Untitled record

Application filed July 31,1883. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Martin H. Rydeb, of Stamform in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, have invented a new and use5 ful Improvement in Wiring Brims of Hats and Bonnets, which improvement is fully set forth in the following specification.

This invention has reference to the wiring of brims of hats and bonnets—as, for example, io women’s felt hats or bonnets—by attaching at or near the edge of the brim a covered wire or its •equivalent by means of a sewing-machine of ordinary or suitable construction, making a straight-ahead seam. The stitches 15 pass through the covering, which is usually a seamless braided or woven tube inclosing the wire, and through the brim.

Heretofore in attaching the wire the seam has been run on the outside of the wire, or on 20 the same side as the edge of the brim.

The present invention consists in running the seam on the inside or side opposite from the edge of the brim. By this improvement the wire may be attached nearer 25 than heretofore to the edge, and may, in fact, when ironed down, project over or lie on the edge, while at the same time the stitches have a good hold upon the material composing the brim, and, moreover, the seam is concealed be30 hind the wire. A hat or bonnet having the seam wired in this way constitutes a new article of manufacture, and is specially claimed.

To carry the invention into effect, the grooved guide for the covered wire and the edge-guide 35 for the hat-brim are placed on the same side of the needle, instead of on opposite sides, as heretofore. Such an arrangement is shown in Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings, Fig. 2 illustrating a portion of a hat or bonnet brim 40 wired in accordance with the invention.

A is the work-plate of the machine; B. the needle; C, a grooved wire guide placed with its axis on the goose-neck or right-hand side of the needle; D, an adjustable edge-guide on 45 the same side of the needle; E, the presserfoot; F, the brim of the hat or bonnet; G, the covered wire, and H the seam.

The machine shown is of the Willcox & Gibbs chain-stitch type, and embodies im50 provements described in LettersPatent No. 230,212, granted July 20, 1880, to Ohas. H. Willcox. The only novelty is in the construction of the needle, so that the point is in line with that side of the needle which is adjacent to the goose-neck, and which in the Willcox 55 & Gibbs machine is provided with the short groove instead of being in line with the opposite side, which is provided with the longgroove, and that the grooved wire guide C is on the same side of the needle. The covered 60 wire is placed in the grooved guide, the brim of the hat or bonnet placed over it, with its edge in contact with the guide D, which is set or adjusted to leave the desired margin outside the seam. The machine being operated 65 in the usual way, a seam of straight-ahead sewing-machine stitches is run parallel with and close alongside the wire, through the covering thereof and the material composing the brim. The hat or bonnet is afterward fin- 70 ished in any ordinary or suitable way.

It is preferred to use a machine embodying the patented improvements referred to; but it is evident that other systems of guides arranged in the manner indicated could be used 75 with or without a needle having its point in line with one of its sides.

The improved mode of wiring brims, herein described, differs essentially from the attachment of a cord thereto by means of a braid or 80 tape folded longitudinally around the cord, with its edges laid on opposite sides of the brim and stitched thereto, since no attaching braid or tape is used, the stitches passing through the covering, which closely and uni- 85 formly surrounds the wire.