IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING MACHINES FOR ORNAMENTAL STITCHING
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Thomas Glasier and Alfred
Robert Briggs at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 14th April
1882.
JOHN THOMAS GLASIER and ALFRED ROBERT BRIGGS both of Southport in the
County of Lancaster IMPROVEMENTS IN SEWING MACHINES FOR ORNAMENTAL
STITCHING"
This Invention relates to improvements in sewing machines for producing
ornamental stitching of the hems or folded edges of fabrics, and also the peculiar
stitch used in stay making called the "Herring bone," and variations of that stitch,
and the improvements are designed to enable this class of stitching to be effected
more rapidly and regularly than is possible by hand.
The stitching, which is of a cross or diamond pattern, is effected in two rows of
holes or punctures in the fabric, part of the stitch being produced by the needle
crossing and re-crossing from one row to the other, while a forward intermittent
feed motion is given to the fabric, and the remaining part being produced without
crossing, while a backward motion is given to the fabric. The requisite lateral
motion of the needle and forward and backward motion of the feeder to produce
this stitch, is effected by means of mechanism specially devised to impart these
motions, and fitted or applied to ordinary sewing machines.
In applying the improvements to shuttle sewing machines, such for example as
the "Singer" machine, the lateral motion of the needle to effect the cross stitches,
is imparted to the needle bar before or while the needle is descending, by means of
a lever embracing it, and carried either within or outside the overhanging arm of
the machine, towards tho driving spindle for the shuttle and feeder. On this
spindle, or on a separate spindle driven from it, is fitted a camn whose periphery is
formed with projecting and indented or depressed parts shaped so as to act on the
end of the lever and move the needle bar from side to side in the requisite order and
sequence to produce the cross stitching while the fabric is fed forward and backward.
The cam is by preference made to act only on the shifting lever of the needle bar
in one direction, while a spring draws it in the other direction. The entire needle
bar is thus shifted laterally so that the needle may descend vertically and not at
an angle, as would be the case if the needle were shifted while the needle bar swung
on a centre.

page_text: The feeder receives its rising and lowering motion through the cloth plate as usual
by the longitudinal traverse of an inclined plane surface, but its feeding motion,
every third traverse of which is to the rear, is effected while the feeder is up through
the cloth plate, by means of a cam on the feeder driving spindle acting on the inner
end of the feed bar. The cam is so shaped as to give the feeder a forward traverse
when above the cloth plate, returning when depressed, then a second forward traverse
when raised and returning while still raised to give a backward feed motion to the
fabric. The fabric is thus fed forward twice in succession and then once backward
producing however a progressive motion of the fabric as the stitching proceeds across
and along the hem. To enable it to act equally on the cloth in the forward and
backward traverse, the feeder is made with a gripping V surface or teeth inclined
equally from the upper points, instead of being formed as usual like ratchet teeth
which would allow the cloth to slip at the backward movement.
For the hem stitch, the feeding movements are timed in relation to the downward
and lateral motions of the needle, so as to produce the cross stitching while the
fabric is fed forward, and the continuous line stitch while the fabric is fed
backward.
"
The machine-is-by-preference-driven in the opposite direction from the "Singer"
machine, and the stitching is offected by a special-form of needle, which is a needle
and stiletto combined. The ordinary Singer" needle point is used, but the shank
is considerably enlarged at a certain distance from the point, to puncture the fabric
in passing through it, and increased ornamentation is given to the stitching by
drawing the thread tight through these pierced holes. For effecting the tightening
of the threads to the necessary extent, the lift tension-bar is-elongated_to_increase
the tension, and it is operated by means of a cam on the horizontal driving shaft.
When the "Herring bone" stitch is desired, the backward motion of the feed is
shortened-by-means-of-a-set-screw, and instead of there being only three holes made
by the needle to form each perfect set of stitches, four are made, by reason of the
work only being carried back part of the distance required for the hem stitch
previously described
A variation of the "herring-bone" stitch may be obtained by so forming the
cam which actuates the feed lever that a short backward motion is imparted to the
feeder to make a back stitch after each forward cross stitch.