Chapter 5

Fig. 9 exhibits the stitching made by this machine upon the edge of the button hole. Fig. 10 represents the right and left hand loopers and loop spreaders, and for the stitch making. They rock from right to left with an intermittent motion obtained from a cam. The left hand looper carries the under thread and interweaves it with the upper, forming the stitch, originally invented, I believe, by Mr. George Fisher, of Nottingham, and reinvented for the button holing machine by D.W.G. Humphreys, of Massachusetts, U.S.A., in 1862. The loop spreaders are moved by a roller carried upon the looper frame. Fig. 11 exhibits the feeding arrangement, both sides of the feed wheel, the driving lever, and the shape of the path given to the carrying clamp by the heart cam cut in the upper surface of the feed wheel. The picture on the screen represents the upper portions of the machine, exhibiting the conveying clamp, the to and fro dipping motions of the needle bar, and the parts conveying motion to the arrangements beneath the bed plate. These are shown in Fig. 12, and represent the feed and looper cams, the feeding and looper levers, and the stitch forming mechanism already shown. A most ingenious device in this machine is the arrangement for automatically lengthening the throw of the feed while stitching around the eye of the button hole. It is effected by means of a cam, which imparts more or less leverage to the feed arm by the intervention of a "shipper" lever, hinged to the feed lever itself. The space of time at my disposal obliges me to recommend a personal examination of the machine itself, to fully understand its various motions and its action in working a button hole.

Mention may be made of Singer's special button hole machine for making the straight holes used in linen work, and in which a shuttle is employed. Of Wheeler & Wilson's ingenious button hole machine for the same purpose, I am enabled to show a diagram, in which it will be observed that the feeding arrangements are placed above the bed plate, and are no doubt thereby rendered easily accessible.

_Application of Power to Sewing Machines_.--There was a time when a cry arose to the effect that the introduction of mechanical sewing would lead to divers calamities, physical and mental. The ladies were to become crooked in the spine, and regular operators were to become regular cripples. It is scarcely necessary to ask, Has this been so? The operators of to-day are, I think, superior in physical attainments to their sisters of the needle and thread fifty years ago.

Within the past few years a revolution has taken place in the moving of sewing machines. Domestic machines will probably always be driven by foot power, spring, electric, and water motors notwithstanding. But the age of treadles in the great manufacturing trades is a thing of the past. It was not necessary for Parliament to step in and protect the workers, as was frequently suggested by alarmists. The commercial interests of manufacturers themselves were at stake. Machines driven by power could do 25 per cent. more work than those moved by foot. The operators, relieved of the treadling, maintained a much better working condition; and altogether the introduction of power driving, once well tested, became a necessity. Power sewing machinery was speedily devised and introduced by several of the first manufacturers, controllers of the speed of the machines followed, and two or three splendid systems of stitching by steam power were soon widely known.

By the kindness of three of the best manufacturers of power sewing machinery, I am enabled to show to you, this evening, the best known systems, arranged just as they are fitted in many large factories, as also a sketch of the arrangements of Wheeler & Wilson's system. We have in the first place a light shafting carrying a band wheel opposite to each machine. By the use of a powerful electromotor, the shafting is caused to rotate at the rate of 400 revolutions per minute by electricity. The current is generated by the Society's dynamo machine, and is conveyed here by copper cable. I do not know of any instance of sewing machinery in a factory being driven by an electromotor, but such means of conveying motive power appears admirably adapted for that purpose, when the stitching room happens to be far removed from the main shafting or engine. But with regard to motors for sewing machines, when special power has to be fitted down for that purpose, my own experience leads me to speak in favor of the admirably governed "Otto" gas engines made by Crossley Bros. These are especially steady, a feature of no small moment in moving stitching machinery of various kinds.

Much attention has been devoted to the invention of controllers of the motive power supplied to sewing machines. The principle of the friction disk has found most favor. In many cases two of these plates, fast and loose, are placed upon the main shaft, and their separation and contact controlled by the treadle. The great sensitiveness of the friction attachment employed by the Singer company is due chiefly to the transference of the friction plates to the axis of the machine itself (Fig. 13). Their contact and separation are controlled by a lever worked by a very slight movement of the treadle. But the chief point of interest in this device lies in the combination with the lever of a brake, enabling the operator, by a simple reversal of the treadle's motion, to instantly suspend the rotation of the machine. The forked lever, in fact, acts simultaneously in throwing off the motion and applying the brake. The speed is always in direct proportion to the pressure exerted upon the treadle, and a single stitch can be made at will. Fig. 14 shows the friction wheel separated, the portion a being fast, and e loose.

