IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING MACHINES
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Frederick Thomas, of Newgate Street, in
the City of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING
MACHINES."
Sealed the 13th December 1864, and dated the 27th June 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Frederick
Thomas at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 27th June 1864.
I, WILLIAM FREDERICK THOMAS, of Newgate Street, in the City of London,
do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING
MACHINES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in sewing machines, and
the improvements relate to that description of sewing machine in which a
shuttle is employed. In order to give motion to the shuttle of a sewing
machine, the rod which carries and works the shuttle driver, in place of being
caused to slide as heretofore in bearings or supports, is at that end of it on to
which the shuttle driver is formed or fixed, caused to rest and slide on a guide
rail, and at its opposite end, which is most distant from the shuttle driver, it
is suspended from an axis by a link or lever. The rod as heretofore is
actuated by a face cam by a pin projecting from the end of the rod that is
most distant from the shuttle driver entering the groove of the face cam.
The rod being thus suspended at one end and resting at its outermost or mest
forward end on a guide rail, presents but little friction and is more con-
veniently put into action by the cam.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Frederick Thomas in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 27th December 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
FREDERICK THOMAS, of Newgate Street, in the City of London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-eighth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said William Frederick Thomas, Her special licence that I, the said
William Frederick Thomas, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as 1, the said William Frederick Thomas, my executors, admi-
nistrators, 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 MACHINES," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said William Frederick Thomas, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or
one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manuer the same was to be
performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Offico
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Frederick Thomas, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:―
This Invention has for its object improvements in sewing machines, and the
improvements relate to that description of sewing machines in which a shuttle
is employed. In order to give motion to the shuttle of a sewing machine, the
rod which carries and works the shuttle driver, in place of being caused to
slide as heretofore in bearings or supports, is at that end of it on to which the
shuttle driver is formed or fixed, caused to rest and slide on a guide rail, and at
its opposite end, which is most distant from the shuttle driver, it is suspended
from an axis by a link or lever. The rod as heretofore is actuated by a face
can by a pin projecting from the end of the rod that is most distant from the
shuttle driver entering the groove of the face cam. The rod being thus

page_text: suspended at one end and resting at its outermost or most forward end on a
guide rail, presents but little friction and is more conveniently put into action
by the cam.
And in order that my Invention may be fully understood, I will proceed to
describe the Drawings hereunto annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shews a side view of the frame of a sewing machine, together
with so much of the working parts of the machine as are for giving motion to
the shuttle; the other working parts are not shewn. Figure 2 shews a plan
view of the shuttle race and of the shuttle and shuttle driver. In each of
these Figures a is the shuttle driver constructed in the ordinary manner; b, the
rod which carries and gives motion to the shuttle driver; the end of this rod to
which the shuttle driver is attached rests on the top of the back c of the
shuttle race, which forms a guide rail for it. The opposite end of the rod b, in
place of being supported in a groove or guide as heretofore usual, is supported
by the pin d on the lower end of a link e; this link at its upper end has a pin
f projecting from it, which works in a hole bored to receive it in the upper
part of the frame of the machine, and upon this pin the link is capable of
turning. On the outer end of the pin d is a roller g; this roller is received
in the groove of the face cam h that turns on the axis i; separate views of
the link e are shewn at Figure 3; the other cams carried by the axis i for
actuating the lever that works the needle, and the stepper or foot that gives
motion to the work, are not shown, as their construction is well understood.
The end of the rod b and the roller g which transmits motion to it from the
cam being suspended as above described, the rod moves with less friction than
heretofore and receives a more even motion from the cam. The noise made
by the machine in working is also thereby lessened.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Frederick Thomas, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of December, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
W. F. THOMAS. (L.8.)