Thank you, Leon for posting the instructions for pictures.
Welcome, Wooda. Yes, that would be a machine made by National for Montgomery Wards. It is similar to a few different machines as seen at
http://needlebar.org/nbwiki/index.ph...uttle_Machines Records for National machines are not available to be able to pinpoint the date it was made, but probably was made in the very early 1900s. Having a patent date just means that it could not have made before that date. It would be one of the "VB-TT" type machines.
It is quite probable that your machine would have originally used what is known as a 20x1 needle. There may be some on ebay such as
https://www.ebay.com/itm/32503331306...QAAOSwVWth~fG7 There is a thread on another board titled
"15x1 rather than 20x1 needles" If you search for that with the quotes, you will find that it tells how to use the 15x1 aka 130/705H needles that are widely available with many different sizes and different points for sewing wovens or knits.
Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.
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