IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING OR STITCHING MACHINES
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Jackson, Machinist, of 4, Spring Terrace,
York Road, Lambeth, in the County of Surrey, for the Invention of
Sealed the 29th June 1860, and dated the 31st December 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Jackson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
31st December 1859.
I, WILLIAM JACKSON, Machinist, of 4, Spring Terrace, York Road, Lambeth,
in the County of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING OR STITCHING MACHINES," to be as follows, and
consists in the novel construction and arrangement of parts of a sewing
machine to form a knot or fast stitch. This stitch is produced by a hook
attached to or formed on the end of the main revolving shaft carrying the
thread, around a reel placed vertically against the end of the shaft. The
upper tension is so arranged as to prevent an increasing strain on the thread
whilst the hook is operating on the thread.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Jackson, in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
30th June 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
JACKSON, Machinist, of 4, Spring Terrace, York Road, Lambeth, in the
County of Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said William Jackson, Her special licence that I, the said
William Jackson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said William Jackson, my executors, 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 Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING OR STITCHING MACHINES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said William Jackson, my executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under I or their, or one of their hands and seals,
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 Jackson, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement and accompanying Drawings, that is to say:→
My "Improvements in Sewing or Stitching Machines" refer to the kind
known as the fast or knot stitch, described in the Specification of a Patent
granted to George Haseltine, dated 4th October 1859, and consists in con-
structing, the machine by a different arrangement of parts, and in. a more
simple manner than hitherto.
The accompanying Drawing represents the machine and its details in
various ways, each part or piece being denoted by the same letters. or. figures
throughout all the views.
Fig. 1 shews a side elevation or back view of the machine; Fig. 2 is a

page_text: vertical section from the front, shewing the interior of the hollow fixed arm
containing the bent lever for working the needle bar, &c.; Fig. 3 is a front
view or working end of the machine; Fig. 4 is a transverse section of the
machine through the line Ax; Bx, see Fig. 2; Fig. 5 is an under view, or as
seen by the machine being turned with its lower side upwards; Fig. 6 is a
front view of the needle bar, the feeding bar or propeller for moving the
material forward at an enlarged or full size, the former Figs. being one half
real size. Fig. 7 is a full-size longitudinal section of the front end of the
machine, shewing a part of the horizontal shaft with its disc on the end, and
outer cap or supporter for the case containing the thread reel; Fig. 8 is a
front view of the spool or recl caso; Fig. 9, à side view of the same, the
dotted lines shewing the section; Fig. 10 is an edge view of the reel, and
Fig. 11 a side view of it; Fig. 12 is a section of part of the disc on the end
of the shaft, with its hook for carrying the upper thread around the reel case;
Fig. 13, a plan outline of part of the disc, and Fig. 14 a front view of the
same. In these three Figures the needle and thread are down in the lowest
position with the hook advanced, so as to be ready to take the inner thread
from the needle, and carry it down and around in the circular line until it
slips off, and is drawn up to the work. These three Figures are magnified, or
drawn to twice the real size, for greater perspicuity. Fig. 15 is a half-size
developement or spreading out of the circumference of the cam on the shaft
for moving the needlo bar; Fig. 16 is an end view of the cam or excentric
figure for moving the lever for keeping the upper thread in tension; Fig. 17
represents a cam fixed on the end of the horizontal shaft C close to the inside
of the hand wheel or pulley for working the bent end of a rocking shaft for
propelling the material forward. Figs. 18, 19, 20, represents à method of
constructing the front or working end of the machine for moving the material
under operation forward by the horizontal shaft C; Fig. 18 is a transverse
section, shewing the revolving disc, propeller, & screw stop; Fig. 19 is a plan
or top view, and Fig. 20 the appearance of the end, or end elevation of
the same.
The object and operation of the several parts comprising this machine will
be as follows:-A, A, A, A, is the bed plate or frame of the machine; B is
a hollow fixed arm or piece securely fastened to the bed plate; C, C, the
horizontal axis or shaft working in bearings at a, b. This shaft is so adjusted
as to work freely in the bearings, but is prevented from having any endway
play by a pair of "jamb nuts" c, d, outside the hand or fly wheel; D is the
disc, screwed or otherways fixed securely on the shaft. This disc has a recess

