US1011907A - Sewing-machine ruffler. - Google Patents

Description

E. J. BOYLER. SEWING MACHINE RUFFLER.

APPLICATION FILED JANAU. 1911.

1,011,907 Patented Dec.19,1911.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. y

EMANUEL J. BOYLER, OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO THE GREIST MAN- UFACTURING COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF CONNECTICUT.

SEWING-MACHINE RUFFIJER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 19, 1911.

Application iled January 10, 1911. Serial No.'601,905.

To all whom it 'may concern:

Be it known that I, EMANUEL J. BOYLER, a citizen of Canada, residing at New Haven, in t-he county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented or discovered certain new and useful Improvements in Sewing-Machine Ruiilers, of which the following is a specifica-tion, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to certain improvements in that class of sewing machine rufflers shown in Il. S. Patent No. 629,736, granted July 25, 1899, and adapted to make a plait or gather at each stitch', or if it be desired to make wider plaits, to form only a single plait while several stitches are being made. This class of ruiilers is commercially known as live-stitch rufliers, 1n that they are usually so constructed that when the wide plaits are being made they make one gather or plait for each ve stitches of the sewing machine. As these five-stitch rufliers have heretofore been made, in accordance with the patent just referred to, a ratchet-wheel having deep and shallow notches, aording deep and shallow teeth, has been employed in coperation with an actuating pawl mounted on the operating lever which receives its motion from the needle-bar of the sewing machine. When a rutile or gather is being made at each reciprocation of the needle-bar, for each stitch formed by the sewing machine, the actuating pawl is locked into one of the deep notches of the ratchet-wheel by means of a small eccentric mounted on the operating lever, and which is turned into such position as to effect the locking referred to. When the actuating pawl is thus locked in a deep notch of the ratchet-wheel the pawl will be depressed far enough to engage a shoulder on a pendulous lever which is connected with the rufliing-blade carrier; and when the pawl is in said locked position the ratchet wheel, instead of being intermittingly rotated by the pawl, will oscillate with the pawl and operating lever. In such oscillation of the ratchet-wheel, which is engaged by a friction spring which will prevent it from moving except when positively engaged by its actuating pawl, more or less power is expended, so that when the ruffler is adjusted 'to make a gather or plait at each reciprocation of the needle-bar, the attachment works with a certain objectionable stiffness, requiring the expenditure `of too much power, and the present invention has for its main object to avoid this objection by virtue of a double pawl construction which will avoid the oscillation of the ratchet wheel referred to, permitting said ratchet-wheel to remain stationary when single-stitch rufliing or gathering is being done. Also in the operation of rufllers constructed in accordance with the patent referred to, the change from single stitch to fivestitch or multiple-stitch ruiiling can only be effected when the ratchet-wheel is in such position as to permit the actuating pawl to fall into one of the deep notches of said wheel; while in the present improved ruffler this change may be effected at any time, regardless of the position of the ratchetwheel relative to its pawl. Also in the operation of ruiiiers made in accordance with the patentabove referred to, the operative, in makingV the change from single-stitch to five-stitch ruifling, sometimes turns'the eccentric adjust-ing device so tightly aga-inst the pawl that the latter is firmly locked in a notch in such position that the point of the pawl will not be in engagement with the abrupt or radial shoulder of the notch; and in such adjustment of the pawl an objectionably long or false stroke of the ruifling blade will be effectechthus resulting in more or less imperfect work. This objection is also avoided by the present invention in that there is no positive locking engagement between the pawl and ratchet-wheel, when five-stitch ruflling is being eected; the engagement of the pawl with the ratchet wheel in the improved ruflier being a springpressed or yielding one.

In the accompanying drawings Figures 1 and@ are opposite side views of a ruffler embodying the present invention. 'Fig 3 is a rear view of the same, and Fig. 11 is a sectional view on line H, Fig. 1. Fig. 5 is a detail view of the pawls and operating lever, Figs. 6 and 7 are detail views of the pawls, and Fig. 8 a detail view of the eccentric rivet. Fig. 9 is a detail view of the ratchetwheel.

Referring to the drawings, 12 denotes the body of the frame of the ruifler, and which frame is preferably provided with an integral attaching portion or shank 18 by which it may be secured to the presser-bar of a sewing-machine in substitution of an ordinary presser-foot. The forked operating lever 14 is pivotally mounted on a stud 15 riveted to an upright portion of the frame 12. Also pivotally mounted on the said stud are an oscillating plate 16, a ratchet-wheel 17 and a pendulous or secondary lever 18, the latter being jointed at its lower end to the carrier 19 of the rutHing blade 20. The oscillating plate 16 is provided with a proj ection 21 engaged by an adjustable regulating screw 22 mounted on the operating lever 14, said oscillating plate having a projection or shoulder 23 adapted to engage a front upper portion of the said pendulous lever for effecting the backward or retractive movements of said lever and of the rutliing blade connected therewith. The regulating screw 22 permits, according to its position of adjustment, of more or less lost motion between the operating lever 14 and the oscillating plate 16, so that any desired length of stroke may be imparted to the ruttling blade from said operating lever. The pendulous lever 18 is provided at its top with a shoulder 24 and the ratchet-wheel is provided with two relatively deep notches 25 between each of which, in the form of the invention herein shown, are four relatively shallow notches 26.

