IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES OR APPARATUS FOR WORKING CHAIN STITCH EMBROIDERY
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Murdoch, of 7, Staple Inn, in the County of
Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES OR APPARATUS
FOR WORKING CHAIN STITCH EMBROIDERY."-A communication.
Sealed the 18th April 1856, and dated the 21st December 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Murdoch at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 21st
December 1855.
I, JAMES MURDOCH, of 7, Staple Inn, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES OR
APPARATUS FOR WORKING CHAIN STITCH EMBROIDERY," a communication from a
foreigner residing abroad, to be as follows:-
The improvements consist in the combination of five instruments to form
the chain stitch in embroidery, viz, a needle carrying the thread; a tightener
to give the requisite tension to the thread; a first crochet which takes hold of
the loop presented by the needle; an opener, which at fixed times opens out or
spreads the loop into which the needle has to pass, and thus to form the chain
stitch; and, lastly, a fastening-off crochet, which at the completion of each
figure or design fastens off the thread. These instruments are attached to bars
placed moveably in a carrying frame, which is capable of ȧ to and fro motion
across the frame of the machine. The bars receive the requisite motions from

page_text: a series of cambs ranged upon a shaft, and the pattern is formed by means of
a jacquard machine, which by causing the cloth on which the embroidery is to
be formed to advance or recede, and the carrying frame to move to and fro
across the face of the cloth, brings the needle over the several parts of the clotli
requisite to form the design.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Murdoch in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
20th June 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
MURDOCH, of 7, Staple Inn, in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for 'Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said James Murdoch, Her special licence 'that I, the said James Murdoch, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others. as I, the said James
Murdoch, 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
İslands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES OR
APPARATUS FOR WORKING CHAIN STITCH EMBROIDERY," (a communication from
a foreigner residing abroad,) upon the condition (amongst others) that 'I, the
said James Murdoch, my executors: orradministrators, 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 James Murdoch, do hereby declare the
nature of the said 'Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say!
The purpose of these improvements is to execute continuous cliain stitch
embroidery on 'any
kind of tissue by means of a machine or apparatus.
The Invention consists in the contrivance, the arrangement, and respective
་

page_text: action of five principal parts or pieces, considered as direct agents of the work
or chain stitch embroidery; and which, consists in, first, a needle carrying, the
thread; second, an apparatus to strain the thread; third, a hook to draw the
thread; fourth, a pusher to open the loop formed by the thread; fifth and
lastly, in a hook to stop off the thread when each configuration of design is
finished; which direct agents, being called upon to work, each in their turn
receive motion from a main driving shaft fitted with cams. The different
motions of these cans are besides combined with a jacquard apparatus or
machine, which furnishes the means of embroidering on the stuff in every
direction, and consequently of executing any kind of pattern or design. The
bars that drive the direct agents are fixed on a kind of moveable framework,
the movements of which correspond with the movement of the agents and the
stuff to be embroidered, according to the kind of design determined, by the
jacquard.
:
I will now, with the assistance of the accompanying Drawings, describe a
machine constructed according to the system of the Invention. I must
observe that without departing from its characteristic principle, it is capable of
being modified to a great extent in the indirect agents, that is to say, those
which drive the direct agents of the work, which by their disposition constitute
the essential character of the Invention.
1.
Figure I is an elevation of the machine, of a size confined to the width of
the stuff which is to be embroidered. This size can be double or treble in
using wider stuffs, or by uniting several breadths of stuff. Instead of employing
a single reel furnishing thread to the needles, the number can be augmented
to even one for each needle. Figure 2 is a side view of the machine; and
Figure 3 a section of same, through AB; Figure 1. The Figures from 4 to 12
show at work, and in different positions, the direct agents producing the
embroidery on the stuff, represented by a vertical blue line, Figure 3. In all
these Figures the same letters refer to the same parts.
f
A is the fixed framework of the machine, and to it are affixed all the moveable
parts; B is a cylinder on which is rolled the stuff to be embroidered; and C is
the cylinder or beam on which the stuff is taken up as fast as it is embroidered;
D is a cylinder, imparting a progressive movement to the stuff in the direction
of the length of the piece, by means of the weight bacting upon the cylinder B;
E is a system of wheel-work driven by a cam by means of ratchets communicat
ing alternately or successively with the jacquard apparatus giving motion to
cylinder D; F is a fixed rack, for the purpose of communicating the horizontal
movement to moveable framework G, which carries the mechanism; H is a
cog wheel worked. by cams by means of ratchets communicating alternately or

