![]() ![]() I was first introduced to the idea of a straw plait (braid) sewing machine while working at Edwina Ibbotson’s. ![]() Spanner (wrench), needles, tweezers, screw driver and oil bottle. I can now check off one of those items after winning an eBay auction a few weeks ago. One is a hot block hat stretcher and the other is a Willcox & Gibbs straw sewing machine. I have had two big ticket items on my millinery wish list for a while now. Here are some pictures of the machine and interesting links to 17 Guinea, Hatlines #71, Straw hats, Alex Askaroff, Mad Hatter Blog, and how to lock a Chain Stitch. The blade of a looper was about 32 thousandth of an inch thick and we had to hang a 7lb weight from the end and the looper must not take a permanent set or bend.Introducing my new baby, a Willcox & Gibbs S200 straw plait (braid) sewing machine. ![]() As an example, a human hair is about 3 thousandth of an inch thick. The components were made to very close tolerances, typically the thickness of the loopers was tied down to 6 tenths of a thousandth of an inch over 4 components. They also made pulleys for the flatlock and also loopers for the overlock machines. Close up of the 1864 glass tensioner Willcox & Gibbs that ran up until 1875 when it was replaced with the automatic tensioner. ![]() Right up to the 1970's, in the UK, Willcox & Gibbs had a factory, manufacturing sewing machines, in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire and another smaller factory in Poole Dorset which concentrated on loopers, the looper holders, feed bars, the feeders, the tiny segregating plate that separated the cotton between the needles, in fact, most of the tiny high precision components that went at the working face of the machine. Patent 29448 July 1860 Be it known that I, Chas H Willcox, Assignor to James Willcox, of New York of the County of New York and the State of New York have invented a means of securing the correct position of the needle in the needlebar. Also their training schemes were so good that unskilled apprentices were enrolled and slowly taught their skills over a training period of five years. It was these points that were later to produce the wonderful machine collectors seek today. Willcox & Gibbs New York City Charles Willcox, who, along with Sharpe, oversaw manufacture, had few major production problems with Brown & Sharpe because they were such excellent engineers, makers of clocks, watches and measuring instruments so they were used to working with super-fine tolerances and to a high quality. One cannot but admire the beauty and accuracy of the machine's movements, and the entire absence of all noise, even when it is running at the rate of two-thousand stitches and upwards per minute. In the same year Willcox & Gibbs opened their New York sales offices to promote their machines. ![]()
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