The picture of the face plate for Dianne's machine was inadvertently cropped. Here is the correct picture.
I remembered that it looks similar to my 1936-1942 New National and Dianne emailed the following.
Quote:
OK, so I needed to pull both machines out for reference. On the left, the New Home Midget, although mine just says New Home. And the New National by New Home on the right. In the New National manual (falling apart) it calls this the Take-up Spring, with the Take-up Hook on the end where the thread catches it.
Both of these machines were the less or least expensive machines of their day made by New Home - New National about 1896? and Midget around 1912?. This spring must do the work of the take up lever, but apparently also the check spring in a more normal tensioner. It is simplicity defined. It is very curious that Ed Ward, in designing his ‘perfect machine’ would come up with this solution. Obviously, he did not copy from these New Homes, which came much later. Is this another of his inventions?
Have we seen other very early machines with a Take-up Spring? I haven’t, but am not an expert on them, or anything else, for that matter! Anyway, food for thought!
Dianne Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.