page_text: simultaneously with the jacquard I, in order to impart to the working frame a
movement from right to left; J is a bar worked by a cam; this bar carries the
needles K with the threads for embroidering, L.is another bar, worked also
by a cam, which carries the tightener M to form a loop with the thread; N. is
another bar, worked by two cams, assisted by levers driven alternately by the
jacquard. On this bar are fixed the hooks O, destined to take up the thread
of the needle. P another bar, also driven by two cams, by means of levers
acted on alternately like the preceding one by the jacquard; this same bar
carries the pushers Q, destined to guide the thread with the hook until the
latter releases it at the proper time. Lastly, R is a fifth bar, which carries the
hooks S, called stopping hooks, which are destined to stop off the thread at
the last stitch of a flower or a detached ornament when finished. This bar. is
worked by hand by means of a handle. V. T is a bobbin or reel which contains
the threads which are carried on to the needles; U is a handle by which the
machine is driven. This handle can be replaced by a pulley driven by a strap
from any moving power.
I will now describe the working of the machine, the different parts of which
have just been specified. I will suppose the stuff sufficiently strained, and the
threads passed through the eyes of the needles; I must nevertheless observe;
that for the first revolution of the handle, I will only speak of those working
parts which act on the thread. The handle being put in motion, the needle
advances and presents a loop, which the hook seizes and the needle retrogades,
(see Figure 4). I must observe also, that as to the motion of the other
working parts corresponding to the above mentioned, I have not been able to
mention them at the present moment, as the hook had not as yet been in
possession of the first loop; but now that this has taken place I am enabled
to give the entire working of the machine for the second and following
revolutions. The tightener at the position indicated on starting pushes lightly
the thread of the needle to the right of the needle (see Figure 5), then
maintains it between the stuff and the needle, which should advance and
tighten the stitch sufficiently. The hook travels from right to left; and
presents under the pusher the loop which it has retained at the first revolution,
the needle advances a little (see Figure 6), and the pusher in descending turns
aside the stitch presented by the hook, the needle traverses the stuff, the
pusher resumes its first position and abandons the loop to the needle into
which it has entered, and which the hook abandons also, by means of a move-
ment from left to right, and an ascensional movement. During this latter
motion the needle advances to the extremity of its stroke (see Figure 7), in
order to present another loop, which the hook seizes; at the same time the

page_text: tightener, which continues working from right to left, rises and proceeds from
left to right to occupy its position at starting, (see Figure 8). It will be
understood that during this time the jacquard at each revolution of the handle
has operated according to the design to be worked, in order to vary the move-
ments of the working parts and the working frame according to the require-
ments of the design, which design is terminated by the stop stitch, operated
by means of the lever which drives the bar carrying the stopping hooks. The
action is thus: when the needle has traversed the stuff, and presented the loop
on the perpendicular part of the stopping hook (see Figure 6), this latter in
descending (see Figure 7) traverses the loop presented by the needle, and at
the same time the loop held by the first hook. When the lever of the bar
of the stopping hooks commences working, the handle is stopped, and directly
the stop stitch is operated, it recommences working, the needle proceeds to
the end of its stroke (see Figure 8), all the different parts work, and the hook
seizes the loop brought by the needle, the revolution is completed, and all the
different working parts resume their starting position, after having commu-
nicated a descending and rising motion to the stopping hook, which releases
the loop, terminating thus at the same time the stop stitch and the design.
The Figures 13, 14, and 15 represent a modification of the machine, the
purpose of which is first to make the needles work separately, if required, that
is to say, to render them independent one of the other, in order to be able to
stop the working of one of them, according to the nature of the design, either,
for instance, when an irregular and non-continuous design is required; or when
it is desirable to leave any part of the stuff unembroidered; second, to operate
the stop stitch on one or on several needles, if required, without impeding the
motion of any other of the working parts. The mechanism operating in each
case is subjected to the jacquard, according to the design to be produced.
Figure 18 is an elevation of that part of the machine to which these
modifications refer; Figure 14 is a plan of the same; Figure 15 represents
the direct working parts, analogous to those in Figure 8, with the exception
that here the stopping hook is shown turned round when it ought to rise, after
having operated the stop stitch; this is a peculiar modification, referring to the
general ones above mentioned. I must observe with respect to the Figures 4 to
12 (of which I have already spoken), that with the exception of Figure 8 sub-
stituted by Figure 15, they refer also to the working of the modified machine,
as the working parts operate in the embroidery in the same way, with the excep-
tion of that which refers to the faculty of rendering the needles independent
of each other, and of making the stop stitch on any of the needles according
to the design; and in what relates to the continuation of the working of the

