AN IMPROVEMENT IN OR ADDITION TO SEWING MACHINES
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Morrison, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Machinist, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN OR
ADDITION TO SEWING MACHINES:"
Sealed the 8th March 1859, and dated the 30th September 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Morrison at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
30th September 1858.
I, JOHN MORRISON, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Machinist,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN
OR ADDITION TO SEWING MACHINES," to be as follows:-
My said Invention consists of the instrument or apparatus, hereinafter
described, to be attached to or used in connection with sewing machines, for
the purpose of folding or doubling the edge of the fabric or material to be
sewed where such folding is required prior to sewing. My said Invention
consists essentially of two plates or strips of sheet metal situated parallel to
one another, and at a distance apart sufficient to allow the fabric to be sewn
to pass readily between them. The said plates or strips are not flat, but are
twisted into a screw-like form. When the edge of the fabric to be sewn is
inserted between the said twisted plates or strips, and drawn in the direction
of their length, the said edge of the fabric following the twist of the plates or
strips becomes folded over or doubled, the amount of folding or doubling being
determined by the number of turns made by the screw-like plates through

page_text: which the edge of the fabric has been drawn. In order to guide the fabric so
as to cause its edge always to bear in the direction necessary to give the
twisted plates proper hold of it, I cause it first to pass over an inclined
surface, which gives it the proper direction, and afterwards over a surface with
inclined grooves therein, whereby the fabric is still further directed; or the
fabric may be guided by passing over a roller whose surface is formed into a
The instrument described may be attached temporarily to a sewing
machine by a clamp, or fixed thereto permanently, in which case it is so con-
nected as to be capable of being turned out of the way when it is not required
to fold the fabric to be sewn.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Morrison in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
23rd March 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JoпN
MORRISON, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Machinist, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Morrison, Her special licence that I, the said John Morrison,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Morrison, 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 "AN IMPROVEMENT IN OR ADDITION
TO SEWING MACHINES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
John Morrison, 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 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 John Morrison, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-

page_text: formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say :-
My Invention consists of an instrument or apparatus constructed in the
manner herein-after particularly described and represented in the accompany-
ing Drawing, the said instrument or apparatus being added to or used in
connection with sewing machines for the purpose of folding or doubling the
edge of the fabric or material to be sewn where such folding or doubling is
required prior to sewing.
Figure 1 of the Drawing represents in elevation a sewing machine, having
an instrument or apparatus for folding or doubling the fabric, constructed
according to my Invention; and Figure 2 represents a plan of the same.
Figures 3 and 4 are elevations of the said instrument or apparatus of the full
size. A plan of the instrument or apparatus is represented in Figure 2 on
the bed of the sewing machine. The said instrument or apparatus consists
essentially of two plates or strips of sheet metal, situated parallel to one
another, and at a distance apart sufficient to allow the fabric or material to be
sewn to pass readily between them. The said plates I make by preference of
one piece of metal folded in the direction of its length. Figure 5 represents
a piece of sheet metal, the arms a and b of which when the plate is doubled
at c lie parallel to one another, and may be used in carrying my Invention
into effect in place of two separate strips. The said plates or strips a, b, after
having been folded on one another are twisted into a screw-like form, as
represented in Figure 6. The said plates a, b, may be preserved steadily in
their relative positions by the arched strap or band d. The opposed surfaces
of the plates a, b, may either be plain or grooved, as represented in Figure 5,
so that a fabric drawn between the plates when they are folded upon one
another, as shewn in Figure 6 is made to preserve its parallelism with the
edges of the said plates. Instead of joining the strips or plates a, b, by a
piece c, as shewn in Figure 5, the said strips a, b, may be made separately and
secured together by two or more junctions of the kind shown at din Figure 6.
The twisted plates, Figure 6, which I will hereafter call the guide, is inserted
in that portion of the apparatus represented in Figures 3 and 4; the part e of
the guide being inserted in the slot, best seen atfin Figure 3, and fixed therein
by a clamp screw g. Before the edge of the fabric to be sewn enters the
guide it passes between plates h and i, the opposed faces of which are
grooved with grooves situated obliquely, as will be understood by an inspection
of Figure 2. The fabric passing between the plates h, i, is guided in the
direction necessary to bring its edge into the guide. When the edge of the
fabric is drawn between the guide a, b, in the direction of its length, the edge