The Wheeler & Wilson company do not confine themselves to any particular controller, but prefer the form shown here this evening (Fig. 15), in which two bands and an intermediate pulley are employed. The first band is left rather loose, and the machine is set in motion by the tightening of this band through the depression of the treadle. The speed varies in proportion to the pressure applied, and the sensitiveness of the arrangement is increased by a brake device coming into play by the reversal of the treadle as before.

Messrs. Willcox & Gibbs depend upon a similar device shown in three varieties to-night.

_Speed of Power Sewing Machines_.--The fastest practicable speed of a machine worked by the foot appears to be 1,000 stitches per minute. Most operators can guide the work at a much higher rate, especially in tailoring or on long seams. The average speed upon such work is 1,200 stitches per minute; but many lock-stitch machines are run at 1,500 and 1,800 per minute, and even at much higher rates. There is always a limit to be imposed upon speed by the guiding powers of hand and eye; it is this limit, and not the capability of the machine, that confines the rate of driving. Willcox & Gibbs' single thread machines are run in many instances at 3,500 stitches per minute. We have before us a single thread Singer machine (appropriately named the "Lightning Sewer") and a Willcox machine, moving at the enormous rate of 4,500 stitches per minute, and producing good work. But it is doubtful whether such very great velocities can ever be advantageously employed. Upon collar work, and in sewing boot uppers, the rate seldom rises above 1,200 with advantage. If the machines be speeded too high in any trade, the operator never uses the excess, and it only proves a drawback. I seen the heaviest and hardest kind of navy boots stitched at 1,500 to the minute upon Singer's lock-stitch machines. Wheeler & Wilson's No. 10 D machine has been run by them, I am informed, as high as 2,500 to the minute. Loop-stitch machines, when well made, can be actually run as high as 6,000, but 4,500 is, I believe, the maximum yet used for this class of machine, even experimentally. There can be no doubt that lock-stitch machines can be run as high as 3,000. The actual speeds of the lock-stitch machines shown here upon the power stand average 1,300; those of the chain stitch machines vary from 1,200 for the sack sewing machine to 4,500 for the small or single chain stitchers. Any of the latest styles of either lock stitch or single thread machines can be run far faster than any known expert operator can possibly guide the work under it.

It is very improbable that such speeds will ever be exceeded. The limit has no doubt been reached. Very high speed is generally a delusion, and either results in indifferent work, or actually retards its progress. Some idea of the speed of the single thread machines now shown may be gathered from the fact that, running at 4,500, and making eight stitches to the inch, they accomplish over fourteen yards of sewing every minute.

Of special machines of interest, and which are too unwieldy to be shown here, I am enabled to exhibit a few photographs.

One of the most novel of these is the "Twin" machine, designed by the Singer company for the connecting together of the Jacquard cards used in lace machines. The operation was formerly performed by hand. It is now done by machine at less cost. The cards are placed upon a feeding drum, and fed beneath a pair of needles. The laces forming the connection between the cards are fed above and beneath, in line with the needles, and the whole is easily stitched together. An extension of the same device is the multiple machine, in which four needles and shuttles are used, sewing all the four seams at one operation. This method of linking the cards is considered better than similar work done by hand.

Of Wheeler & Wilson's new factory, at Bridgeport, and of the Singer company's great new factory near Glasgow, I am enabled to exhibit photographic views.

Before drawing my remarks to a close, I would briefly indicate the nature of the various machines shown upon the power benching. Of the Singer system, there are four. A drop-feed oscillating shuttle machine for manufacturing purposes; a wheel-feed oscillating shuttle machine, furnished with a trimmer, used chiefly in stitching leather and boot uppers; double chain-stitch machine, used for sack making, now shown for the first time; and a single thread "Lightning Sewer," fitted with a trimmer for hosiery work. Of Wheeler & Wilson's system, there is a drop-feed manufacturing machine with the new detached hook and latest improvements; a No. 10 machine with the usual hook, a wheel feed and trimmer, and a smaller machine of the same type with drop feed. Of Willcox & Gibbs' system, there is the ordinary single-thread machine for manufacturing, a single-thread machine, with a trimmer, as used in the hosiery trades, and a machine specially used for straw hat making.

We have here a small Singer machine, riding upon the edge of two pieces of carpet, a carpet machine weighing ten pounds. When the handle is turned, it stitches and travels over the edges, uniting them faster and more securely than six hand sewers; and several others, representative of the family type of sewing machine, besides Wheeler & Wilson's hemstitch machine, the working of which is of much interest.

I would now invite those of you who seek a better acquaintance with those curious and novel machines to freely examine and test the various types to be found upon the power benching and upon stands. One or two operators will come forward and show some of the capabilities of the machines upon actual work, in which the making of a straw hat will perhaps show what can be done in a few minutes by quick speed and expert fingers; but these performances must not be regarded in the light of competitive tests between the manufacturers showing them, and are intended merely to show the utility of motive power driving.

