IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SEWING OR STITCHING TOGETHER THE NUMBERS OR SEPARATE PARTS OF A VOLUME IN THE OPERATION OF BOOKBINDING
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Garrett Tongue at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 16th May 1868.-A communication from abroad by Henry
Graham Thompson, of New York, United States of America.
I, JOHN GARRETT TONGUE, of the Firm of Tongue and Birkbeck, Patent
Agents and Engineers, of 34, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SEWING OR STITCHING
TOGETHER THE NUMBERS OR SEPARATE PARTS OF A VOLUME IN THE OPERATION
OF BOOKBINDING," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to improvements in apparatus of the character
described in the Provisional Specification of an Invention for which
Letters Patent have been granted to the said John Garrett Tongue, dated
January 10th, 1868 (No. 98). For this purpose in place of one part
of the table upon which the numbers to be sewn together are placed
being fixed or stationary, according to these improvements each part of
such table is arranged to rise and fall, so that the unstitched work can be
placed on the front table and be raised as the work is sewn or stitched
and placed upon the back table, which descends as the front table rises;

page_text: or each table may be arranged to rise and fall independently. Several
volumes may thus be sewn before they are removed from the machine,
the back threads being left long enough to separate the volumes when
they are withdrawn from the needles. "Cleats" or strips of wood or
other material, which may be adjustable, are attached to each table in
order to guide the work and prevent it "sagging," and there is also
a guide at the left-hand end of the machine to keep the ends of the
stitched parts in position and to prevent the end needle being displaced.
It is preferred to make the rear table the same width as the front table,
an adjustable guiding surface of wood or other material being attached
thereto so as to press lightly against the front of the stitched volume
or volumes to prevent their "sagging" and drawing the needles from
their vertical position. All the needles except the one on the right
hand are formed with barbs or hooks to hold the thread when the leaf
is turned over, the back threads being held in a vertical position to
cover the barbs or books when the work is being withdrawn from the
needles. Each needle is formed with an enlargement at the lower end
to prevent them from being withdrawn from the machine when the work
is removed, and the needles are so formed as to afford great facility for
the introduction of the back threads. The thread-carrying bar is so
formed as to prevent it from catching the needles in its passage across
the machine, being caused to descend at the end of its movement in
place of rising, thereby placing the loop over the left-hand needle and
dispensing with the use of the removeable hook employed in the
arrangement described in the Provisional Specification before referred to.
A stationary spring is employed to depress the end of the thread-
carrying rod to conduct it under a fixed incline in its return movement,
a spiral spring being attached to the right-hand end of the thread-
carrying rod to aid its return movement: The sewing thread employed
is dressed to a sufficient degree to cause the loop to stand out from the
needle, and thus ensure its being caught by the hook of the thread-
carrier rod. In place of inserting a back thread by means of either
or both of the end needles to hold the loops by which the numbers or
parts of the volume are held together either or both of such back
threads may be dispensed with, a length of the sewing thread being left
projecting beyond the eye of the right-hand needle and a length of
thread being looped over the left-hand needle where the back thread
is to be dispensed with before commencing to stitch the parts of a
volume together. As the stitching proceeds the thread projecting from

page_text: the right-hand needle is passed by the operator (every second or third fold
of the sheet of paper) alternately from left to right and from right to
left around the back of the needle. The thread upon the left-hand
needle is wound by the operator around the needle after every second
or third fold of paper has been stitched.