page_text: of the said fabric following the twist of the plates of the guide a, b, becomes
folded over or doubled; the amount or number of foldings or doublings being
determined by the number of turns made the plates a, b. In Figure 2, the
folded edge of the fabric is marked k, the said edge leaving the guide a, b, at
the point marked ; at m the needle of the sewing machine is shewn in trans-
verse section. Figures 7 and 8 represent another method of constructing the
guide, Figure 7 representing the plate of metal of which the said guide is
made before it is folded, and Figure 8 representing the same after it has been
folded and twisted. In order to determine a greater or less width in the fold
produced by the guide, a tongue n, Figures 7 and 8, turning stiffly on a joint o,
may be fixed on the said guide in the manner represented. By turning out
the tongue n more or less, the fold produced will be wider or narrower. In
order still more effectually to guide the fabric in its motion while being folded,
I sometimes employ a spring p fixed on the outside of the guide, the point of
which spring passing through a slot in one of the plates of the guide presses
the fabric into the grooves in the other plate of the guide. Several of the
said springs p may be employed where from the rigidity of the fabric or other-
wise it may be deemed desirable.
The instrument or apparatus may be attached to the sewing machine or to
the table supporting the machine by means of a clamp q or otherwise, and the
said instrument or apparatus by turning upon joints r and s may be turned
aside or turned down so as to be out of the way when the fabric being sewn
does not require to be folded.
I sometimes modify my Invention in the manner represented in Figure 9
of the Drawing, by which said modification the parts are very much simplified.
The guide t is made of a plate of metal folded and twisted, and is joined by a
joint u to a plate v, which said plate v may be connected with the sewing
machine or table by means of a clamp screw engaging in the slot w. When
two edges have to be folded and sewn together, I modify my Invention in the
manner represented in Figure 10, that is to say, I employ two guides x, y,
through which the edges of the fabrics are passed respectively. The folded
and superposed edges emerge at a nearly under the needle of the sewing
machine.
The general arrangements of the apparatus Figure 10 resemble those of the
apparatus Figure 9. Instead of the tongue n, Figures 7 and 8, I sometimes
employ the arrangement represented in Figure 11 for increasing or diminishing
the width of the fold, that is to say, I employ a lever 1 turning stiffly upon a
joint 2; by moving the end 3 of the lever, the end 4 may be separated more
or less from the guide 5, and the width of the fold thereby increased or

page_text: diminished. When I employ the tongue n, Figures 7 and 8, or the lever 1,
Figure 11, I attach a tongue or slip, marked 6 in Figures 1, 3, and 4, which
tongue or slip by being turned more or less towards the plate i, allows for the
increased or diminished width of fold.
Having now described the nature of my Invention and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not limit
myself to the precise details herein described and illustrated as the same may
be varied without departing from the nature of my said Invention; but I
claim as my Invention, the improvement in or addition to sewing machines
herein-before described and represented in the accompanying Drawing, that is
to say, an instrument or apparatus to be attached to or used in connection
with sewing machines, for the purpose of folding or doubling the edge or
edges of the fabric or material to be sewn; the said instrument or apparatus
consisting essentially of two plates or strips of sheet metal or one plate folded
as herein described, the said plates or strips being situated parallel to one
another, the said plates or strips being twisted into a screw-like form, and
either grooved or plain on their inner or opposed surfaces.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Morrison, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
Witness,
RICHARD SKERRETT,
Clerk to George Shaw.
JOHN MORRISON. (L.S.)