USRE706E - Improvement in sewing-machines - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES GEORGE W. STEDMAN, or VIENNA, NEW JERsEY; EMELINE M. STEDMAN, ExEoUTEIX'oE GEORGE W. STEDMAN, DEoEAsED.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 12,074, dated December 12, 1854; Reissue N0. 706. dated April 26, 1859.

View of the needle and tube which carries the locking-thread. Fig. 4 is a side view of the needle-arm, showing the method in which the needle operates for the purpose of feeding the cloth. Fig. 5 is a side view of a modified arrangement of the needle.

In these improvements in the sewing-machine all the usual cumbrous and noisy machinery is dispensed with, and certain combinations of parts are used, by which, with a comparatively few pieces, a series of important results are produced, which had before been obtained only by the combined action of a much greater number of parts.

This invention improves the sewing-machine in the manner in which a great number of parts are dispensed with by making a single vibrating lever operate direct the needle, the

concatenating-instrument, and the feeding device; also in the particular manner of arrangement and combination of the mechanical details.

The first part of this invention consists in a certain new and useful device employed, in combination with a needle, to effect the interlacing of two threads, one of which is pr0- truded through the cloth by a needle, forming a loop inthe same manner as inmost of the sewing-machines now in use, and the other of which passes through the said loop and forms another loop through which the needle and first thread pass, thus forming a double series of interlacing loops on one side of the cloth.

The second part of this invention relates to the arrangement of the looping-tube with respect to a guide fixed on a plate auxiliary to the bed-plate, and adjustable thereon, to bring the tube into the proper relation to the needle.

The third part of this invention consists in the employment of a two-armed vibrating lever to actuate both the needle and the loop-' ing-tube or its equivalent, as hereinafter described, when such lever. is arranged and operates with respect to the bed or table of the machine in substantially the manner described, by which it becomes: practicable to fix the needle in the extremity of one arm, while the other extends below the platform and communicates a reciprocating motion to the looper.

The fourth part of this invention relates to feeding the cloth by means of a needle which is made to pass through the same in a position, with respect to its length, diagonal to its line of movement, combined with a spring to throw the needle in position to feed the cloth the next stitch, and a screw to regulate at will the length of the stitch.

To enable others to make and use these improvements, the invention will now be more fully described.

A is the bed plate or frame, to which all the parts of the machine are attached.

B is an auxiliary plate, secured to the table or frame Aby a screw, a, on which it is movable when desired. This plate serves as a support in part for the cloth or material to be sewed. It has a slot, 1), through which the needle works, and. has attached to it the gage O, which guides the cloth.

D is the needle-arm, reaching out over the cloth or material being sewed, from'the rockshaft E, and carries the needle 0; and it also extends down beyond the rockshaftbelow the cloth or material to be sewed, and is there connected with the eccentric F on the main shaft G. This eccentric performs no other function, especially, than to impart a regulated extent of motion to the parts which perform the sewing, and may therefore be dis placed for any other equivalent rotating prime mover which will act in substantially the same manner.

H is the spool which supplies the needle with thread.

- I is the springpresser which holds the cloth to the surface of the plateB during the sewing.

K is a rod, which is connected to the lower part of the needle-carrier, and is for the purpose of producing on the looping-tubeJ, hereinafter described, a movement imparted from or by the needle-carrier in such a manner as to cross contiguous to the path of the needle,

in order that the two as hereinafter set forth, may co-operate with each others threads and perform sewing. v The distance of the point of connection of the rod K with the needle-carrier. from the rock-shaft E determines the ex tent of motion of the looping-tube, and the ad i iustnient of the rod K by the screw ,t disposes and is directly connected with the needle, mo- 1 tion may be imparted to either, and they will always sustain those relations to each other which are necessary to their co-operation to perform sewing.

J is the looping-tube. It is open from an plate B, (in a guide, 1., attached to the plate) close to the needle and opposite to one side thereof, in a similar manner to the shuttle commonly employed. This tube is connected by the rod K, before referred to, with that part thread (which thread is shown in blue lines) left by the needle on the under side of the cloth. This tube has a thread, which, forthe sake of distinction, I will call the tube-thread, (shown in red lines) passing through it from a spool, L, placed on an upright pivot, e, and entering it at the back end of the tube and leaving it at the front end. The thread, before it enters the tube,v passes through a hole in the guide-piece d, where friction is produced upon it by a plug, f, of leather or other material. The tube is arranged and moved in such a manner as to cross contiguous to the needle-path, so that every time the needle passes through the cloth and leaves a loop the tube enters it during the retraction of the needle, and the thread emerging from the point of the tube lies along that side of the tube which is next to the needle. By the time the tube has advanced as far as it is allowed, the needle (having been retracted to its greatest distance from the cloth) has drawn its loop tight around the tube and that part of the tubethread lying by the side of the tube, and as the tube recedes that portion of its thread which has been protruded through the loop' on the needle-thread is caused to form aloop, into which the needle enters as it makes its next descent through the cloth simultaneously with the retraction of the tube. As the tube is retracted it leaves its own loop in the loop of the needle-thread and draws its own thread tight around the needle, so that when the needle is withdrawn from the cloth the new loop in the needle-thread is left protruding through and tightly grasped by the above-described loop of the tube-thread. In Figs. 1, 2, and 3 of the drawings the tube is supposed to be just withdrawing from the loop of the needlethread and the needle to be just entering the loop in the tube-thread. It will be understood from the foregoing description that the tube-thread is left inthe form of aloop through a loop in the needle-thread, and then receives a loop of nee'dIethread, and therefore the action of the needle and tube in forming the stitch differs entirely from that of the needle and shuttle, which shuttle the tube appears to resemble. Yet the substitution for the loopingtube of any other device capable of co-operating with the needle to concatenate or form the to end, and is arranged to work under the stitch and perform sewing will not alter nor affect that part of this invention which rehates to the combination of the tube or its equivalent with the Vibrating lever, which carries the needle, as herein set forth.

