Bobbin driver
Throughout history, lockstitch sewing machines have used a variety of methods to drive their bobbins so as to create the lockstitch.
| Names |
Invented |
Description |
Picture |
Notes |
Transverse shuttle
Longitudinal shuttle
|
1846 by Elias Howe[1] |
Transverse shuttles carry the bobbin in a boat-shaped shuttle, and reciprocate the shuttle along a straight horizontal shaft. The design was popularized in Singer's 'New Family' machine.[2] The design became obsolete once the other bobbin driver designs were developed.[3] |
|
Sometimes incorrectly called an "oscillating shuttle". |
| Vibrating shuttle |
1850 by Allen B. Wilson[4] |
Vibrating shuttle machines carry their bobbin in a bullet-shaped shuttle, and reciprocate their shuttle through a short arc. The design was popularized in the White Sewing Machine Company's 'White Sewing Machine' and Singer's 27-series machines.[5] Now obsolete.[6] |
|
|
Rotary hook
Rotating hook
Rotary loop taker[7]
Revolving hook
|
1851 by Allen B. Wilson[8] |
Rotary hook machines hold their bobbin stationary, and continuously rotate the thread hook around it. The design was popularized in the White Sewing Machine Company's 'Family Rotary' sewing machine[9] and Singer's models 95 and 115.[10] |
|
Main article: Rotary hook |
| Oscillating shuttle |
1877 by Lebbeus B. Miller and Phillip Diehl[11] |
Oscillating shuttle machines mount their bobbin on the hook, and reciprocate the hook through a short arc. The design was popularized in Singer's models 15 'Improved Family' and 31.[12] |
|
|
| Oscillating hook |
? |
Oscillating hook machines hold their bobbin stationary, and reciprocate the hook through a short arc. The bobbin lays horizontally, right under the needle plate. The design was popularized in Singer's model 66.[13] |
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"Rotating shuttle"
The term rotating shuttle is ambiguous. Sometimes it refers to a bobbin case,[14] and sometimes it refers to a rotary hook design.[15]
References
- ^ US patent 4750, issued 10 September 1846
- ^ Singer Sewing Machine Company (1914), "Mechanics of the Sewing Machine - Monograph 5", page 49, retrieved 2010-08-11 from http://books.google.com/books?id=chkLAAAAIAAJ&lpg=PA2&ots=u1668rkYVD&dq=mechanics%20of%20the%20sewing%20machine%20monograph%205&pg=PA49#v=onepage&q&f=false
- ^ On page 152 of Grace Cooper's "The Sewing Machine: Its Invention and Use", retrieved 2010-08-12 from the Smithsonian Museum at http://www.sil.si.edu/digitalcollections/hst/cooper/, we see a 1913 trade flyer offering a treadle cabinet and a choice of machines representing every bobbin driver design except the transverse shuttle.
- ^ Refer to Vibrating shuttle for full inventor credits with references
- ^ All information drawn from the Vibrating shuttle article
- ^ Singer's last vibrating shuttle machine was built in 1962, according to the references on the Singer Model 27 and 127 page
- ^ See e.g. US patent 5617803 (1997), "Rotary Loop Taker with Replaceable Tip"
- ^ US patent 9041, granted 15 June 1852; but see Rotary hook for full inventor credits with references
- ^ All information drawn from the Rotary hook article
- ^ Singer Sewing Machine Company (1914), "Mechanics of the Sewing Machine - Monograph 5", pages 54-55, retrieved 2010-08-11 from http://books.google.com/books?id=chkLAAAAIAAJ&lpg=PA2&ots=u1668rkYVD&dq=mechanics%20of%20the%20sewing%20machine%20monograph%205&pg=PA49#v=onepage&q&f=false
- ^ US patent 208838, filed 8 June 1877, granted 8 Oct 1878; and refinement US patent 221338, filed 21 November 1878, granted 4 November 1879. In "Mechanics of the Sewing Machine, Monograph 5" (1913) p. 50, by The Singer Sewing Machine Company, retrieved 2010-08-16 from http://books.google.com/books?id=chkLAAAAIAAJ&ots=u1672tr-WA&dq=mechanics%20of%20the%20sewing%20machine&pg=PA50#v=onepage&q&f=false, the date of invention is given as 1879, but the Miller/Diehl patent trail actually began in 1877.
- ^ Singer Sewing Machine Company (1914), "Mechanics of the Sewing Machine - Monograph 5", page 52, retrieved 2010-08-11 from http://books.google.com/books?id=chkLAAAAIAAJ&lpg=PA2&ots=u1668rkYVD&dq=mechanics%20of%20the%20sewing%20machine%20monograph%205&pg=PA49#v=onepage&q&f=false
- ^ Singer Sewing Machine Company (1914), "Mechanics of the Sewing Machine - Monograph 5", page 53, retrieved 2010-08-11 from http://books.google.com/books?id=chkLAAAAIAAJ&lpg=PA2&ots=u1668rkYVD&dq=mechanics%20of%20the%20sewing%20machine%20monograph%205&pg=PA49#v=onepage&q&f=false
- ^ See e.g. US patent 3921553 (1975), "Lock Stitch Rotating Shuttle", or US patent 3698333 (1972), "Rotating Shuttle Drive Mechanisms"
- ^ See e.g. US patent 36256, "Sewing Machine" (ironically filed by Wheeler & Wilson), or US patent 2257950 (1941), "Sewing Machine"