IMPROVE- MENTS IN SHUTTLE SEWING MACHINES AND THE PRODUCTION OF A NEW KIND OF STITCH THEREBY
Year: 1862

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Meek Todd at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 19th March
1862.
I, GEORGE MEEK TODD, of No. 84, Hackney Road, in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN SHUTTLE SEWING MACHINES AND THE PRODUCTION OF A NEW KIND OF
STITCH THEREBY," to be as follows:--
This Invention relates to those machines known as "shuttle sewing
machines," and consists,―
1stly, of the formation of a new stitch in the following manner:-The
needle carrying a thread passes down through the material to be sewn, and
forms a loop through which the shuttle (also carrying a thread) passes hori-
zontally; the shuttle then passes over its own thread (which may be in
proceeding or may be in returning to its original position); the two threads
when drawn up in proper tension by the respective motions of the shuttle and
the needle will form the "tie knot stitch." Now I know well that the means
herein-before described of making a stitch (except the plan of passing the
shuttle over its own thread after it has passed through the loop formed by the
needle) are not new, therefore I do not claim any Invention in them; what I
claim is, the plan of making the 'tie knot stitch' by passing the shuttle with
its thread over the slack of its own thread, after it has passed the loop formed

page_text: by the needle thread (the means hereafter described), and then giving both
threads the proper degree of pull in different directions.
2ndly, the means whereby the slack of the shuttle thread is placed and held
in position at the proper time is by a vertical circular movement holding a slot
pin, and such pin running in a cam or slot plate, which plate being within
upright slides on the motion being given will cause an up-and-down movement
of the plate at any time required, according to the particular shape of the slot
in the plate, and at the top of the plate there shall be a small upright rod
carried by the plate, and at the top part of the rod a hook; the rod will also
have a horizontal reciprocating circular motion given (to catch hold of and
pull down the slack of the shuttle thread) from the circular vertical movement
by a smooth and raised plate fixed theron, and acting when required according
to its size and position on a protruding pin from the rod, the backward move-
ment being provided for by a spring; all such movements, means, and
apparatus may be placed under the shuttle race, or thereabouts, and derive
their motion from the ordinary motion of the sewing machine. The same
operation may be performed by various other mechanical means.
3rdly, of a contrivance inside the shuttle in the form of a squirrel cage,
having a circular horizontal or a circular vertical movement deriving its
motion from the passage of the shuttle in the shuttle race, and having for its
object the untwisting of the shuttle thread, and thus obviating the consequences
of the twisting, to which is or will be or may be liable by the operation which
effects the purpose of this Invention.