US 175386

Patent Overview — US 175,386

Title: Improvement in Sewing-Machine Treadles

Patentee: William H. Stewart, of Brooklyn, county of Kings, State of New York. No assignee is named in the supplied text.

Dates: Application filed September 15, 1875; Letters Patent dated March 28, 1876. The source lists the legal status as "Expired – Lifetime," with an anticipated expiration of March 28, 1893. Google Patents records a prior-art date of 1876-03-28.

Purpose: The stated object is "to prevent motion at either the knee or hip joints in running the sewing-machine." This is accomplished by making the axis of the treadle and the ankle-joint coincide, so that the foot and treadle move in the arc of a circle centered on the ankle-joint, thereby saving "that unnecessary exertion and waste of power occasioned by the motion of the legs whenever the ankles are in any other position."

Plain-language scope: The patentee explains that the foot must sit on the foot-board so the ankle-joint lies directly in line with the treadle's axis or center of motion, and be held there. This is done with a ledge or stop placed directly in front of the foot. Because foot lengths vary, a fixed ledge "does not effect the object" — it might suit one person and be "entirely wrong for another." The improvement is therefore a movable toe-stop, capable of being set quickly at any desired point on the foot-board and secured by a screw or equivalent device.

Claim: "The toe-stop or ledge, adjustable horizontally or otherwise upon the foot-board, in combination with a treadle, substantially as and for the purposes set forth."

Components described: A — sewing-machine frames (usual character); B — treadle foot-board; G — journals or pivots on which the treadle swings; D — ledge or toe-stop; E E (Fig. 2) — slot in which the toe-stop is adjustable; F — screw fastening the toe-stop in position.

Figures: Fig. 1, side view of treadle in section; Fig. 2, plan of treadle; Fig. 3, elevation of toe-stop and part of foot-board.

What the excerpt does not establish: It provides no information on assignment or ownership transfer, validity, litigation, or substantive examination against prior art. The "Expired – Lifetime" status is expressly an assumption, not a legal conclusion. Classification entries and listed "similar documents" are database metadata, not evidence of prior-art effect.

Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US175386](/patent/US175386)/en