In conclusion, I desire to thank those gentlemen at the head of the leading firms of sewing machine manufacturers for the trouble they have taken to arrange for your inspection specimens of their excellent systems, and I have much satisfaction in expressing my obligations to them for ready assistance in the preparation of my paper.

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Power machines and treadle machines were exhibited by Messrs. Willcox & Gibbs, Messrs. Wheeler & Wilson, and the Singer Manufacturing Company. The motive power was provided by an electrical motor, supplied by Mr. Moritz Immish. The Howe Machine Company exhibited a model of the first machine made by Elias Howe, and also one of the most recent Howe machines. Mr. Newton Wilson showed a model of the Saint sewing machines, constructed from Thomas Saint's patent specification, 1790, and Mr. Carver showed the Standard sewing machine.

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THE NEW KRUPP GUNS.

Nothing is being talked about at present in Germany but the guns of great caliber that are manufacturing at the celebrated works on the banks of the Ruhr. As our neighbors appear to be elated over this wonderful work, it is expedient to examine the subject, in order to see whether their applause is legitimate.

We have known for a long time that the artillery _materiel_ devoted to the defense of the German coasts consists of a long, stationary 5¾ inch gun; of long 7¾ inch hooped steel guns, closed by a cylindrico-prismatic wedge; of an 8 inch mortar; and of guns of 11¾ and 15 inch caliber. The 11¾ inch gun is 22 feet in length, and, including the closing mechanism, weighs 79,200 pounds. As regards the projectiles that this weapon throws, the _ordinary_ shell is 33 inches in length, and weighs, all charged, 656 pounds, and the _exploding_ shell, of the same length, weighs, all charged, 1,160 pounds. The initial velocity of the latter is 1,600 feet with a maximum charge of 148 pounds of powder.

The 15 inch gun is 32.8 feet in length, and weighs 158,400 pounds. Its projectiles are 3.67 feet in length. The _ordinary_ shell, charge included, weighs 1,400 pounds, and the exploding shell, under the same circumstances, 1,700 pounds, that is, more than three quarters of a metric ton. The initial velocity of this last named projectile is 1,650 feet with a maximum charge of 1,650 pounds of powder. We also know that Mr. Krupp has two models of guns of 13½ inch caliber, and of a length equal to 35 times the caliber, say 39-5/12 feet. The lighter of these models (which was shown at Anvers) weighs no less than 264,000 pounds, carriage not included. Its cylindrico prismatic closing mechanism (_Rundkeilverschluss_) alone weighs 82,500 pounds. This is the weight of a 5¾ inch hooped steel gun!

We now learn that the Essen works have just begun the manufacture of a 314,600 pound gun. This piece, called "40 cm. kanone L/40," will, of course, be of 15.6 inch caliber, but it will differ from the one above described in that its length will be equal to 40 times the caliber, say 52 feet, or to the space occupied on the maneuvering ground by a field piece drawn by six horses (Fig. 1). This gun will be provided with two kinds of projectiles. One of these, called _light_, will be 3½ feet in length, weigh 1,628 pounds, and be capable of taking an initial velocity of 2,410 feet and of piercing, on its exit from the chamber, either a hammered iron plate 3¾ feet in thickness or two united plates 1¾ and 2¾ feet in thickness.

The shell called _heavy_ will be 5¾ feet in length, and weigh 2,310 pounds, say more than a 4¾ inch siege piece! The charge employed will be 1,067 pounds of brown, prismatic Dunwald powder. Ten hundred and sixty-seven pounds--nearly half a metric ton, more than the weight of a field piece without its carriage! With this enormous charge, the heavy shell will be capable of an initial velocity of 2,100 feet and of piercing, on its exit from the chamber, either a hammered iron plate 4 feet in thickness or two united plates 2 and 2.88 feet in thickness.

The _Cologne Gazette_, from which we borrow most of the data just presented, adds that the "40 L/40" piece will be the largest cannon in the world, but that it will not long enjoy the privilege of such pre-eminence. It appears, in fact, that Mr. Krupp is preparing to manufacture a gun of 17½ inch caliber, weighing 330,000 pounds. The projectile for this monster will be 6 feet in length, say the stature of a full grown man, and will weigh no less than a ton and a half. A man of medium stature will measure a little less than this projectile (Fig. 2).

It is possible that all these figures have been slightly exaggerated by the ultra-Vosges journals, who doubtless intend to make an impression upon us; but we shall not dwell upon that point.