Pivotally mounted on the operating lever 14 is a spring-pressed pawl 27, which is arranged in the plane of the pendulous lever 18, so that it may engage the shoulder 24 thereof at times; and adj ustably mounted on the said spring-pressed pawl 27 is a supplemental pawl 28 which is arranged in the plane of the ratchet-wheel 17 and which is connected with the pawl 27 by a rivet 29 mounted on the pawl 27 in such a manner that it may be turned. Said rivet 29 is provided with an eccentric portion engaging the supplemental pawl 28 so that by partially rotating said rivet by means of a screw driver, inserted in a nick in the face thereof, the said pawls may be so adjusted that their points are in register with each other, as shown in Figs. 1 and 3, or may be so adj usted that their points are considerably separated from each other, as shown in Figs. 2 and Then the said pawls are so adjusted that their points are thus separated from or out of register with each other, the pawl 27 may engage the shoulder 24 on the pendulous lever 18, while the pawl 28 will be lifted so that it will be clear of the ratchetwheel 17. Then the pawls are adjusted as just stated a ruflling stroke will be imparted to the ruiiling blade 20 at each reciprocation of the operating lever 14, to make singlestitch ruftling, and in such operation of the ruifler the ratchet wheel 17 will remain stationary, being held thus by its retaining friction spring 30.

Then it is desired to make relatively wide plaits or gathers, or multiple-stitch rufi'ling,

the eccentric rivet 29 will be so turned as to cause the pawl 28 to be yieldingly engaged with the walls of the notches of the ratchetwheel, for the purpose of intermittingly rotating the same. Them however, the said pawl 28 is in engagement with the shallower notches 26 of the ratchet wheel. the pawl 27, owing to its rigid connection with the pawl 28, will be held lifted above the shoulder 24 on the pendulous lever 18, so that no motion will be imparted to said lever excepting when the pawl 28 falls into one of the deeper notches 25 of the said ratchet wheel; and at such times the pawl 27 will engage the said shoulder 24 of the said pendulous lever to cause a forward movement to be imparted to the ruilling blade, for the purpose of forming a relatively wide plait or gather, or to form a plait or gat-her at each five stitches formed by the sewing machine.

From the foregoing it will be apparent that the present invention avoids any turning of the ratchet-wheel during the times when the rutlles or gathers are being made at each stitch, and thus enables the ruttler to be operated more freely, or with less power, than would be the case if the ratchet-wheel were to be oscillated at each stitch against the stress of its friction spring 30. It will also be apparent that, as the pawl 28 has no positive locking engagement with the ratchet wheel at any time, the strokes imparted to the ruftling blade, in making live-stitch or nniltiple-rutliing, will always be even and uniform; while the novel construction permits the adjust-ment from single-stitch rutl'ling to five-stitch ruitling to be effected at any time, regardless of the relative positions of the pawls and the deeper notches of the ratchet wheel. The movements of the pawl 27 relative to the lever 14 are limited by a pin 31 on the said lever, and which pin is received in a slot 32 in the said pawl.

Having thus described my invention I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. 1n a sewing machine ruffler, the combination with an operating lever, of two pawls mounted thereon beside each other, a secondary lever provided with a shoulder, an adjustable connection between said operating lever and said secondary lever, a rutlling blade operatively connected with said secondary lever, a ratchet-wheel having deep and shallow notches, and adjusting means whereby the point of one of said pawls may be caused to engage said shoulder while the point of the other is out of engagement with said ratchet-wheel, or whereby said pawls may be so adjusted that one will engage said shoulder only when the other is in engagement with the said deep notches of said ratchet-wheel.

2. In ak sewing machine ruifler, the combination with an operating lever, of a springpressed pawl pivotally mounted thereon, a supplemental pawl arranged beside and adjustably connected with the said first-named pawl, an oscillating disk, a pendulous lever provided with a shoulder, a rutHing blade operatively connected wit-h said pendulous lever, a ratchet-wheel having deep and shallow notches, and adjusting means whereby the points of said pawls may be caused to be either in or out of register with each other, for the purpose of forming single-stitch or multiple-stitch rutliing.

3. In a sewing machine ruiiier, the combination with an operating lever, of a springpressed pawl pivotally mounted thereon, a supplemental pawl arranged beside and ad justably but rigidly connected with said iirstnamed pawl, an oscillating disk, a pendulous lever provided with a shoulder, a ruiiling blade connected with said pendulous lever, a ratchet-wheel having deepand shallow notches, and adjusting means whereby the points of said pawls may be caused to be either in or out of register with each other for the purpose of forming single-stitch or multiple-stitch rufiiing.

4. In a sewing machine ruffler, the combinat-ion with an operating lever, of a springpressed pawl pivotally mounted thereon, a supplemental pawl arranged beside and adjustably connected with the said first-named pawl, an oscillating disk, a pendulous lever provided with a shoulder, a rufling blade operatively connected with said pendulous lever, a ratchet-wheel having deep and shallow notches, and a rotatable eccentric device mounted on one of said pawls, whereby the points of said pawls may be caused to be either in or out of register with each other, for the purpose of forming single-stitch or multiple-stitch rutliing.

In testimony whereof I atliX my signature, in presence of two witnesses.

EMANUEL J. BOYLER.

Witnesses P. R. GRnrs'r, H. M. GREIsT.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

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