page_text: or indentation in the centre for supporting the inner side of the reel case, and
also the thread hook is screwed or fixed in the face near the outside; E is a
fly wheel for being worked by hand or pulley, for a band or strap, from a foot
or other driving wheel; F is the cam or grooved cylinder for working the
needle bar, having a sunk groove e, f, around its circumference, to receive a
pin on the end of the working lever. This groove e, f, is fully shewn by
Fig. 15, wherein the circumference is delineated as a flat surface. G is the
bent lever contained in the hollow arm, working on a centre or pin at g, the
lower end being moved by the cam aforesaid, and the long end working the
needle bar; II is the needle bar, having the needle fixed in its lower end by a
set screw, and is moved up and down by the bent lever G taking hold of a pin
fixed in a projecting part of the needle bar, as seen at 8 in Fig. 2; I is the
propelling bar, with its scrated foot for moving the material forward. The
motion for moving this bar and advancing the material forward is obtained by
the cam J, Fig. 17, pressing the lever M of the rocking shaft N in the
direction of the arrow; and as the lever O, see Fig. 1, on the other end of this
rocking shaft has a similar motion, the propelling foot will be moved in the
direction of its arrow by the end of the lever O, which is bent to come inside
of the propelling bar, as at 12. The pitch or distance of the stitches is
adjusted by the screw m, the end of which touches or presses against the
middle or inner part n of the outer plate, and on its being turned in or out
the required space of stitch is obtained. The propelling foot is kept towards
the needle bar by a spring 13, the upper end of which is fastened by the
shoulder of the stud q, and is held down by an elastic band r from the stud y
to that of p fixed in the bar. This bar I is lifted by the projection on the back
of the needle bar when it has reached nearly to its lowest position, depressing
the end of the small lever 18, the other end of which lever lifts the bar I by
pressing against the pin 14 projecting from the inside of the bar. The finger
projections is for the convenience of lifting the propeller for putting the
material under its foot. It will be observed that the cams must be fixed in
such relative positions to each other on the shaft as to produce each motion at
the right time; for instance, on the descent of the needle the outer end of the
thread lever K must also descend, and the propeller must be pushed off by its
cam whilst the needle is up. J is the outer support or holder for the reel
case to keep it against the end of the shaft and disc, but at a sufficient distance
to allow the needle thread passing around it both back and front. This holder
has a slot at the top, and is fixed in its proper place by the set screw t, so that
it can be drawn back sufficiently when the screw is loosened to allow the reel

page_text: case to be taken out. K, Fig. 1, is a lever moving on a centre pin at g, for
drawing up the needle thread at the time the needle is ascending, so as to
prevent any slack taking place. This lever is moved by the eccentric L, (Figs.
4 and 16,) fixed on the horizontal shaft, which depresses the small lever u.
drawing down the rod v, by which means the outer end of the lever at u' is
raised, and the thread drawn up by the terminating wire spring x. The
end w of this loyer is held down by a spring band, the lower end of which is
fastened to the pin 1.
In the other method of moving the material forward, or propelling,
shewn at Figs. 18, 19, 20, D represents the hook disc with a tooth or
tappet 6 fixed to its outside; Ex is the propeller, having its support at each
end in the sides of the bed plate; Fx is an adjusting screw to regulate the
distance of the stitches. On the revolution of the shaft taking place, the
tappet lifts up the propeller, and pushes it forward until it escapes the edge or
heel, when the action of a spring placed in any convenient manner pushes it
back again ready for another stitch into the position shewn by the dotted lines.
In preparing this machine for work, the reel, Fig. 10, is filled with thread by
a winding apparatus, or otherways, and placed in the case, as seen at Fig. 12,
the end of the thread being passed through as many of the small holes of the
case 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, as may be necessary to produce the requisite tension, the
last hole through which it is passed being the one marked 6; it then is put
into its situation at the end of the shaft with the end of the thread hanging
down. The upper reel on the top of the machine being also supplied with
thread, the end of which is brought through a hole at the top of end of the
hollow arm 5, and is then led to and passed through a loop at the end of the
spring, from whence it is led down and passes through a hole in the outside
of the needle bar, then through the eye of the needle, is then held towards the
right hand, and is ready for the material. In setting to work the needle
carries the upper thread down through the material, and descends to the
position shown by the enlarged Figures, Figs. 12, 13, 14. At this time the
hook in the disc enters between the needle and the inner thread, and carries
it down around the reel embracing the reel thread, when it slips off the hook,
and is drawn up and tightened by the lever K producing the first stitch.
Having now fully described the nature and object of my Invention, the
manner in which the machine is constructed, and also the mode of its
application, I wish it to be understood that I do not confine myself to the
precise details herein described and illustrated, as modifications may be made
to suit different classes of work to which it may be applied, without departing

page_text: from the leading features of my Invention; but what I claim as my Invention
is, the general arrangement and combination of machinery, as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Jackson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
Witnessd by
J. R. HILL,
Civil Engineer & P. Agent,
7, Duke St., Adelphi.
WILLIAM JACKSON. (L.B.)