The above operation of sewing can be effected with a needle attached to the arm in the usual manner, and is entirely independent of the feeding device which I am about to describe. This device is entirely dependent for its motion in feeding the clothupon the reciprocations of the needle-carrier, which take place in carrying the needle in and out of the cloth in performing the sewing. It is particu larly illustrated in Fig. 4, though also shown in Figs. 2, 3. F in those figures represents a roller or short rock-shaft provided with journals fitted to transverse bearings in the end of the needle-arm D. This roller carries the needle 0, which is inserted through it and se cured transversely to its axis; and it carries also a stud or screw, g, which is to be connected by a spring, h, of india-rubber or other elastic substance, with a screw, i, screwed into the arm, or with some part of the arm, in such a Way as to throw the stud 9, against the front of the screw i," or some fixed part'of the arm, to hold the needle in a position tangential or otherwise oblique to an are described from.

the pivot E. The force applied to the needle to drive it through the cloth tends to push the stud g hard up against the screw '5, or other stop provided for the purpose, and thus make a rigid connection with the arm. The point or any part of the length of the needle, while fixed relatively to the arm, describes an are from the center E, as indicated by the dotted arc in Fig. 4; but the point describes a larger arc than any other part. Consequently as the needle descends through the cloth the cloth is drawn toward the center E to the extent indicated by the change of position of the parts in contact with the cloth in black and red outline. The strength of the spring h must be insufficient to overcome the friction of the presser I, or its equivalent, upon the cloth, and consequently as the needle is withdrawn from the cloth the roller F will move in its bearings 70d l I 3 and allow the needle to draw up freelywithout :m'oving thecloth; but as soon as the needle leaves the cloth the spring h will throw it to the tangential orobliqne position first described, when, on the next descent of the needle, it will pierce the'cloth in a new position;

The length of vibratory movement of the needle s point may be varied to alter thelength' I of stitch-by means of the screw 1', by whichthe pointisbrought nearer to or farther from the are described by the base of the needle.

feed may be given in any direction byplacingv the"-needle.obliquely in that direction to the The path in which .it moves, whether it be attached to an arm or to a straight barmoving in a.

right line. The latter modification'of this ar- "iangement of the needle (seen in Figgfi) consists in'securing it in a small stock, j, which is pivoted by a screw or pin, "k, to the arm I),-

has a spring, h, applied above the pivot to drive it back against the screw i..

-The proper lateral adjustment of the tube ;J and'the slot b of the table is effected by simply unscrewing' the bolt a and? moving the plate B to the right or left, ashecessary. The distance between the guide d and the rear. end

of the rod K is so great, compared to the dis-'- tance betweenthe guide and the point-of the tube, that the relation between the tube and sl'ot in the plate is not perceptibly influenced.

Having thus described these improvements in'thesewing-machine, what I claim as the invention of. Geo. W. STEDMAN,-deceased, and

desire'to securevby Letters Patent, is-

1'. The tube hereindescribed,receiving thread in the manner specified, and actingin combination with the'needle,so that each forms a series of loops, each of which loops.

receives one and is received bythe next one of the other series, asset forth.

2. The auxiliary plate carrying the guide for the looping-tube, and secured .to the bedplate, substantially in the manner specified, so as to be adjustable to any desired position 1 needle, for the purposes set'forth. I

relatively with the 3. A reciprocating tubelor equivalent de vice 'co;operating with an eye-pointed needle to concatenate or form the stitch and produce sewing, essentially as specified, combined with and receiving its motion from oneend'of a lev er the fulcrum of which is at or near the'bed .or table of .the machine, while the other end carries the said needle, substantially. as 'described. j

4. Feeding the cloth by means of. a'needle,

which is made to pass through the same in a position with respect to its length diagonal to its line of movement, as specified, in combination with a spring to throw the needle into position to feed the cloth the next stitch, and

the screw or its equivalent to determine. and

"regulate thelengthof the stitch,'substantiallyas specified:

Witnesses;

W. Hows-LL, .DANIEIZ HULL.

EMELII IE M...sTEDMAN',' e Ememetriw of Geo. Stedman,

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