Improvements in Button-hole Sewing Machines.
Year: 1890

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
[Communicated from abroad by THE SINGER MANUFACTURING COMPANY, of New
York, in the United States of America, Sewing Machine Manufacturers.]
Improvements in Button-hole Sewing Machines.
I, ALEXANDER ANDERSON, Manager of The Singer Manufacturing Company,
Kilbowie, Dumbartonshire, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed (as communicated to me) to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
The material, leather or cloth, to have button holes overstitched therein, is now
commonly held in a clan.p which is moved under the needle of the stitch forming
mechanisin, and this clamp in many machines has a sliding movement and a partial
rotation.
When the stitching for a button-hole has been finished, the machine is stopped,
and the operator breaks or cuts the needle thread near the clamp and holds the
broken end, and with his other hand on the needle thread at the other side of the
needle, he draws from the tension device a sufficient quantity of thread and pulls it
through the eye of the needle to thus have sufficient thread to start with the button-
hole next to be stitched.
In doing this the operator commonly draws from the tension much more thread
(usually silk, and expensive) than is needed to start the next button-hole, and in
practice very much silk is wasted, the waste being estimated as high as seven per
cent.
To obviate this waste of silk and to also economise time, I have provided a cloth
clamp with a thread clamp or jaw, and also a cutter to automatically sever the
needle thread close to the finished end of the button-hole, the thread clamp holding
the said thread while the material is changed in the cloth clamp, the said thread
clamp holding the end of the said thread at the proper side of the eye of the needle
until after the stitching for another button-hole has been commenced.
Believing myself to be the first to devise means to hold and cut the needle thread
between the material held in the cloth clamp, and the needle, I desire it to be made
understood that I do not intend to limit my invention to the particular thread clamp
shewn, or to the particular cutter shewn, nor do I desire to limit my invention to the
application of a thread clamp and cutter to the particular form of cloth clamp herein
shewn.
One feature of my invention consists therefore, in a cloth clamp and a travelling
co-operating thread clamp to seize and clamp the needle thread between the material
in the cloth clamp, and the eye of the needle, after the completion of the stitching
of a button-hole and before the material is removed from the clamp.
Another feature of my invention consists in the combination with a cloth clamp
and a thread clamp to hold the needle thread between the cloth clamp and the eye of
the needle, of the thread cutter to cut the said needle thread between the thread
clamp, and the material held in the cloth clamp.
Other auxiliary features of my invention will become apparent in the following
description and claims at the end thereof:
Figure 1 is a top or plan view of one well known form of cloth clamp with my
improvements added thereto, the parts being in the position they will occupy when
the machine is to be started to stitch a button-hole in material held in usual manner
in the cloth clamp.
Figure 2 is a partial side elevation thereof, shewing part of the usual eye-pointed
needle with the thread extended therefrom to the thread clamp, the upper jaws of the
cloth clamp and the parts for supporting them and moving then being omitted.
Figure 3 is a detail with the cap shewn in Figs. 1 and 2 removed, the said

page_text: figures also shewing a piece of material with a slit cut therein for a button-hole next
to be overstitched.
Figure 4 is a detail with the slide of Fig. 3 removed to shew the thread cutter
under it.
Figure 5 is an elevation from the left of Fig. 2, the needle being omitted, and
Figures 6 and 7, are details to be referred to.
The base a of the cloth clamp, the laterally movable jaws a¹ on which the material
to be stitched rests, the lever a² to move the said jaws away from each other to
expand the slit of the material ³, the arms a³ connected by screws a³ to the
blocks having therein fulera on studs a in ears a connected to the rear ends of
the jaws a', part of the said ears being broken off in Fig. 2, the rock-shaft 6 having
an attached lever at one end and provided between its ends with a crank which
is embraced in usual manner by a link 2 surrounding, at its upper end, a yoke b³
which connects the arms a³, the wedge blocks attached to the arms a³ by screws 6,
the arms being normally kept elevated by springs under them, the top jaws 6 of
the cloth clamp, pivoted on the arms a³, the stand, forming a rigid part of the
base a, and bored to receive the vertical pin 68. which, in practice, enters a slot
piece in the bed-piece, and the spring a to normally keep the said pin depressed,
are, or may be, as usual in cloth clamps, the particular cloth clamp thus far referred
to being that commonly used in the "Singer" button-hole machine.
