Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1874 — WHEELER & WILSON’S NEW NO. 6 SEWINO-MACHINE. [ARTICLE]

WHEELER & WILSON’S NEW NO. 6 SEWINO-MACHINE.

American Institute, New York— Judges’ Report, Nov. 14, 1814. To the Board of Managers: Gentlemen—After a full and impartial eximination of the -articles described, the undersigned judges make the following REPORT—( ABSTRACT): That Sewing-machine No. 436 (Wjtfeeler ’ & Wilson’s New No. 6) was claimed to be so great an improvement, both upon the well-known family machine made by the same company, and upon all other sew-ing-machines, as entitled it to recognition as a new and valuable invention. Under these circumstances an extremely thorough and minute examination became both desirable and necessary, not only of its novelty but of the skill and workmanship manifested in the fitting and adjustment of all its parts. We have risen from such examination with an ample conviction that the claim, in all its essential features, is well founded. At the commencement of our examination we were provided with several complete sets of all the working parts as they came from the manufactory, and were at liberty to make our own selection for the construction of a complete machine in our presence. We thus had, to a large degree, a demonstration of the nicety of the manufacture. Every part was formed to fit every other part with exact precision. So accurately, for instance, did the several rotating hooks fit in the same bearing that, while entering it, each one of them, without such contact as required force, manifestly compressed the air within in reaching its proper Seat. [The judges enumerate and describe some of the points of novelty and excellence of the machine. Among others: The simple and efficient device for producing variable motion for the rotating hook; The independent take-up lever, which secures the lightening of the stitch under the best possible circumstances; The peculiar form of the hook and the use of a bobbin holding a great quantity of the under thread; The simple device for producing and varying the tension of the lower thread; The hollow st-eel needle-bar; The facility of applying and using many useful attachments —the hemmer, binder, corder, ruffler, &c.] Having completed the construction of our trial machine, in the way indicated, it was mounted upon a convenient stand, and submitted to every variety of test as to the range of work that could be executed upon improperly and well, and without other adaptation than simple changes of needle and thread. The mere list of operations performed in our presence without the slightest hesitation or failure, and without the discoverable loss of so much as a single stitch, would convey an inadequate idea of the complete success achieved. Beginning with a needle measuring but 17-1000 inch in diameter, and operating with the finest thread upon lace goods, the same machine passed through all the stages of muslin and broadcloth of all conceivable thicknesses and foldings and ridgings, and then with waxed thread stitching through portions of heavy harness leather. After this demonstration of its range of work we entered upon the nicer tests required for a family and light manufacturing machine. In this department we witnessed all the varieties of work on hemming, felling and braiding, and also a degree of success in single and double ruffling which we believe unparalleled. The varied kinds of work on a lady’s boot were then performed, and each of these with the same marsed success. Indeed, whatever the test, and whatever the work presented, the same unfailing perfection was exhibited, not only in the work as a piece, but in the execution of each individual stitch. With much patient examination we were unable to discover a single defect. —® — * * * * * * * The minuteness of this report is a simple reflection of the care with which we have endeavored to examine these claims. We find the chief advantage of this machine to be in the use of a modified form of the rotating hook as a substitute for the shuttle, the hook carrying the upper thread around the bobbin containing the lower thread, and thus producing identically the same effect as the shuttle. The superiority of this rotary motion over the reciprocating motion of the shuttle ma chines cannot be disputed. The “ lockstitch” which is thus secured has always ranked highest on account of the permanence, beauty, and general desirableness of the stitching when done, and the wide range of its application. To these conceded advantages there have been added, in our presence, the. severest and most searching tests of its capacity and usefulness . upon every ordinarily possible kind of work, and we can do no less than bear witness to thej entire and remarkable success which has attended its action in every part of our examination. It is a machine which, by the yrooffubmitted, we are aatished must nentually »uper»ede all others now known with which it comes in competition. As the only conclusion to which we can arrive after an investigation of the several merits of each of the sewingmachines submitted, an investigation which we have endeavored to make patiently and completely in every respect, and associating these with our best judgment upon the merits of the several machines which are in use but not on exhibition: We recommend for the Wheeler & Wilson New So. 6 Sewing~machine the highest award which it is in the jgower of the Institute to bestow. JOHN A. BASSETT,) MOSES 8. BEACH, | H. W. STEELE, Judges. JOHN MATTHEWS, | REUBEN BULL. J The Board of Managers unanimously approved the report, and Tecommendeil for this machine the Gold Medal of the Institute. The Board of Direction unanimously approved this recommendation, and awarded the Gold Medal to Wheeler & Wilson, the only gold medal awarded for a sewing-machine by the American Institute for many years. A colored hunter in Tennessee has a black sheep that joins in the chase with the hounds, and puts the dogs on the right scent when they have dost it