Improved Punching Device for Hem Stitch Sewing Machines.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 11th May, 1899
Complete Specification Left, 14th Nov., 1899-Accepted, 16th Dec., 1899
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improved Punching Device for Hem Stitch Sewing Machines.
I, JOHN KING MACDONALD, Manager of The Singer Manufacturing Company,
Kilbowie, Dumbartonshire, do hereby declare the nature of this invention (as
communicated to me by The Singer Manufacturing Company, A.G., of Hamburg,
in the Empire of Germany, Sewing Machine Manufacturers,) to be as follows:-
This invention which relates to hem stitch sewing machines has for its object
to provide a punching device for piercing the fabric alongside the needle in which
the punches are adapted to be raised or thrown out of their operative position
during the formation of an angle in the line of stitching as at the corner of a
handkerchief or other piece of goods.
Hemstitching of the class referred to is effected in a sewing machine fitted with
a pair of punches or prickers so placed as to work simultaneously alongside the
needle which may have a zig-zag movement so that whilst the punches form
a row of holes in the fabric the needle which forms the hemistitch
alternately through the holes formed by the punches and through the fabric
passes
alongside the holes.
Under the present invention the punches are secured to a hinged or pivoted
yoke on an arm or bracket piece fixed to a vertically reciprocating bar and is
secured in the operative position by means of a spring catch or latch fixed on
the bracket. A spring on the bracket is fitted to act on the pivoted yoke so that
when the latch is lifted to disengage the punch carrying yoke the latter is turned
on its pivot by the spring and throws the punches up or aside and out of action.
While sewing in a straight line, as along the edge of a handkerchief, the punches
are kept in operative position to form the holes into which the needle passes at
each alternate reciprocation, but in turning a corner the latch is lifted to dis-
engage the punch carrier so that the punches are thrown up out of action whilst
the fabric is turned around the needle to start the fresh row of stitching. The
unches are lowered and held by the latch only after the fabric has been brought
nto such position that it will be fed at the desired angle to the previous row
of holes.
In a modified construction of the device a stationary punch is secured on the
racket or arm on which the pivoted yoke with the pair of punches is carried,
he fixed punch being adapted to pierce a row of smaller holes alongside of the
oles made by the pair of punches and being grooved to allow the sewing needle
reciprocate in close proximity to it and to enter the smaller holes with the
unch which thus may form the point around which the fabric is turned while the
voted punches are raised out of action.
In a further modification the yoke carries two punches which can be thrown
it of action, one of the punches being placed in advance of the needle and the
her behind the needle in the line of sewing.
Dated this 10th day of May 1899.
WALLACE FAIRWEATHER,
Of the Firm of Cruikshank & Fairweather,
Chartered Patent Agents,
Saint Vincent Street, Glasgow, Agent for the Applica

page_text: Improved Punching Device for Hem Stitch Sewing Machines.
I, JOHN KING MACDONALD, 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 particu-
larly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:
-
This invention which relates to hem stitch sewing machines has for its object
to provide a punching device for piercing the fabric alongside the needle in which
the punches are adapted to be raised or thrown out of their operative position
during the formation of an angle in the line of stitching as at the corner of a
handkerchief or other piece of goods.
Hemstitching of the class referred to is effected in a sewing machine fitted with
a pair of punches or prickers so placed as to work simultaneously alongside the
needle which may have a zig-zag movement so that whilst the punches form
a row of holes in the fabric the needle which forms the hemistitch passes
alternately through the holes formed by the punches and through the fabric
alongside the holes.
Under the present invention the punches are secured to a hinged or pivoted
yoke on an arm or bracket piece fixed to a vertically reciprocating bar and
secured in the operative position by means of a spring catch or latch fixed on
the bracket. A spring on the bracket is fitted to act on the pivoted yoke so that
when the latch is lifted to disengage the punch or piercer carrying yoke the
latter is turned on its pivot by the spring and throws the punches or piercers up
or aside and out of action. While sewing in a straight line, as along the edge
of a handkerchief, the punches are kept in operative position to form the holes
into which the needle passes at each alternate reciprocation, but in turning a
corner the latch is lifted to disengage the punch carrier so that the punches are
thrown up out of action whilst the fabric is turned around the needle to start the
fresh row of stitching. The punches are lowered and held by the latch only after
the fabric has been brought into such a position that it will be fed at the desired
angle to the previous row of holes.