As regards the penetrating power of the large "40 L/40" gun, the German press observes that in 1868 artillery was incapable of piercing in one-hundredths of an inch what it is now piercing in tenths of an inch. The principle was formerly admitted, it says, that a shell should by right have a thickness equal to its caliber. Now, "the largest cannon in the world" perforates a plate whose thickness is three times the diameter of the gun's bore. What great progress! exclaim the German journals, and how jealous the French and English are going to be! Jealous of that? Why, indeed? We are not the least in the world so. How could we be? In the first place, we have a gun of very great caliber--a 13¼ inch steel coast and siege piece. This weighs 37 tons, and is 36¾ feet in length. Its projectile weighs from 924 to 1,320 pounds, according to its internal organization. Its conoid head is very elongated, and by reason of this elegant form it always falls upon its point, even at falling angles of an amplitude approaching 60 degrees. The charge used varies from 396 to 440 pounds, according to the nature of the powder. As for the ballistic properties of the piece, they are very remarkable. Its projectile has an initial velocity of 2,132 feet, and the maximum range is from 10 to 11 miles, say the distance from Paris to Montgeron by the Paris-Lyons-Mediterranean railroad, or from Paris to Versailles. Finally, the accuracy of this gun is much greater than that of the 9½ inch steel one. Now, the accuracy of this latter is such that it is impossible for its projectiles to miss a ship under way, and that we are sure of playing with it against the enemy that game whose device is "We win at every shot!" Well, we do not hesitate to say that these results appear to us to be satisfactory--we mean quite sufficient--and that there is no need of looking for a better gun. If there were, French industry would be capable of producing weapons of any caliber desired. As regards this, there is, so to speak, no limit; moreover, taking into account merely the terrestrial conditions of the problem, we may be satisfied that the great works of our country are more powerfully equipped than those of Essen, and consequently better able to forge large pieces of steel.

Mr. Krupp, it is said, is very proud of his two power hammers, which he has named Max and Fritz. But, on the whole, these two apparatus are only fifty ton ones, and have a fall of but ten feet. Now, Creusot and St. Chamond each has a hundred ton steam hammer with a fall of 16 feet, accompanied with four furnaces and four cranes.

But why proceed to the manufacture of monstrous guns, like those that Mr. Krupp has just produced, or meditates producing in the future; guns of such a caliber can be used only in special cases--in battery on the coast or on board of a ship. It is not with _materiel_ of this kind that war is waged; it is with field pieces. Our ultra-Vosges neighbors well know this.

One of the reasons that the war that very recently threatened us did not break out, was because the Germans could not fail to see that their field _materiel_ was not as powerful as ours; that the shell of our 3½ inch gun weighs 17½ pounds, while that of their heavy 3½ inch gun does not weigh 15. Now, this difference has its value.

Hunters well know what importance it is necessary to attach to the number of the ball that they use.

This granted, it is well to observe that the net cost of the "40 cm. kanone L/40" must not be less than $300,000 or $400,000. Now, on the interest of such a sum we could have from ten to fifteen complete batteries, that is to say, comprising, in addition to the sixty or eighty guns, all the necessary accessories, such as carriages, limbers, caissons, harness, etc.

Frankly, between the two acquisitions, there is no hesitation possible.

Finally, if we must say so, we do not think that foreign powers, when they believe it their duty to provide themselves with _materiel_ of great caliber, will think of supplying themselves from the Essen works, on account of the memorable accidents due to the imperfection of guns coming from this celebrated establishment. The list of burstings that have occurred, not only in Germany, but also in Russia, Bohemia, Italy, Turkey, and Roumania, is already a long one. To speak here only of what occurred in France in 1870-71, it is certain that out of seventy German guns of large caliber in battery against the southwest front of the wall of Paris, thirty-six--say more than half--were put out of service during the first fifteen days of the bombardment, and that too through firing merely; and it was the opinion of Mr. De Moltke himself that the German siege batteries would have been reduced to silence, had the defenders been able to hold out for a week longer. It is equally certain that, during the course of the Loire campaign, eighty guns of Prince Frederick Charles' were put out of service by the sole fact of their firing. Summing up the history of these many accidents, the Duke of Cambridge asserted to the House of Lords (April 30, 1876) that _two hundred_ Krupp guns burst during the Franco-German war. Have the engineers of the Essen works improved their processes of manufacture since that epoch? It is permissible to doubt it, seeing that, very recently, the Italian navy refused to take from Mr. Krupp some 15½ inch guns whose tubes were but very imperfectly welded.

Must the numerous accidents mentioned be attributed to defects in the metal employed? Were they due to defective hooping? Were they due to some one of the numerous inconveniences inherent to the cylindrico-prismatic system of closing (_Rundkeilverschluss_)?

They were doubtless owing to such causes combined.--_La Nature_.

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COLORS OF THIN PLATES.