US577595A - Sewing-machine - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

G. 'A. CLOSE.

. SEWING MACHINE. N5. 577,595. Patented Feb. 23, 1897,

WITNESSES:

Nrrnn Srarns PATENT OFFICE. V

GIDEON A. CLOSE, OF BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT.

SEWING-MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 577,595, dated February 23, 1897. Application filed October 26, 1896. Serial No. 610,131. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GIDEoNA. OLosE, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Bridgeport, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sewing-lilachines; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertainst-o make and use the same.

My invention relates to certain improvements in sewing-machines, but more particularly has reference to an attachment fora sewing-machine intended for factory use in instances where a plurality of needles are employed for the purpose of gang-stitchin g.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective showing my improvement applied for use, it being deemed necessary to show merely the presser-foot, needle-bar, and bed of the machine, these parts being broken away; Fig. 2, a detail side elevation of the presser-foot; Fig. 3, a section at the line 00 0c of Fig. 2; Fig. 4, a bottom View of the presserfoot; Fig. 5, a detail perspective of a clothsection, showing particularly the gathered fullness in the cloth whereby the lines of stitching are caused to diverge; and Fig. 6, a plan of the cloth-section, showing the effect produced by my improvement in stitching ordinary strips upon cloth.

Similar numbers of reference denote like parts in the several figures of the drawings.

Since my improvement has to-do merely with the sewing-machine at the poin t of stitchin g, I have not shown any parts of the sewingmachine except the bed, the presser-foot, and the needle-bar, these parts being all that are deemed necessary for a clear understandin of my invention and its application.

Sewing-machines that are used in factories, and are therefore run by power, are usually equipped with a plurality of needles, which effect parallel lines of stitching, and my invention appertains to machines of this description. In many manufactured articles, such as corsets, corset-waists, dress-waists, and other analogous articles of wearing-apparel, strips or tapes are stitched to the body of the garment, either for the purpose of affording shirr-pockets or, in the instance of outside trimmings, for ornamental purposes, which tapes or strips are sometimes parallel and in some instances slightly diverge from each other and are parallel possibly only for a short distance; also, in the instance of garments having two thicknesses of material the tapes or strips are sometimes omitted and the stitches taken in such a manner as to leave the shirr-pockets between the two thicknesses, and, in fact, there are very many instances in which a gang-needle sewing-machine is employed where lines of stitching diverge at times.

In all instances the parallel stitching has been readily effected by the use of the gangneedles, but lines of stitching which diverge must each be taken separately and at different times, and it is for the purpose of obviating this necessity last referred to that I have contrived the device which forms the subjectmatter of this present application, a description of which I will now give.

1 is the presser-foot bar, 2 the presser-foot carried by said bar, and 3 are strip-guides carried by the presser-foot at its inner edge, these guides leading down beneath the. presser-foot and curving upwardly to afford a ready ingress to the strips, which latter are generally fed from spools or rolls supported above the machine. In Fig. 1 these strips, which I will denote by the numeral 4, are shown in dotted lines. Supported by this presser-foot and extending from the front to the rear thereof is a vertically-disposed pocket 5, having a depth of half an inch, more or less, from the top to the bottom and provided with a bell-m0uth 6. This pocket is preferably made from thin sheet metal and really divides the presser-foot at a point midway between the sides thereof, the small holes 7 8 for the needles extending through said presser-foot on opposite sides of this pocket, while the bottom of the latter is flush with the bottom of the presser-foot.

is the needlebar, and 10 theneedle-head carried thereby, within which latter are secured the two gangs of needles 11 12, which latter respectively operate through the needle-holes 7 8 in the presser-foot. In order to a point between the two gangs of needles and immediately above the pocket 5, so that the latter cannot obstruct the vertical play of this head.

Presupposing a cloth-section to be lying upon the bed of the machine beneath the presser-foot and the needles to be in operation, it will be clear that these two gangs of needles will effect two series of stitches,which series are parallel, it of course being understood that the cloth is to lie fiat upon the table. Now during the operation of the needles the operator places his or her hands upon the cloth'section on opposite sides of the presser-foot, and by moving the hands toward each other forms the gathers or full ness in the cloth at the mouth of the pocket which fullness extends up into the pocket, and as the cloth is fed along the amount of such fullness will of course be controlled by the operator. The result of this gathering of the cloth is to widen the distance between the two series of stitches at the point where the gathering takes place, and since sewingmachine operators in factories are exceedingly expert this gathering may be calculated and effected with great nicety, so that the two series of stitches will be caused to follow any desired direction.

My invention is particularly useful and of great value in the manufacture of corsets, where the shape of the latter is such that the strips must sometimes be parallel and then diverge with exceeding irregularity. I have, however, provided a device to assist operators in throwing up the fullness in the cloth, which device comprises a clamp 14, which is attached to the bed of the machine, and a spring-tongue 15, which is carried by such clamp and extends horizontally toward the presser-foot. The goods are placed over this tongue and beneath the presser foot of course, and when the two series of stitches are to be parallel the operator simply depresses this tongue, but when the fullness is to be thrown up into the mouth of the pocket the operator allows the tongue to rise, either suddenly or by degrees, according to the degree of the divergence required in the two series of stitching. Although this springtongue 15 is unquestionably a very practical and serviceable device, and although very many similar contrivances could be devised,

either operating upwardly through the bed from below or mounted on top of the bed for the purpose of throwing up this fullness in the cloth, nevertheless such devices are not absolutely necessary, since expert operators can get along without them, and therefore I do not wish to be confined to any contrivances of this sort, the gist of my invention resting in the broad idea of the gatheringpocket, which is disposed midway between the gangs of needles and flush with the bot tom of the presser-foot.

It will of course be clear that my improvement is not limited at all to the stitching of tapes or strips upon any goods, and therefore it is not necessary that the presser-foot be equipped with the guides 3.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a sewing-machine employing a presserfoot and a needle-head carrying gangs of needles, the Vertically-disposed pocket midway between the sides of the presser-foot and said gangs of needles, the bottom of said pocket being flush with the bottom of the presserfoot, while the passage-Way afforded by said pocket is plain and unobstructed throughout its length substantially as set forth.

2. In a sewing-machine, the combination of the presser-foot carrying the vertically-disposed pocket midway between its sides the bottom of said pocket being flush'with the bottom of the presser-foot, while the passageway afforded by said pocket is plain and unobstructed throughout its length the needlehead carrying the gangs of needles each gang adapted to operate through the presser-foot on opposite sides of said pocket, and means for gathering the goods through which the stitches are passed within said pocket, substantially as set forth.

3. In a sewing-m achine employing a presserfoot and a needle-head carrying separate series of needles adapted to effect parallel rows of stitching, the bell-mouthed vertically-disposed pocket carried by the presser-foot midway between each series of needles and having its bottom flush with the bottom of the presser-foot whereby when the goods to be stitched through are gathered up within the bell-mouth of said pocket and drawn through the latter by the sewing-machine feed the lines of stitching of each series of needles will diverge, substantially as set forth.

4. The combination of the needle-head carrying separate gangs of needles, the presserfoot, the vertically-disposed pocket supported by said foot midway between said gangs of needles .and having its bottom flush with the bottom of the resser-foot and the spring-actuated horizontally-disposed tongue extending toward said pocket, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

GIDEON A. CLOSE.

\Vitnesses:

F. W. SMITH, J12, M. I. LONGDEN.

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