In the accompanying drawing Fig. I is a partial end view and Fig. 2 a partial
front side view of a hem-stitch sewing machine provided with my improved punch-
ing or piercing device. Figs. 3 and 4 are diagrams illustrating; off an enlarged
scale, the manner in which the hem-stitches are formed.
Referring to the drawings g denotes a bar to which a vertically reciprocating
movement is to be imparted in the usual manner, and which is provided at
its lower end with a horizontally extending arm gl having a small bracket g
The punches or piercers a are secured by suitable screws in a block or yoke
provided with an arm which is pivoted at to the bracket g², the said
block being held in its operative position by a spring catch lever or latch e also
pivoted on the said bracket g² and having a hooked portion to engage the said
block . Pressing on the longer arm of the latch e is a spring el which holds
the shorter arm of the said catch lever or latch in engagement with the said
block. d. f denotes a spring one end of which is attached to the arm g' and the
other end of which is engaged with the block d in such a manner as to have
a tendency to lift the said block to the position denoted by dotted lines in
Fig. 2, so that when it is desirable to remove the piercers from their working
position, to get them out of the way, it is only necessary for the attendant to
press upward on the longer arm of the catch lever e, thus disengaging the shorter
hooked arm of said lever from the block d, and permitting the spring f to turn
the said block on its pivot d', and thereby lift the piercers out of the way. The

page_text: 5
needle is carried by the needle bar b¹ to which horizontal movement are im-
parted in the usual manner in machines of this kind, so that the needle will
descend at different times in positions, as denoted by full and dotted lines in
Fig. 2.
From the foregoing it will be apparent that when the machine is in operation
the vertically reciprocating piercers or prickers a, a, will make a row of holes c
in the fabric, as indicated in Figs. 3 and 4, while the needle 6 operates in con-
nection with a feeding device which moves the fabric forward and backward
beneath the needle, in the usual manner in hem-stitch machines, so as to form
the hem stitches h¹, h2, h3, etc., as indicated in Fig. 3. It will be understood
that the lateral movements of the needle-bar are capable of adjustment so that
the stitches at h¹, h³, h³, h¹º, may be made nearer to or further from the stitches
h2, h3, 1, 16, 18, h, in the holes e formed by the piercers or prickers a.
be desired to alter the direction of the hem-stitch seam, or of the row of holes c,
If it
as in turning a sharp corner, the attendant merely presses upward on the longer
arm of the catch lever or latch e and the piercers will then be lifted up out of the
way, as denoted in dotted lines in Fig. 2. This operation of turning the work
is performed when the needle is in the work, as when it is in the hole c¹, so
that the work may be turned on the needle as a centre; and in the continued
operation of the machine the hem-stitch seam, after the piercers are again lowered
to their working position, will be formed at a right angle, or any other desired
angle, to the first portion of the said hem-stitch seam.
I do not wish to be understood as limiting my invention to the particular
means herein shown, and described for enabling the piercers to be removed from
working position, as instead of lifting them in the manner herein shown they may
he put out of action by being turned aside, or may be otherwise removed from
working position.
In a modified construction of the device a stationary punch is secured on
the bracket or arm on which the pivoted yoke with the pair of punches is
carried, the fixed punch or piercer being adapted to pierce a
holes alongside of the holes made by the pair of punches and being grooved
row of smaller
to allow the sewing needle to reciprocate in close proximity to it and to enter
the smaller holes with the punch which thus may form the point around which the
fabric is turned while the pivoted punches are raised out of action.
In a further modification the yoke carries two punches which can be thrown out
of action, one of the punches being placed in advance of the needle and the
other behind the needle in the line of sewing.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:-
1. In a hem-stitch sewing machine a punching or piercing device constructed
and arranged to operate substantially as herein before described.
2. In a hem-stitch sewing machine, the combination with the vertically reci-
brocating barg provided with the arm gl, a piercer-carrying block d pivoted to a
ortion of said arm, the spring-pressed catch or latch e also pivoted to a portion
of said arm and the spring f connected with said arm and with said block and
erving to lift the latter and the piercer or piercers carried thereby when the
aid spring-pressed catch or latch is disengaged from said block.
Dated this 18th day of November 1899.
WALLACE FAIRWEATHER,
Of the Firm of Cruikshank & Fairweather,
Chartered Patent Agents,
62, Saint Vincent Street, Glasgow, Agent for the Applicant.