US38375A - Improvement in machine-shirred ruffles - Google Patents

Description

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C. O. CROSBY,OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT.

IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINE-SHIRRED RUFFLES.

Specification forming part of Letters PatentNo. 38,375, dated May 5, 1865.

To all fwhom t may concern:

Be it known that I, C. O. CROSBY, of the city and county of New Haven, and State of Connecticut, have invented al new and useful ll/Iachinebhirred Ruffle; and I do hereby declare the following tobe a full, clear, and exact description of the same, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification, iu which- Figures 1 and 2 respectively represent a sectional view and plan cfa machine for making my improved ruffle; Figs. 3 and 4, enlarged views of sections of my rufie, to fully illustrateits formation. Fig.5shows my ruffle complete. Fig. 6 shows the saine with a strip ofthe saine or other fabric or binding stitched thereto in another machine than the one in which the shirrs are formed. Fig. 7 represents a section ot' double rufiie, or one ou which the shirrs are formed in the middle of a strip of fabric, 0r so as to leave afrill on both sides of the shirrs.

The object of my invention is to produce a rut'lic or frilling similar in appearance to that formed by hand, bya process known as gathering,77 without the principal objection to that, Vwhich is the unavoidable irregularity in its shirrs. Vheumade by hand the strip ol fabric from which the frill or ruffle is to be formed is first hemmed upon one edge, then a strong thread is run in near the other edge; or the fabric may be stitched in adouble-thread sewing-machine, as Wheeler 86 Wilsons,77 or like stitch, one of the threads being taut and the other slack. This done, and the fabric taken from the machine, then, with one hand holding the thread, (the taut thread if stitched in a machine,) the strip is shirred or gathered upon the said thread with the other hand. It willbe readily seen how impossible it is to make vthe shirrs in this manner with any degree of regularity. Therefore my invention consists in producing by mechanical contrivance a shirred ruffle orfrill in which all the shirrs shall be equal, or, in other words, producing a mechanically-shined ruffle.

'lo enable others skilled iu the art to makeA l ceed to more minutely describe it, together with a mechanism for producing the same.

I will rst describe'tlie mechanism by which means I shirr the fabric Vto forth a ruffle. I employ in this illustration and practically prefer the sewing` machine known as the Willcox 85 Gibbs77 machine, patented June 2,1859, and partially represented in Figs. l and 2."

- A is the platform on which the work is performed. B is the needle-bar; b, the needle; C, the presser-foot; D, the feed; E, the driving-shaft; E', the looper. These are all substantially the working parts ofthe said machine, to be threaded and operated in the usual manner. To these working parts of the original machine [add a rock-shaft, F, worked by the cam G through the lever H.

a is a stop or clamp lixed to the said rockshaft, and the point or foot of which falls onto the platform directly back of but at alittle distance from the presser-foot C.

I is a roller, around which I pass a second thread, as denoted by a red line, thence down and under the presser-foot, as represented. c is 'an eye, through which the said second thread passes. A reciprocating movement is given to this said eye of the cam L through the sliding rod N, to which the said eye is attached. The shaft 0,011 which the cam L is placed, is made to revolve once to every two revolutions ot' the shaftE by means of cog-wheels d and ff This is for the purpose of carrying the second thread rst to one side of the needle and then to the other, so that each stitch made crosses thel second thread, and will present the appearance as shown enlarged in Fig. 3.

P is a check fixed to the rock-shaft F to act upon the roller I, so that when required it will press upon the roller and prevent a greater supply ofthe second thread than is required,

las more fully explained hereinafter.

in the proper position-that is, so that the nee-- die willpass down at one side of it. As I now start the machine, the needle goes down on one side of the second thread, and in a full revolution forms one stitch. As the needle rises and leaves the fabric, and before it again enters it, the second thread will, by the mechanism before described, have been carried over so far to the opposite side of the needle that it (the needle) will in its second descent enter the cloth upon the oppositeside of the second thread to its lirst entrance.` Thus the second stitch will be formed across this second thread. (See Fig. 3. The second thread is denoted in red and the stitches in black.) The tension of the two threads must be such that the upper thread will lie entirely upon the upper surface ofthe fabric. The second stitch completed, and before the needle enters for the third stitch, the second thread will have been carried back to its first position, causing` the stitch to cross it, and so on alternately first lto the one side of the needle and then the other, so as to cause each stitch formed to cross it, (the second thread.) As the stitches are formed the strip is fed along in the ordinary manner until the first stitch reaches the stop or clamp a., which said clamp, at the instant the feed commences to move the fabric, must press upon the said fabric, and at the sameinstant the check must be applied to the second thread. The result of this is that as it cannot pass the said stop or clamp the feed will cause the stitches to slip on the second thread, and as there is nothing to hold down the fabric 'for'the space of one stitch bet-Ween the presser-footand the said clamp it will full up into that space and form one shirr. After this is piopeily formed, and before the feed is complete, the clamp or stop rises from the fabric, and at the same time the check rises from the second thread, and the feed carries the fabric and second thread with it to complete its (the feeds) movement, the feed returns and in its next forward movement forms a second shirr in like manner as the first was formed, and so on, each and every shirr being exactly like the preceding one and variable in propor tion as the clamp or stop is allowed to rein-ain for a greater or less portion of the entire feed. These shirrs are shown in Fig. 4enlarged, but not quite closed. The red line denotes the second or upper thread, the black line the stitches, and the blue the fabric. It will be seen that the shirrs may in this manner be made very much finer and with a degree of regularityimpossible to attain either by hand or any known device. Thus I produce mechanically a com plete .shirred or gathered ruffle.

Fig. 5 represents the ruflie complete, the red line denoting the line of stitches and second thread. Fig. 6 represents the same ruffie sewed to a binding or separate strip of fabric. This I sew in a separate machine and by an additional and distinct line of stitches through both ruflie and binding. This line of stitches is represented by the unbrokenred line, the broken line representing the stitches taken in shirring the ruffle. This band or binding is not a necessity to the completion of the rufe, but is attached in some-cases as a matter of convenience to the consumer. The additional line of stitches serves to coniine 'the shirrs in the regular position in which they are formed. Fig. 7 represents a double rufe shirred in like manner. The middle .red line denotes the stitches and second thread as the ruffle comes from the shining-machine. I take two other lines of stitching in acommon sewing-machine, one upon either side, for the better securing the shirrs in their proper position; or by the use ofa double sewing-machine two lines ofstitches and two second threads in like manner as the single machine described may be employed, and then the one middle line taken in a separate machine to confine the shirrs.

Having thus fully set forth my invention,l what I claim thereon as new and useful, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The mechanically-shirred ruffle described, as a new7 article of manufacture, Whether the same be double or single, or either with or without a band or binding attached thereto, substantially as herein set forth.

U. O. CROSBY.

IVitnesses:

JOHN E. EARLE, RUFUs SANFORD.

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