IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING MACHINES
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alonzo Kimball and John Morton, both of
Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Sewing Machine
31
17
t
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alonzo Kimball and
John Morton at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 27th June 1873.
We, ALONZO KIMBALL and JOHN MORTON, both of Glasgow, in the
County of Lanark, North Britain, Sewing Machine Makers, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING
MACHINES," to be as follows, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to sewing machines with needles and shuttles
reciprocating vertically and horizontally respectively, and more especially
to machines of the kind described in the Specification of Letters Patent
granted to Alonzo Kimball, one of the present applicants, and dated
11th March 1867 (No. 687), and designed with the view of obtaining a

page_text: satisfactorily working machine of stronger make than ordinary for use
in sewing sails, bagging, and other heavy work.
One improvement consists in an improved arrangement for guiding
and sustaining the side of the grooved cam piece, which is fixed on the
inner side of the needle bar, and by which the needle bar has its motion
communicated from the revolving crank pin. A long vertical eye or
tubular piece is formed on the said grooved cam piece and slides on a
vertical rod fixed to the frame containing the needle bar. This lateral
guide is in addition to the ordinary needle bar guides, and is placed by
preference to the side at which the crank pin descends. The needle bar
guide is made with a cover shaped to correspond to one side of the bar
as well as to the front, so that the parts may be the more easily
readjusted after being worn.
A second improvement consists in attaching the adjustable tension
appliance for the upper thread to the sliding frame carrying the needle
bar, so that such tension appliance may partake of the short recipro-
cation which causes the stitches to be laid in a zig-zag form.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Alonzo Kimball and John Morton in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 24th December 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, ALONZO
KIMBALL and JOHN MORTON, both of Glasgow, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain, Sewing Machine Makers, send greeting.
"WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of June, in the year a
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Alonzo Kimball and John Morton,
Her special licence that we, the said Alonzo Kimball and John Morton,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the a
said Alonzo Kimball and John Morton, our executors, administrators.
and assigns, should at any time agree with and no. others, from time to

page_text: 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 condition (amongst others) that we, the said Alonzo Kimball
and John Morton, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under our, 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 we, the said Alonzo Kimball and John
Morton, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement in writing, reference
being had to the accompanying Drawings, that is to say:-
Our said Invention relates to sewing machines with needles and
shuttles reciprocating vertically and horizontally respectively, and more
especially to machines of the kind described in the Specification of
Letters Patent granted to Alonzo Kimball, one of us, and dated
11th March 1867 (No. 687), and designed with the view of obtaining a
satisfactorily working machine of stronger make than ordinary for use
in sewing sails, bagging, and other heavy work.
And in order that our said Invention, and the manner of performing
the same, may be properly understood, we hereunto append a Sheet of
explanatory Drawings, to be herein-after referred to, and showing the
application of our improvements to a machine suitable for making
bagging or sacks. In these Drawings the same reference numerals. are
used to mark the same or like parts wherever they are repeated.
Figure 1 on the Sheet of Drawings is a sectional plan, and Figure 2
is a side clevation, the latter showing a portion of the overhanging
arm 1, which carries the needle bar 2 and parts immediately connected
therewith, whilst a part of such arm 1 is also indicated by dotted lines
in Figure 1. Several of the minor details are not shown in the
Drawing, being well understood, and our present Invention not relating
to them.

page_text: c
One of our present improvements consists in an improved arrangement
for guiding and sustaining the side of the grooved cam piece 3, which
is fixed to the inner side of the needle bar 2, and by which the needle
bar has its motion communicated from a crank pin (indicated by dotted
·lines) fixed to a disc 4 on the end of the revolving shaft 5. A long
vertical eye or tubular piece 6 is formed on the said grooved cam
piece 3, and slides on a vertical rod 7 fixed to brackets 8 on the frame 9
containing the needle bar 2. This lateral guiding arrangement 6, 7, is
in addition to the ordinary needle bar guides, and is placed by preference
to the side at which the revolving crank pin descends. The needle bar 2
is rectangular in cross section, and two only of the sides of the guide
groove for it are formed in the frame 9, whilst the cover or movable or
adjustable part 10 is shaped to correspond to one side of the needle bar 2
as well as to the front, so that the parts may be the more easily
readjusted after becoming worn.
Our second improvement relates to the adjustable tension appliance
for the upper thread. This appliance as we prefer to use it is of a well
known kind, and consists of a wire 11 with guide eyes 12, 13, formed
on it, and with a frictionally held wing piece 14 placed on it between
the two eyes, and which can be turned round it to cause the thread to
be more or less twisted round it in passing from one eye to the other.
Heretofore this tension appliance has been fixed on the immovable part
of the frame 1, but our present improvement consists in fixing it to the
sliding frame 9 carrying the needle bar 2, so that it may partake of the
.short reciprocation of that frame 9, which causes the stitches to be laid
in a zig-zag form, and thus keep the tension of the thread more uniform,
producing more equal and better work.
Having thus particularly described our said Invention, and the
manner of performing the same, we have to state that we do not restrict
ourselves to the precise details herein described or delineated, but that
what we believe to be novel and original, and claim as the Invention
. secured to us by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent
is,-
1. The guiding of the needle bar (2) and grooved cam piece (3) sub-
stantially in the improved manner herein described and delineated.
2. The providing of sewing machines, in which the vertically working
needle bar is carried by a horizontally reciprocating frame, with a tension

page_text: ppliance for the upper thread fixed on the reciprocating frame instead
f on the fixed frame as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Alonzo Kimball and John Morton,
have hereunto set our hands and scals, this Twenty-second day
of December, in the year of our Lord One thousand cight
hundred and seventy-three.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
ALONZO KIMBALL. (L.S.)
JOHN MORTON.
(L.S.)