IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF APPARATUS TO APPLY TO SEWING MACHINES FOR MAKING EMBROIDERY AND OTHER LIKE ORNAMENTAL WORK
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Evans, at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 5th May
1864.
I, THOMAS EVANS, of the City of Manchester, County of Lancaster,
Machinist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF APPARATUS TO APPLY TO SEWING MACHINES FOR
MAKING EMBROIDERY AND OTHER LIKE ORNAMENTAL WORK," to be as follows:-
These improvements relate to the mode of making embroidery by means of
throwing one or more threads of silk, wool, or other like materials to and fro
across the path of the needle in ordinary sewing machines, and thus inter-
weave the said thread or threads with the sewing threads, as shewn and
described in George Mumby's Specification, for which Letters Patent were
granted unto him, dated in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-seven, No. 1618.
My improvements consist, firstly, in constructing the vibrating carriers or
arms which throw the embroidering threads to and fro to work upon separate
centres or pivots, and with small toothed wheels or sectors upon them, which
are in gear so that when a rotatory movement is given to one it is transmitted
to the other by means of the said toothed wheels or sectors.
Secondly, in arranging the said thread carriers or arms to rotate in a
horizontal plane upon centres behind the needle, that is to say, over the
finished work, the threads being carried at the same height through their
entire stroke. The ends of the arms, which have a pendulous movement, as

page_text: used at present, rise at the end of each stroke, and one thread is higher from
the cloth than the other to enable them to pass, whereas when the arms are
horizontal one arm can be made longer than the other and the thread still
remain at the same height.
Thirdly, to apply sewing machines having the feed motion below the surface
of the table, to make this embroidery, I substitute for the ordinary presser a
presser with a hinge which will allow a portion of the presser nearest to the
needle to rise and fall at each stroke of the thread carriers, so that the
embroidering thread or threads can pass beneath.
Fourthly, my improvements consist in an improved mode of constructing
the slide, lever, and fingers used in the machine described in Joseph Willcock's
Specification, dated Eighteenth July One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
two, No. 2051. In lieu of fastening the slide carrying the fingers to a spring
screwed to the goose neck, I fasten the slide to a hinged lever or lever turning
upon a pivot, and arrange a spring to press against the said lever, or make a
curved slot in the lever to give the reciprocating motion; the fingers are thus
more certain and steadier in their action, also the fingers are attached to the
slide by means of vertical bolts having a small nut at the top that can be
screwed tight by the operator's hand. The centres upon which the fingers are
held are sufficiently wide apart that when the fingers are extended for the
widest braid they are parallel, and as the joints are vertical they can be moved
and always move in a horizontal plane.