In accordance with my invention I provide the clamp with two arms c, c¹, having
holes at their right ends, viewing. Figs. 1 and 2.
The end of the rock shaft b is bored for the reception of a stud screw c² to form a
pivot for said arm c.
The rock shaft has applied to it, at its opposite end, between the ear a² and the
lever b, the other arm c¹.
These arms c, e¹, are extended beyond the end of the base a of the usual cloth
clamp and their outer ends are connected by a web, see Fig. 4, having
and screw holes 2.
a cam slot 33
The web e, at each edge, has secured to it in any usual way a gib et, the said gibs
being under-cut at their inner edges to form a dove-tailed space, see Fig. 5, for the
reception of a slide d, the edges of which next the gibs are shaped to fit between
the edges of the gibs.
The gibs have holes 3 for the reception of screws 4 by which to attach to them a
cover plated having a slot 5, up through which projects a pin 6, carried by a switch
block, or dog d², and adapted to turn on a pivot 10 held by the cap-plate and
extended down below it.
The pin 6 is acted on by a spring 7, shewn as held on the cap-plate by a screw 8,
the spring 7 normally keeping the point of the switch in the position shewn in
Fig. 3.
The slide d, has at its end next the button-hole to be stitched a jaw e, shown best
in Fig. 3, it being shewn as fixed.
The slide d, has a second jaw, shewn as a lever e¹, pivoted at 12, on the said slide
and provided at its left hand end, viewing Fig. 3, with a roller or other stud e², a
spring normally acting to keep the short arm of the jaw el pressed against the
jaw e, to thus hold fast the needle thread grasped between them. The jaws e, e',
constitute one form of thread clamp.
The slide d, has a stud 13, extended below it, see Figs. 3 and 4, the stud in Fig. 4
being supposed to be a section.
This stud 13, serves as the fulcrum for the cutter f, shewn by full lines in Fig. 4,
by dotted lines in Fig. 3 and separately in Fig. 7.
This cutter has a pin 14, extended down from its lower side into the slot 33, the
cutting edge 15, of the said cutter normally standing, while a button-hole is being
stitched, close to the inner bevelled edge of the thread clamping jaw e.
The slide d, has connected to it, by a screw 16, a bar 17 which is jointed at 18 to
a link 19, pivoted at 20 on an upright 21, erected on the stand 7, the said link 19
having as shown a slot 22 which is entered by a pin 23 of an arm 24, which I have

page_text: added to the lever 25, which, except for said arm is the same as in the usual cloth
clamp referred to; the said arm at its left hand end resting just below the head 26, of
the pin 8, before referred to.
The arms c, c, are slotted to receive in them the pivot pins which secure the
clamping jaws 6, to the ends of the arms a³, so that as the said arms are lifted by the
lever, to remove the cloth from the cloth-clamp the arins c, c', and their attached
parts are also lifted to turn about the shaft b, as a centre.
When the button-hole has been overstitched in the material clamped in the cloth
clamp the operator stops the machine and with his fingers on the lever 25, depresses
it to lift the pin 6, preparatory to reversing the clamp or bringing it back into
starting position to have its jaws opened and the material removed and put back
again with another slitted portion of the material in place to be stitched.
Now as the operator depresses the lever 25 to raise the pin 68, he also draws the
slide d, to the right; and in so doing the roller stud e³, acts on the switch or dog d²,
which causes, the jaw e¹, to be turned in the direction to carry its short end away
from the stationary jaw e, the said open jaws acting as the thumb and finger of the
operator to cross and embrace the needle thread between the work held in the cloth
clamp, and the eye of the needle n, and as soon as the roller ², passes the switch or
dog the spring e, acts to clamp the thread clamping jaws on the needle thread.
