764 SEWING MACHINES 



and slotted lower end, whore it is set on a fixed stud in the framing. This feed -lever 

 has a roughened or toothed upper end, the teeth or asperities being set or inclined in 

 the direction of the fabric's traverse. After each stitching action, the feed-lever being 

 lowered just beneath the operating level, is raised up so as to press firmly against the 

 under side of the fabric, and nip it between the stationary spring pressed above. 

 This elevation of the roughened face is effected by the traverse of the shuttle- 

 carrier, which at its back stroke comes against the inclined tail of a short horizontal 

 lever set on a stud in the framing, and having its opposite bent end bearing against 

 the lower end of the feed lever, at the part where it is carried by its slot upon the 

 holding stud. At the commencement of the return of the shuttle, an inclined piece 

 upon the shuttle-carrier bears against a lateral stud upon one end of a short rocking 

 or oscillatory shaft set in bearings in the framing, the other end of the shaft having a 

 lever arm bearing against the side of the feed-lever. In this way the feed-lever is tra- 

 versed forward in its elevated position, carrying forward the fabric for the succeeding 

 stitch. The adjustment of the spring presser is effected by an upper screw in the end of 

 the bracket arm of the framing, the lower end of the screw bearing upon a lateral pressing 

 piece which rests or abuts on the top end of a flattened helical spring upon the presser 

 bar. The latter can be set up clear out of work by means of a small cam lever set on a 

 stud in the stationary guide of the presser bar, the cam bearing against a lateral stud in 

 the bar, so that by setting the lever up or down, the cam is correspondingly turned, 

 and the lever set up or down, as required. The actual pressing or resisting foot of the 

 bar is a bent piece of metal screwed on to the bar, and being thus removable to allow 

 of various forms of feet guides, -or presser surface pieces, being put on to suit varieties 

 of forms of stitching. 



This machine, or a modification of it, is available for working a duplex, or other 

 stitching action without involving further modification of the prime movers. In 

 working a duplex arrangement, two needles and two shuttles are used, each needle 

 and shuttle working independently, so as to allow of sewing in two different and in- 

 dependent lines with one set of actuating parts. To aid the shuttle action there is 

 attached to its side a flat curved blade spring, one end of which is free, but hooked 

 into a hole in the body of the shuttle. Thus, as the shuttle traverses forward, the 

 sewing thread is drawn beneath the hooked end portion of the spring, so as to be 

 nipped against the shuttle. The thread is thus held, and the proper loop is secured 

 at the part immediately outside the nipped portion. With this arrangement the 

 needle can never work on the wrong side of the shuttle-thread. Provision is also 

 made for securing an independent shuttle-thread controller. This is a nipper or 

 retainer worked from any convenient part of the mechanism, but entirely independent 

 of the shuttle movement. This may be arranged in various ways, the object being 

 the variable and efficient control or retention of the thread, without interfering in 

 any way with the fixed and determined action of the shuttle. Instead of fixing a 

 horizontal shuttle race ,or guide track, in the framing, the shuttle-driver is itself 

 made the race or carrier, so as to secure both offices in one detail or arrangement. 

 A hook or finger, actuated by any convenient part of the movement, is also used 

 for retaining the needle thread for any desired time after being passed through the 

 fabric ; this facilitates the movement or action of the needle bar. The shuttle race, 

 when one is used, is made quite independent of the machine, so that it can be changed 

 at any time to suit various-sized shuttles by merely slipping in or taking out the part. 

 The portion of the framing carrying the shuttle race is cast in one piece with the 

 main body of the platform, but the table or plate on which the stitching bikes place 

 is a loose piece slotted down the middle for the working movements, and fitted into 

 its position by pins cast upon it, and entered into corresponding recesses in the main 

 base. 



There exists a fourth class of sewing machines, which produce more complex 

 stitches than the preceding. These are formed by sewing two threads, which mutually 

 interlace each other in chain-stitch, so as to avoid the unravelling to which the 

 simple chain-stitch is subject, and also are intended to meet an objection which is 

 urged against the shuttle-stitch machines, on the ground that, as the shuttle must bo 

 small to enable it to pass through the loop formed by the needle thread, so the bob- 

 bin carried by the shuttle can only obtain a moderate length of thread. Thus the 

 operation is stopped at short intervals to supply fresh bobbins to the shuttle. Several 

 patents have been obtained for compound chain-stitch machines : two in America, in 

 1851 and 1852, by Grover and Baker; another in 1852 by Avery; and another by 

 M. Journaux Le Blond. 



In England, as in France, all the most promising American patents have been re- 

 patented, and the use of the machine is rapidly extending itself. The sewing machine 

 has acquired so prominent a position, and shown itself to be so useful, as to deserve 

 the time and attention of able mechanists. It is now made in a considerable variety 



