IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING MACHINES
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Stuart Guinness at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 9th
January 1866.
I, WILLIAM STUART GUINNESS, of 42, Cheapside, in the City of London,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
SEWING MACHINES," to be as follows:-
The Invention has for its object improvements in sewing machines.
The first part of my Invention consists in applying ribs or fins to shuttles,
bobbins, or other under thread carriers in order that the loop of the needle
thread through which the shuttle or bobbin passes may not rub over the
surface of the shuttle, bobbin, or other under thread carrier as is now the case,
but so that it may rub only upon these ribs, fins, or projections, and the edges
of the shuttle, bobbin, or other under thread carrier, thereby reducing the
amount of friction on the needle thread.
The second part of my Invention relates to improvements in the feed motion
described in the Specification of a Patent granted to me, and dated August 28,
1861, No. 2143. Instead of working the feed lever by a crank to which it

page_text: was connected, I form a slot in the lower end of the feed lever, in which slot
a crank pin or eccentric works, to give the necessary upward and lateral
motion to the feed lever, whilst a spring acts to press the feed lever down,
and when at its lowest position the feed plate or top of the feed lever rests in
a recess formed in the plate or plates on which the work is supported. The
feed plate or top of the feed lever is formed so as to feed the work on three
sides of the needle, and I raise the throat plate around the hole through
which the needle passes slightly above the plate on which the work is
supported.
Another arrangement consists in connecting the feed lever with the
crank as described in the Specification of my Patent before referred to, but
instead of forming the feed plate on the top of the feed lever I form the feed
plate on the top of a sliding piece, which by preference slides on pins carried
by the feed lever, a spring acting to draw down the feed plate into a recess
in the plate or plates on which the work is supported, whilst a pin or
pins on the feed lever acts to force the feed plate upwards when acting to feed
the work.
The third part of my Invention relates to the means described in the
Specification of my Patent before referred to, for reducing the tension on
the needle thread just when the needle is about to enter the work and whilst
the shuttle is expanding the loop, and then after the shuttle has passed through
the loop, of taking up the slack of such thread. Instead of employing the
arrangement described in my said Specification, whereby the slack of the
needle thread was passed and repassed through the eye of the needle, I
propose to take up such slack of the needle thread at a point intermediate
of the eye of the needle and the work. For this purpose I prefer to employ
a spring lever or instrument working on a pin carried by a suitable part of
the framing of the machine, by preference on the "pad arm;" this spring lever
or instrument has a finger or projection thereon which is capable of acting on
-the needle thread at a point between the eye of the needle and the work;
the spring lever or instrument is worked by a pin or pins carried by the
needle arm or slide, or by other suitable part of the machine, in such manner
that just as the needle is about to enter the work the spring lever or instru-
.ment commences to travel in a direction up to and past the needle to reduce
the tension on the needle thread, a pin worked by the needle arm or slide
acts to push the spring lever or instrument outwards to enable it in its
traverse to pass the needle. After having passed the needle the spring
lever of instrument springs inwards so that the finger thereon may come

page_text: into position to act on the needle thread when the spring lever or instru-
ment is travelling to take up the slack. The needle thread passes from the
eye of the needle partly around a wire or projection on the framing to the
finger of the spring lever or instrument, thereby preventing undue strain on
the needle.