As the slide d, is moved forward, as described, the pin 14, of the thread cutter f
acting in the slot 33, turns the thread cutter on its pivot 13, and cuts the needle
thread off between the thread clamp and the work held in the work clamp.
The thread clamp holds the needle thread as the cloth clamp is reversed and
while the jaws of the cloth clamp are opened for the removal of the work or its
change of position therein, and while the cloth clamp is closed, the thread clamp
retaining the end of the needle thread until after the stitching lias been started for
another button-hole.
The operator releases the lever 25, as soon as the clamp has been reversed and the
spring, through the pin ", turns the lever 25, in the opposite direction the
slide d, at such time being moved back into its normal position, Fig. 3. but in going
back in such position the roller stud e², passes between the switch d³, and the gib
next to it, the switch yielding and leaving the thread clamp closed on the needle
thread.
The thread clamp as herein shewn, holds the needle thread until the operator again
depresses the lever 25, but it is not essential to hold the said thread after one or two
stitches, although it does no harm to hold it until the thread clamp is to be again
actuated to grasp the needle thread at the completion of another button hole.
The button hole stitching machine with which the needle thread clamping devico
and needle thread cutter are used, will, in practice have suitable devices whereby the
thread tension will be relaxed when the cloth clamp stops, so that the usual devices
for controlling the needle thread between the tension and the needle as, for instance,
the take up, and a slack thread controller will not act to pull the need!e thread out or
away from the clamp.
It will be obvious to one skilled in the art that the particular shape of the thread
clamping jaws and the cutter may be modified very considerably without departing
from my invention, and the devices employed for moving the thread clamping jaws
and cutter might also be varied considerably in shape, according to the particular
shape of the cloth clamp holding the material to be overstitched; as it is well known
that in some classes of buttonhole stitching machines the clamp does not rotate.
I have shewn the slide carrying the thread clamping devices as moved by the
lever 25, I have selected that part of the clamp herein shewn as the actuating means
for the slide or thread clamp, because the lever must be moved after the completion
of each button-hole and when my invention is applied to any other usual form of
cloth clamp I shall select, as the actuating device for the thread clamp, to move it
toward and to grasp the thread, as described, between the needle and clamp, any part
of the said clamp which has to be moved in clamping and unclamping the material;
the particular part or parts of such well known form of clamp or device co-operating

page_text: therewith from which to derive movement for the thread clamp; as described being
left to the judgment of the builder of the machine.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed (as communicated to me)
I declare that what I claim is :-
:-
1. A work or cloth clamp, for a button-hole sewing machine, provided with the
usual clamping jaws said work clamp having thereon a travelling thread clamp
adjacent to said jaws and being thus adapted to grasp and hold the needle thread
between the work held in said jaws and the needle.
2. A work or cloth clamp for a button-hole sewing machine, provided with the
usnal clamping jaws, said work clamp having thereon a thread clamp adjacent to
said clamping jaws, combined with thread cutter arranged between the said thread
clamp and the point at which the material is held by the said clamping jaws; whereby
the needle thread may be severed close to the work when the button hole is completed
and then be held by the said thread clamp while the work clamp is reversed and
until after the stitching of the subsequent button hole is commenced.
3 A cloth clamp, a slide, as d, having thread clamping devices, combined with
devices to connect the said slide with a part of the cloth clamp which is moved
between the time that one button-hole is finished and another is commenced and
devices to effect the opening of the said thread clamp, substantially as described.
4. A cloth clamp,
aslide as d, having thread clamping devices, combined with
devices to connect the said slide with a part of the cloth clamp which is moved
between the time that one button-hole is finished and another commenced, and
devices to effect the opening and closing of the said thread clamp, a cutter to cut the
needle thread, and actuating devices for the said cutter, substantially as described.
Dated this Twenty-seventh day of October 1890.
CRUIKSHANK & FAIRWEATHER,
62, St. Vincent Street, Glasgow, Agents.