page_text: machine, that is to say, to a continuous movement as when driven by power,.
without there being any necessity for stopping, as the jacquard regulates the
general working. A is a fixed bar, to which is attached the needle holder B;
C is another bar, animated by the same movement as the needle bar in the
machine already described, and which is supplied with holes corresponding
with the needles; D is an upright communicating with the jacquard, and
which shuts a hole of the bar C by a spring which recalls it to the position
which it occupies when the jacquard is not working it; E is the bobbin
carrying the thread, which is tightened by the apparatus F; G is a bar
working from left to right, which causes the rotatory motion of the stopping
hook, which is besides maintained by the mechanism H, which causes it to
rise and fall; J is a bar carrying the rack K, into which the pinion L gears;
the square part of, the shaft of the stopping hook passes through this pinion.
M is a bar, having a rising and falling motion. This bar is provided with
openings, which are closed as required, that is to say, according as the jacquard
acts on N, which closes the openings by means of the spring O, similar to the
one attached to D. The result of this contrivance is, that in consequence of
the movement of these uprights combined with the card boards of. the jacquard,
the openings of the bars will be open or closed, according to whether the
needle should work or not. The same applies to the stopping hook, which at
the proper moment, determined by the jacquard,. seizes the loop, holds it,
redescends, makes a half revolution, ascends, releasing the loop, and resumes
its previous position. All these motions are obtained by cams acting on
levers, whose working the jacquard regulates by its card boards according to
the design to be embroidered, and also by the application of means already
known and infinitely variable.
Having thus described the Invention, as well with respect to its principles
as to its execution, and the working of a machine constructed according to
the system of said Invention, with modifications applicable for a certain
purpose, I declare that the means indicated of carrying out the Invention
according to the accompanying Drawings should not be considered as
exclusive of any other method of execution having for basis the same com
bination which I have previously exposed, and which apply as well to an
embroidering machine in which the stuff is placed horizontally instead of
vertically, as in this case the alteration is but of secondary consideration; I do
not therefore claim the precise arrangement of the cams, springs, and levers
represented in the Drawings, which is but an object of secondary importance
as a means of carrying out my Invention; but what I claim is,-
First, the contrivance, arrangement, and respective working of the five

page_text: principal or direct agents, herein-before described, producing the embroidery,
which parts are attached to moveable bars, carried on a frame which is itself
moveable, and which supports the stuff, their different motions being deter-
mined by a jacquard machine, according to the design to be produced, as I
have described the same, and as it is shewn in the Drawings.
Second, the application of a mechanism which gives the means of working
any required number of needles at the same time, and rendering meanwhile
each or any of the said needles independent of one another on the bar which
carries them, which mechanism is driven by the jacquard.
Third, the faculty of bringing into work the stopping hook at the required
time, and without the aid of the hand, its action being also regulated by the
jacquard, and without interrupting the continuous working of the machine.
Fourth, the rotation of the stopping hook own its own centre besides its
ascending and descending motion, which facilitates its working with regard
to the embroidering threads, and admits also the combining this movement, if
required, with the other, in order to cause the said stopping hook to execute a
portion of the work analogous to that of the other principal agents for pro-
ducing chain stitch embroidery.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Murdoch, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twentieth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
H. H. MURDOCH.
JAMES MURDOCH. (L.S.)