260 EMBROIDERING MACHINE 



M. Heilmann has contrived a mechanism by which the operative without budging 

 from his place, may conduct the carriages, and regulate as he pleases the extent of 

 their course, as well as the rapidity of their movements. By turning the axes M" in 

 the one direction or the other, the carriage may bo made to approach to, or recede 

 from the web. 



When one of the carriages has advanced to prick the needles into the stuff, the 

 other is there to receive them ; it lays hold of them with its pincers, pulls them 

 through, performs its course by withdrawing to stretch the thread, and close the 

 stitch, then it goes back with the needles to make its pricks in return. During these 

 movements, the first carriage remains at its post waiting the return of the second. 

 Thus the two chariots make in succession an advance and a return, but they never 

 move together. 



To effect these movements M. Heilmann has attached to the piece o' made fast to 

 the two uprights A c and A D of the frame, a bent lever non' n", moveable round the 

 point o ; the bend n' carries a toothed wheel o', and the extremity n" a toothed wheel 

 o"; the four wheels M, M', o', and o", have the same number of teeth and the sum; 

 diameter ; the two wheels o' and o" are fixed in reference to each other, so that it is 

 sufficient to turn the handle N to make the wheel o'' revolve, and consequently the 

 wheel o' ; when the lever n o is vertical, the wheel o' touches neither the wheel M nor 

 the wheel M' ; but if it be inclined to the one side or the other, it brings the wheel o' 

 alternately into gear with the wheel M or the wheel M'. As the operative has his two 

 hands occupied, the one with the pantograph, and the other with the handle of impul- 

 sion, he has merely his feet for acting upon the lever n o, and as he has many other 

 things to do, M. Heilmann has adapted before him a system of two pedals, by which 

 he executes with his feet a series of operations no less delicate than those which he 

 executes with his hands. 



The pedals p are moveable round the axis p, and carry cords p' wound in an opposite 

 direction upon the pulleys p' ; these pulleys are fixed upon a moveable shaft P" sup- 

 ported upon one side by the prop E', and on the other in a piece K attached to the two 

 great uprights of the frame. In depressing the pedal p (now raised in the figure), the 

 upper part of the shaft p" will turn from the left to the right, and the lever n o will 

 become inclined so as to carry the wheel o' upon the wheel M', but at the same time 

 the pedal which is now depressed will be raised, because its cord will be forced to 

 wind itself upon its pulley, as much as the other cord has unwound itself ; and thus 

 the apparatus will be ready to act in the opposite direction when wanted. 



4. Disposition of the pincers. The shaft i/ carries, at regular intervals of a semi- 

 diameter, the appendages q q cast upon it, upon which are fixed, by two bolts, the 

 curved branches Q destined to bear the whole mechanism of the pincers. When the 

 pincers are opened by their appropriate leverage, and the half of the needle, which is 

 pointed at each end, with the eye in the middle, enters the opening of its plate, 

 it gets lodged in an angular groove, which is less deep than the needle is thick, so 

 that when the pincers are closed, the upper jaw presses it into the groove. In this 

 way the needle is firmly held, although touched in only three points of its circum- 

 ference. 



Suppose now, that all the pincers are mounted and adjusted at their proper dis- 

 tances upon their prismatic bar, forming the upper range of the right carriage. For 

 opening all the pincers there is a long plate of iron, TJ, capable of turning upon its 

 axis, and which extends from the one end of the carriage to the other. This axis 

 is carried by a kind of forks which are bolted to tho extremity of the branches Q. 

 By turning that axis the workman can open the pincers at pleasure, and they are 

 again closed by springs. This movement is performed by his feet acting upon the 

 pedals. 



The threads get stretched in proportion as the carriage is run out, but as this ten- 

 sion has no elastic play, inconveniences might ensue, which are prevented by adapting 

 to the carriage a mechanism by means of which all the threads are pressed at the 

 same time by a weight susceptible of graduation. A little beneath tho prismatic l>ar, 

 which carries tho pincers, we see in the figure a shaft Y, going from one end of ihc, 

 carriage to the other, and even a little beyond it; this shaft is carried l.y picc.-s // 

 which are fixed to the arms Q, and in which it can turn. At its left end it. carries 

 two small burs y' and /, and at its right a single bar y 1 , and a counter we iiil it (not. 

 visible in this view) ; the ends of the two bars ^ are joined by an iron wire, somewhat 

 stout and perfectly straight. When the carriage approaches the web, and before tin; 

 iron wire can touch it, the little bar v presses against a pin w', which rests upon it, 

 and tends to raise it more and more. In what has preceded we have kept in view- 

 only the upper range of pincers and iiee<llos, but there is nn inferior range quite 

 similar, as the figure shows, at the lower ends of the arms Q. In conclusion, it should 

 be stated, that tho operative docs not follow slidingly with the pantograph the trace 



