the spindle B¹ or bosses B"

page_text: of the reel B to facilitate the placing and stretching of the hank thereon,
which arms 6" may be held in their radial or outstretched position by
holding studs B³ or other equivalent catch or springs fixed to the side
bosses at B¹¹. The free end of the thread a from the outside of the
hank A is led through an ordinary guide eye D in the rod D¹ (or other 5
equivalent) attached to and projecting up from the back of the arm &
of the sewing machine, thence down between the improved kink
removing or tension spring or springs d and under the pin d', the
spring & being tightened up by the pinching screw d" to regulate the
desired tension on the thread, the whole being carried on the small 1
bracket d* or other equivalent at the top of the arm h, as shown to a
large scale in Figure 4, and in detached edge view at Figure 5. From
this improved tension or kink removing spring the thread is carried in
a usual manner forward to the ordinary guides or eyes 2¹, 2¹¹, to
any of the usual tension mechanisms, as at x, thence to the needle y all 1
at the front of the arm z of the sewing machine.
L
To give some slight tension to the thread a as it is being wound from
the hank and reel A, B, a small pacing weight b³ is hung by a loop or
other equivalent to a groove in the centre of the spindle B¹ of tho reel,
which prevents the reel from jerking or overrunning the speed of the 2
thread, thus giving off the thread a in a regular and steady manner.
When different kinds of thread are desired to be frequently used in
the same sewing machine to save the removing and replacing of hanks
several of these light reels might be kept with hanks of the different
threads on them ready for being placed in the stationary standard C, C¹. 2
Referring to Figure 4, this shows the application and use of the thread
wound on pirns, much in the manner used for weaving, but preferably
wound with a greater or more acute conical angle. Each pirn A*, B*,
so wound is placed on a spindle / preferably in a vertical position, set
upon a joint pin as at i fixed laterally to a projection from the back of 3
the arm or other convenient part of the sewing machine with a
spring h¹ below the broad heel or lower end of the spindle k, so that the
pirn B* on it may be placed horizontally when desired, and held firmly
in either of these positions by the strength of the spring ². The thread a
is led from the pirn A* up, through, or over a guide eye D at the top of
the rod D¹ secured in the arms z below, and down under the guide
pin d¹ and between the two kink removing springs d, fixed at their lower

page_text: onds to the carrying bracket d*; the springs & being tightened up to
give any desired tension on the thread by the thumbscrew ɖu in a
retaining buckle secured to the bracket near the middle of the springs,
all as more particularly shown in the detached edge view, Figure 5.
From this improved tension spring clip the thread a is then led in an
ordinary manner to the usual guides and tension mechanism, thence to
the needle, as described in reference to Figures 1 to 3, but in some cases
this improved tension and kink removing spring, Figure 5, will be found
sufficient without passing the thread through the other ordinary tension
mechanism.
In some cases, when preferred, the pirn A*, B*, might be protected
by an outer case k, k', to keep the thread clean or free from dust, or the
chance of anything touching it to break it, as by having a disc or
ferrule k fixed to the bottom of the spindle h below the pirn B and
having the outer protecting case or cover ² only inserted tightly on it
for case of removal and replacement by a now pirn.
Although in Figure 4 I have only shown and described this upper
thread a as wound on and used from pirns B*, it is to be understood
that this thread may be wound in like manner, either on paper or other
centres or cores, or even without any core, and merely with a hole for
inserting them on the spindle h, or otherwise the thread might be wound
in the form of hollow cops or balls, and placed in protecting or holding
cases fixed to the arm z, or other suitable part of the sewing machine,
with loose retaining and protecting covers, and a hole at one end for the
running end of the thread uncoiling from the inside of such hollow cops
or balls, and then led to the new or improved tension and kink removing
spring d, d¹, d, and thence in an ordinary manner to the needle y,
through the ordinary guides and regulating tension mechanism as
herein-before described in reference to the thread a from the hank A or
pirn A*, B*.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is or may be performed. I have to state that

page_text: First. The modes of and means or mechanism for using thread in the
form of cops, balls, pirns, or hanks, for the upper or needle thread
of sewing machines, all substantially in the new or improved manner
herein described in reference to and shown in the accompanying
Drawings.
Second. The construction and use of a portable recl for using the
upper or needle thread of sewing machines in the form of hanks,
substantially as herein described in reference to and shown in the
accompanying Drawings.
Third. The construction and use of the tension and kink removing
spring d, d', du, for the upper or needle thread of sewing machines,
substantially as herein described in reforence to and particularly shown
in Figures 4 and 5 of the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whercof, I, the said William Reid, have hereunto set
my hand and scal, this Twentieth day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.
Witness,
W. R. M. THOMSON,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
WILLIAM REID. (L.S.)