82 ANNUAL OE SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



the cam wheels, and these communicate motion to the shafts, and the 

 shafts work the needles, between which the cloth to be sewed is 

 placed. The cloth is held in its place and drawn along as fast as it is 

 sewed by the weight. The spools contain the thread, and unwinding, 

 furnish a supply as fast as it is needed. The peculiarity of the 

 machine, however, consists in the stitch, which is of such a nature 

 that each is independent of the other. The seam will not rip if a few 

 stitches be cut ; and seams of all shapes and kinds can be sewn with 

 equal facility. It uses more thread than either of the other American 

 machines, but less than the French. In respect to rapidity of work, 

 there is no great difference. The great advantages of Avery's 

 machine are its more simple mechanism and its greater cheapness. 



The Scientific American furnishes a description of an additional 

 sewing machine recently invented by Mr. Titeman of New York. In 

 this machine two. threads are used to form the stitch, one being in the 

 form of a loop, and the other thread being passed through the whole 

 series of loops, thus preventing them from following the needle when 

 it is Avithdrawn. The arrangement is very compact, and is well 

 adapted to sew, besides the ordinary sort of work, any thing in a cir- 

 cular or endless form, To admit of this variety of sewing the work 

 is placed around the outer circumference of a hollow cylinder, as on 

 a bed, and is moved forward for another stitch by an endless chain 

 revolving inside, which is furnished with a number of points or teeth 

 projecting through a slot that grasps the cloth which is being sewed. 

 On the cylinder are fixed a vertical standard and slides from which 

 the needle works like wire vertically. This needle has two eyes, one 

 near the point and the other close to the head. Within the cylinder 

 is placed the apparatus for forming the thread (which is carried into 

 the cloth by the needle,) into a loop, and then securing the loop by a 

 longitudinal thread. This last mentioned arrangement consists prin- 

 cipally of a circular shuttle (or, rather, the shape is of an oblate 

 spheroid,) Avith one part cut away, so as to form a point, which is used 

 to open a way for the shuttle to pass through the loop. The shuttle 

 has a recess, which contains a bobbin for supplying the longitudinal 

 or lock thread. When the needle is made to descend Avith its attached 

 thread (which is supplied from a bobbin,) it perforates the cloth, and 

 continuing its course, passes through an aperture in the cylinder. 

 Whilst in the act of returning a portion of the thread (which at that 

 moment is rather slack,) is caught by the point of the shuttle and 

 extended into the form of a loop. By a novel arrangement, the loop 

 is freed from the shuttle, although the thread from the shuttle bobbin 

 remains Avithin the loop, thus holding it from re-passing the cloth. 

 The Avork is pressed down in the cylinder by a spring, and is moved 

 at each successive stitch by an endless chain, as before mentioned, the 

 motion of which is repeated by a ratchet wheel ; all of Avhich gearing 

 as Avell as the main driving shaft, &c., is contained within the cylinder. 

 We must mention that the proper tension of the vertical thread is 

 maintained by two neatly contrived fingers, which grasp it until the 



