BRITISH  PATENT  233 - 1857

233  John Henry Johnson,Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, improvements in sewing machines. A communication from J. E. A. Gibbs, Virginia, United States. This invention relates to apparatus for uniting or ornamenting fabrics by means of the ordinary tambour or chain stitch, whereby a sewing machine of greater simplicity and cheapness of construction is obtained. The improvements consist, firstly, in so constructing and arranging the machine as to form tho chain stitch by the aid of a stationary hook, thereby dispensing with the whole of the mechanism hitherto employed for actuating the hook. Secondly, in producing the feed motion of the fabric by means of a hook attached for that purpose to the needle-head or carrier. Thirdly, in the application of a peculiar clamp, so constructed that it will hold the fabric down upon the cloth table during the whole operation of forming and tightening the loop and relieve it from pressure at the moment the feeding of the fabric is to be performed. Fourthly, in a mode of guiding the needle properly at the moment it enters the fabric. The framing of the machine, which is capable of being clamped down on to any ordinary table, carries two shafts placed one above the other, and arranged so as to run parallel in a direction from the front to the back or the machine. The lower shaft is the first motion shaft and is driven by a winch handle. It imparts a rocking motion to the upper shaft by means of a connecting-rod and suitable arms or cranks. The front end of this upper or rocking-shaft is fitted or formed with a lever-arm having a projecting pin or stud at its outer end, upon which the needle-head or carrier is free to turn slightly. Into this carrier is fitted the needle, which should be slightly curved or bent above the eye, which is made near the point. There is also fitted to the needle head a cloth feeding-hook, which on coming in contact with the cloth will impel it forward a certain desired distance according to the length of stitch required, such distance being adjusted by means of a suitable regulating screw, which controls the play of the needle head on its stem or pin. The needle is guided during part of its ascending and descending motion by suitable-cross bar guiders, it being kept in contact with these guiders by means of a helical or other spring suitably attached to the needle-head. The cloth table is slotted so as to allow a free passage and play to the needle. Below it is fixed the stationary hook, which is so disposed as to catch the thread from the needle when the latter is guided thereto, which is effected by a projecting guider for that purpose. The fabric is held down upon the table by a hinged spring clamp, which is elevated at the time the cloth ls to be fed by a cam or projection on the connecting rod of the actuating winch handle striking a pulley on the tail of the clamp. The spool or bobbin is placed in the upper part of the machine and the thread is conducted through suitable guiding-eyes before being passed through the needle. The needle-head is free to turn round on its axis and the needle, after passing through the cloth is guided upon an inclined plane on the stationary hook, the cloth forming the fulcrum of the needle and causing it under the action of the arm to oscillate within such limits as it may have been adjusted for. The needle passes the thread over the stationary hook, whereby a loop is formed, which remains until the next descent of the needle through the loop last formed, which is then drawn off.

Petition recorded                                                               January 26, 1857