Betsy Ross treadle sewing machine | ||
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Posted 3 years ago
ILIKEOLDJU…
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I am looking for other collectors of Betsy Ross treadle sewing machines. Please contact me at bcbac@comcast.net if you have similar interest.
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Hi, ILIKEOLDJUNK21. :-)
Wow, that is a pretty cool vintage sewing machine. I don't know if yours is like that other one here that you commented on, which Bernadette identified as a badged (National Sewing Machine Company) Improved Eldredge B.
Certain features of your vintage Betsy Ross sewing machine are tickling the back of my brain (like that tension screw, as opposed to a tension disc assembly, and the multiple thread spool pins), but I'll have to think about it for awhile.
As to that doodad with the patent number on it in your fourth picture, I don't think that's a part of your sewing machine. Here's the 1927 patent listing, which turns out to be for a garment bands connector:
https://patents.google.com/patent/US1639226A/e
It's pretty cool. but it's probably just something that got tossed into a drawer the way things tend to get stored. Well, in my home, anyway. };-)
Thanks for the information. I really do appreciate it. But I am really confused as when I looked up patent # 1639226 it listed that # as being made in 1875. Can you please advise on how you got to the 1927 date.
Thank you very much.
ILIKEOLDJUNK21, See, I'm confused as to what you looked at to come up with a date of 1875. Can you give me a link for it?
I looked up patent 1639226 in Google, and it came back with a Google Patent listing. If you look at the link I provided earlier, that patent was granted August 16, 1927.
Here's the official United States Patent and Trademark Office listing:
https://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNum=0&docid=01639226&IDKey=2A435515FDCE%0D%0A&HomeUrl=%2F%2Fpatft.uspto.gov%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fpatimg.htm
The item in your fourth picture looks like Figure 1.
Please understand that I'm not suggesting that your vintage Betsy Ross treadle sewing machine is 1927 vintage. Indeed, I think it's a lot older, if only because of that tension screw.
What I'm suggesting is that item in your fourth picture was part of some sewing project that somebody who had used the machine in the past tossed into a drawer.
Hi again, ILIKEOLDJUNK21. :-)
After looking around, I've decided that your machine is probably a badged National Rotary A2:
http://needlebar.org/nbwiki/index.php?title=File:Natpritzlaffrotary117774.jpg
http://needlebar.org/nbwiki/index.php/National_Rotary_Machines
The needle/throat/slide plates look right, both have a tension disc assembly protruding from the face plate (which I failed to notice earlier), both have two thread spool pins (with the right-most one having that odd base plate with two pin holes), and a bed screw lever. Even the decal set looks right, except yours isn't quite as colorful, which could be due to somebody trying to clean it. So your machine is probably 1908- 1916 vintage.
What does "badged" mean?:
*snip*
A "badged" sewing machine, means that there really isn't a company named (insert here, the name brand on your sewing machine, i.e. American Home, Modern Home, J.C. Penney, Sears Kenmore, Montgomery Ward, Gimbels, Simplicity, etc...), that owned their own factory, and manufactured these sewing machines. Instead, the seller whose brand name is on the machine, actually made a contract with a manufacturing company, to build a specific number of sewing machines, that the seller could then slap their brand name, via a "badge", on the machine, and sell it as if they had a specialty sewing machine shop of their own, just like Singer, Bernina, or Necchi, Elna, or Pfaff.
*snip*
https://tumorfarmer.blogspot.com/2018/04/what-is-badged-sewing-machine.html
I couldn't find a soft copy of a manual for the National Rotary A2, but here's a YouTube video of how to thread one, made by retired engineer and all around technogeek extraordinaire Wayne Schmidt:
Antique Sewing Machines The National A2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GVW97E23Y4
About the National Sewing Machine Company:
http://ismacs.net/national/from_eldredge_to_national_to_janome.html
ILIKEOLDJUNK21, The awesome Wayne Schmidt comes through again -- indirectly. };-)
There was a suggestion in that YouTube video comments that a manual for a Damascus Grand (a Montgomery Ward badged line of sewing machines) might be useful for a National Rotary A2, and that led me to the also awesome vintage sewing machine enthusiasts at the quilting board forum, one of whom ultimately led me to this Smithsonian soft copy of a manual for a Western Electric No. 2 Portable Sewing Machine:
https://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/Trade-Literature/Sewing-Machines/NMAHTEX/0603/index.htm
Ignore the "portable electric" part, and look at the picture of the basic machine:
https://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/Trade-Literature/Sewing-Machines/NMAHTEX/0603/imagepages/image5.htm
Excluding that motor peeking out from the back, it sure looks like your machine, including the ornamentation.
So I think you can download that manual, and use it with a fairly high degree of confidence.
Here is my collection of vintage sewing machine links (which includes links for Wayne Schmidt, and the quilting board group):
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/285089-vintage-sewing-machine-help
But it's a lot to look through, so if you have more specific questions, just ask them here.