IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR USE IN SEWING LEATHER HAT LININGS TO HAT BODIES
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Lawrence Bigelow, of 38, Southampton Buildings,
London, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR
APPARATUS FOR USE IN SEWING LEATHER HAT LININGS TO HAT BODIES." A
communication from abroad by John Bigelow, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
United States of America.
ealed the 20th December 1878, and dated the 3rd October 1878
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Lawrence Bigelow
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 3rd October 1878.
WILLIAM LAWRENCE BIGELOW, of 38, Southampton Buildings, London, Gentleman.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR USE IN SEWING LEATHER HAT
LININGS TO HAT BODIES." [A communication from abroad by John Bigelow, of
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America.]
In the use of mechanical arrangements for sewing leather linings to the bodies
of hats it has heretofore been found necessary to carry the stitches through the.
bodies from the inside to the outside thereof, a result which is found objectionable;
and the object of this Invention is to remedy the evil by effecting the sewing of one
to the other by the sewing threads only passing partially through the thickness of
the fabric composing the body of the hat. The Invention is particularly applicable.
to the sewing of the leather linings into what are generally called felt bodies or
bodies of an elastic character.
In carrying out these improvements the machine known in this and other
countries as the Blanchard over-seaming machine is preferred to be used, but other
sewing machinery with corresponding to-and-fro movement may be employed. The
bed plate or table of the sewing machine is cut away in part up to or about where
the needle operates, leaving a sort of arm or part table on or against which the body
of the hat rests, and this bed plate or table has motion given to it to vibrate the hat
body and the lining, so that the needle with its thread may be passed alternately
partially through the hat body and then through the edge of the leather lining:

page_text: A holder or holders are employed to retain the part of the hat body and guide
it so that the needle in its descent through the part of the body of the hat may
always part only through the inner or under edge of that part of the body formed
by the connection of the crown part with the rim part without the needle passing
to the outside thereof, and also the edge of the leather lining in correct relative
positions.
The needle then after acting upon the part of the body of the hat in its alternate
motion passes through the edge of the lining, and at each passage through the
portion of the body or through the lining the needle thread is caught or looped on
the under side.
The form of stitch found to answer well is that commonly called "herring bone "
or " zig-zag."
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said William Lawrence Bigelow in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
2nd April 1879.
WILLIAM LAWRENCE BIGELOW, of 38, Southampton Buildings, London, Gentleman.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR USE IN SEWING LEATHER HAT
LININGS TO HAT BODIES." A communication from abroad by John Bigelow, of
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America,
My Invention consists for the first part in sewing by machinery the linings into
bats by means of a stitch in which the needle and thread do not pass through and
through the fabric but enter part way and come out again, leaving the portion of
the stitch which holds on to the hat body embedded in the substance of the fabric,
and although it is particularly adapted to soft felt hats it is also applicable to other
hat bodies. For the second part in certain improvements in sewing machines to
be used for carrying out the said first part of my Invention.
33
I prefer to use for the purpose of this my Invention a machine somewhat similar
to that known in this and other countries as the "Blanchard over-seating.
machine," which I improve particularly in the following manner :-In the first
place, since a hat body is much too small to be passed round the table of the
"Blanchard over-seam inachine "I employ what is commonly known as an "arm
machine, and in order that the needle should pass alternately through the hat
body and the lining; I make use in combination with it of the "to-and-fro " move-
ment used in the "Blanchard over-seam machine." I find it necessary in order to
"feed
or carry forward from stitch to stitch so thick and bulky a fabric as a hat
body to use a feed action of more than ordinary strength; I obtain this by com-
bining with a four-motion feed specially adapted to my purpose a presser foot
which "lifts" and also "walks," that is to say, it is raised from the fabric while the
needle is in it and the feed claw is returning, and when the feed claw moves
forward the foot having descended again moves with it.
"
But since the material is made to move "to and fro," as in the "Blanchard over-
seam machine" it is needful that the foot should have a third motion, namely, one
to follow the "to-and-fro " motion of the material.
Since for my present purpose I find the loose sliding "claw" of the feed move-
ment in the Blanchard over-seam machine objectionable, I use a claw attached to
the sliding plate. I find a machine having the kind of movement well known as

page_text: that of the singer sewing machine answers well to receive the
Blanchard overseain
machine" movement and my improvements, and I have described them as applied
to a machine having that kind of movement.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is a side view; Figure is a plan partly in section, the head being
removed; and Figure 3, a front view of machine; Figure 4, a section on line A, B ;
Figure 5, a plan of front part of head; Figure 6, showing materials to be sewn ;
Figure 7, section on line B, C.
The same letters indicate the same parts in each view.
A is the frame; Z is the needle in the needle bar Y actuated by main shaft I;
✗, the shuttle moving in shuttle race by means of shuttle driver y, connecting
rod y¹, and crank w; B is the arm; C, the sliding plate of the Blanchard over-seam
machine movement. The cam D that gives the "to-and-fro" movement to the
"sliding plate" C by means of the lever E is driven by a pinion D' on the upright
shaft I geared to main shaft I at I¹¹.
"
The lever E is fitted with pin and cam roller a, and attached to the sliding
plate C with an adjustable pin at b.
The " presser bar
F, which carrries on it the foot e is made to work up and
down in a slide H. There is a pin f fixed in the slide H upon which the presser
bar is free to move in a slot f¹, and on this pin f is also a lift lever m, which taking
against ping when it is moved from a horizontal to a vertical position affords the
means of lifting the presser foot e at pleasure. The presser bar is automatically
lifted at proper intervals, namely, while the needle is in the work and the claw
returning by the lever k, which is actuated by the cam on the main shaft I. The
spring J and adjusting nut J¹ serves to press the foot down on the work. Since
the presser bar is not confined edgeways by the slide H and is free to oscillate on
the pin when the feed clawh moves (in the direction shown by the arrow) feeding
the work forward, the presser foot e (which at time rests upon the work under the
pressure of spring J) moves with it. When the presser bar is lifted by the lever K
it returns to the vertical position influenced by the spring V. The presser foot
slide H is suspended on a pin at c on which it oscillates in conformity with the
"to-and-fro" movement of the sliding plate C imparted to it by means of the con-
necting rod G, and by this means the presser foot e is made to exactly conformi to
the movements of the sliding plate and the work receives the necessary "to-and-
fro" movement. The feed claw h moves backwards and forwards in a slot n in the
sliding plate C. It is firmly attached to or made in one piece with a lever o.
end o of which is carried in sliding ways formed on a projecting piece on the
sliding plate C. The other end of lever o rests on another lever q hung at one end
on a pin at r fixed to the arm B. The opposite end of q lies on the incline 1 on
the end of main feed lever K.
"
The
This lever K is formed in the manner usual in a "Singer machine" with a four-
motion feed; it receives a compound oscillating sliding movement from the ordinary
Singer" double cam K', being supported by a slide block and pin k', which is
made adjustable "to and fro" in slot k² to afford means of altering the length of
the stitch. The lever K is formed with an incline in the usual manner, by
means of which the feed claw h is raised and lowered at proper intervals through
the sliding motion of lever K, while the oscillating movement imparts the feeding
action to the claw h after the well known manner of a "four-motion feed." The
object of introducing the lever is to provide that the feed claw h while above the
surface of plate e shall not receive any up-and-down movement from incline k111
though partaking the to-and-fro movement of plate C. I find that if the sliding
plate C is left level all over its surface the lining is liable to slip under the hat body;
to prevent this that part 8, 8, of the surface of plate C that the lining occupies is
made higher, so that the lining may abut on the folded felt at or near the centre of
the fold; T is the sewing gauge for the edge of the hat body capable of adjustment

page_text: to or from the needle by a thumbscrew t; R is the sewing gauge for edge of
lining adjustable nearer to or further from the needle by thumbscrew at R¹.
The mode of operation is as follows:-The brim of a soft hat body is folded back so
that the edge of the fold shall fall just where the lining is to be attached, and
placed under the presser foot e with the edge of the fold against the gauge T.
That edge of the lining that is to be sewn is laid against the edge of the fold,
and under sewing gauge T; the gauge R is adjusted so that the other edge of the
lining may run against it; the machine is then set in motion, and the first stitch
attaches the lining, to the hat body, and as the hat is gradually carried along by
the action of the feed, the lining follows with it and is sewn in.
The gauge T is so adjusted that the needle shall pass through the fold between
the two surfaces of the hat body and leave the thread embedded in the substance,
as in Figure 6, where a¹ is the hat body doubled back; 61 is the lining; a² is
the line of the path of the needle through the hat; and a³ its path through the
Jining. In the event of anyone wishing to use an ordinary straight stitch in place
of the zig-zag or herring-bone stitch for the purpose described without having
recourse to a machine in which the to-and-fro movement is absent, by removing the
nut b, Figure 2, the table becomes inoperative, and the machine then forms a
straight stitch, and the lining can then be attached by this stitch, but I do not
think it will be so useful or so much preferred as the zig-zag stitch described.
. In sewing leather linings into hard felt or silk hats I raise the head of the
machine as at present constructed, and use a curved needle similar to that in use
upon the Blake sewing machine, and apply such mechanism to the needle cams in
head of machine as will cause the needle in sewing to make a half circle, the service
of the shuttle in formation of zig-zag stitch made upon machine mentioned in the
foregoing Specifications may be as at present constructed.
Having now described my Invention, and how the same may be carried into
effect, I now say that what I claim as my Invention is,―
37
First. The mode of attaching by means of a sewing machine a hat lining to a
soft hat body by stitches which do not pass through the hat body from side to side,
but are embedded in the material by employing for that purpose either a zig-zag or
herring-bone stitch, produced by a machine in which a "to-and-fro movement
is employed to cause the stitches to take alternately into the hat body and the
lining, or by an ordinary straight stitch, such as is produced by a machine
operating without such a to-and-fro motion, substantially as and in the manner
described.
Second. The combination of the mechanism consisting of the sliding plate with
feed and presser foot actuated by a cam and connections to give a to-and-fro
movement, forming together the peculiar mechanism of the Blanchard over seam
machine, with an arm sewing machine to enable hat bodies to be sewn as above
described.
Third. In a machine fitted with the Blanchard over seam machine mechanism
for producing an alternate or "zig-zag" stitch a presser foot suspended in such a
manner that it reciprocates conformably with the movements of the sliding plate,
and also moves conformably with the "feed," and also "lifts" at each step or action
of the "feed" mechanism.
Fourthly. Sewing leather or other linings into hard felt hats or other bodies by
means of the curved needle as before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Lawrence Bigelow, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine.
WM. LAWRENCE BIGELOW. (L.S.)