IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR SEWING
Year: 1852

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Johnson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
10th November 1852.-A communication.
(Void by reason of notice to proceed not having been given within the
time prescribed by the Act.)
I, WILLIAM JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County
of Middlesex, and of Glasgow, North Britain, Civil Engineer, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR SEWING," to be as follows:-
These machines are applicable for stitching cloth, leather, or other
material, and will form either the well-known chain or looped stitch
with a single thread, or a stitch or plegma formed of two distinct
threads in such a manner that the loops of one thread shall alternately
pass through or be interlooped with those of the other.
.n
The improvements consist in an improved construction of needle or
implement for inserting the thread and forming the stitches,
improved arrangement of thread guides for laying the thread into the
needle after it has pierced the material, and an improved mode of
feeding the material. In sewing double stitch, two bobbins are em-

page_text: ployed, which are fitted beneath the bed plate of the machine, and the
ends of their threads are each passed respectively through separate
guides. These guides are fitted beneath the material to be stitched,
and are attached each to a short vertical spindle; a horizontal move-
ment being given them by a suitable cam. The needle or instrument
for forming the stitches consists of a hook, somewhat similar to a
crochet hook, but fitted with a sliding piece which effects the closing
of the hook previous to its withdrawal out of the material, to prevent
its catching. The material .is.held .down by a flat pressing plate and
spring, and the requisite travel for forming the length of the stitches is
obtained from another plate, which is roughened to bite the material.
This rough plate is attached to the lower extremity of a vertical rod,
to which a lateral or oscillating movement is given by the descent of a
suitable incline, the length of travel, and consequently of the stitch,
being regulated by the greater or less vertical movement of the incline.
The action of this machine is as follows:-The hooked needle is first
pushed through the material to be sewn, the small slide herein-before
mentioned remaining stationary for a time, being retained by two
spring blades; this has the effect of leaving the hook open when under
the material, but the farther descent of the hook causes the front of
the slide to be also passed through the same hole, but still not so far as
to close the hook by coming in contact with its point; in this state,
with the slide and hook both through the material, but with the hook
open, one of the above-mentioned thread guides passes its thread over the
hook, which then commences to ascend; but, as the ascent of the slide
does not take place till a short time after that of the hook, it follows
that by the time the latter arrives at the underside of the material it
becomes closed by the slide which guards the point of the hook and
prevents it catching as it passes through the material. The material
now moves forward, and the hook then descends again through the
loop it has just drawn, and pierces the material in a different place,
when the second thread guide places its thread over the hook, which
draws it out through the previously formed loop of the other thread, and
The threads are retained stretched by means of two blade
springs, through which they are passed respectively before entering the
so on.

page_text: guides. The main features of novelty in this Invention are-First, the
combination of the single needle and the thread guides, as made to
operate together, and perform the operation of sewing either the stitch
work with two threads or that with one thread. Second, the peculiar
mode of looping two threads in plegma stitches, as described. Third,
the combination of a needle slide with the hooked needle, as described.
Fourth, the mode of feeding and holding the cloth or other material
by means of a propeller actuated by a descending incline or wedge.