186 FEDERAL REPORTER. �contrivanee that will so cause the needie to vibrate as to pierce or not pieree iho upper braid, as desired, may be substituted for the apparatus especially described. Where a vibrating needie, as thns described, is used, the f eed apparatus feeds both the upper braid and the material to which it is to be stitched, as before stated, and presents both braids in such manner, by the aid of the roller, that the needie may puncture either both braids or one braid only, depending upon the line in which the needie descends. The roller, e, may revolve or be stationary. I prefer that it should revolve, and the bar, e', and guide, d, may be dispenced with, and the braid be kept in position by thefingers; the gist of the invention being to hold one piece of braid in refer- ence to the braid or other material on to n^hich it is to be stitched, and, in reference to the needie, in such manner that the needie shall enter and leave the upper braid on the same side thereof, and shall afterwards pierce the lower braid or piece of stuff to which the upper braid is to be sewn. As before stated, any proper feeding apparatus may be used, but I prefer that commonly kno-wnasthe four-motion roughened-surface feed, or else the wheel-feed. As the braids to be sewed together are some- times of considerable thickness, and as one lies on top of the other, the uppermost braid will be held slightly above the table or platform of the machine. An ordinary feeding-bar will, therefore, aet most effectually, if not entirely, on the lowermost braid ; but as the sewing, owing to the great length of the stitches, will be better if the feeding device acts equally on both braids, I intend sometimes to use independent feeds, one adjusted for each braid, and, when using a four-motion feed, to split the feeding-bar at or about the line of junction of the braids, thus making two feeding-bars, and to apply a Bet-screw, or some equivalent device, so that the two bars may have their relative heights or levels adjustable, the one to the other, thus causing that bar which acts upon the up- permost braid to work at the highest level, so that this braid may be as effectively fed as the lower one. In sewing hat- brims and other covered work, one braid, that nearest the center of the hat, must, of necessity, move through a less dis- tance than the other, and in order to make the feed adapt ��� �
