My Boye Shuttle collection - so far
 

My goal was to collect a machine for each of the 12 "standard" shuttles that Boye sold. BTW - the "missing" Numbers are for needles. For the most part, they go in pairs, so shuttle 1 and needle #2 both fit Household machines - and so forth. There are a few with more than one needle number in between, and then there are some "half" needle sizes that got added later. I am going with the post 1907 number system. There are some earlier ones with a different numbering sequence. Something to be aware of if you are buying based on Number.

I am also giving the Manufacturer, not the branded names of the machines. There are a few less common manufactures that may take the same shuttle as a more common manufacturer - and there are many less common and older VS machines that Boye never made shuttles for.

1. Household

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ps106da693.jpg

3. New Home

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ps7548ef7b.jpg

5. Standard

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ps48724bcd.jpg

7. Domestic (pre White)

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ps241afb48.jpg

9. Davis

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psefa37608.jpg

11. White

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ps1769b00c.jpg

13. National

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ps225c3d4c.jpg

15. Singer and Singer copies (like early Free and some Domestic)

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ps2a2901d6.jpg

17. Demorest

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ps8f29abc9.jpg

19. New Royal (early)

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ps8bae23d2.jpg

The two I still don't have:

22. Eldredge (pre National) - I did buy an "Edredge B" that is listed as taking this size shuttle, but mine takes the size 13 like the rest of the National machines. The #22 is longer than the #13.

25. Florence

Another interesting note all of these are bar or top clamp machines. The only Side Clamp would be Singer.

Cathy,

That is cool.

You're Davis / Sunshine looks a lot like my Davis / Minnesota B.

You'd be in a world of hurt if there was a "Gyrle" brand of shuttles and needles .... :D Just teasing LOL.

Joe

Cool! Good photographic display of what to look for when trying to determine a manufacturer too.
Rodney

Very neat--Always wondered what the odd ball shuttles went to.

Jon

Love your collection!

Just nosy... What made you decide to collect shuttles with matching machines? I think it is very cool.

Cathy, can you explain the "bar" top and side? Love your machines and the fact that you have a focus for the collection. So far my collecting is very random but leaning toward the shuttles.
HelenAnn

I blame it all on my husband. I was doing fine sticking to Singers - and then he found the Two Spool and bought it - breaking the "ceiling" so to speak. And then right around the same time I found the New Queen and fell in love. The machine didn't come with a shuttle, and in my search for information on shuttles - I sort of got hooked and interested in the different shuttles and machines they went with.

And I also got side tracked with attachments and started collecting top clamp ones - and then I needed to find machines that fit the different varieties I have.

So that got me a collection of Singers, Machines that fit Boye Shuttles and machines that take different variations of top clamp feet.

And then I got a book and it had a few pages about the early 1900's machines after they became "standard" and listed several of the remaining companies - so I decided I also wanted one from each of those. This added the Foley & Williams, Wilcox and Gibbs, Wheeler and Wilson and New Leader, which is one I've found very little information on, and the name was also used by National on later machines.

I also have a real interest in early rotary machines - got the Two Spool, the Standard stout and slim, Singer 15 and 66, Wheeler Wilson D9, White, and am looking for a Davis rotary.

I have a lot more research to do, something to keep me busy for the rest of my life.

Thanks for posting these Cathy! It helped confirm that my DIL's New Royal uses the 19 shuttle (I found one on Ebay). I can't wait to go visit her to see if we can make it work!

This is a rough explanation - and I'm not considering per 1890 machines - only those after the machines had evolved to what I'd call the "modern" look (I'll leave the early ones to Steve H!).

Singer has the type we are most familiar with, the presser foot bar is round, and then flattens out at the end and has a screw hole in it - and a side clamping foot is attached with a screw into that hole.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psd17100ab.jpg

While there are other exceptions - the majority of the other US made machines had a bar that was round all the way to the end. With the early ones, the foot had a round opening at the top and slipped onto the bar with a screw to tighten against the bar.

Ignore the bed mount ruffler and only look at the foot - and how it goes up and the presser bar fits inside it.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ps0c3f4874.jpg

The very early sets used bed mount hemmers and binder, so only the narrow hemmer and ruffler mounted to the pressure bar. The tucker was also bed mount.

Most of the "next generation" sets had some sort of adapter that fit onto the bar and then the different hemmers attached to it. Usually the ruffler and narrow hemmer were direct mount feet. Here are two adapters showing the hole the bar fits into - note they are not the same diameter.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ps86e7e018.jpg

I have several sets that have different style adapters - and if you lost the adapter foot, you could not use the others.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psc7205dbe.jpg

Then someone came up with the "top clamp" style adapter, where the feet slip unto the bracket and the clamp is screwed DOWN to hold them in place. I have sets that included this style adapter. The regular foot that came with the machine was still slipped directly on the bar, and often the ruffler was still this type.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psb2eade21.jpg

I think it was not long after that machines started coming with the adapter already on the machine, so even the regular foot was top clamp. Sets no longer needed to come with an adapter and you could easily buy a replacement clamp for the machine if you lost one. At this point most tuckers were also mounted to the presser bar and not the bed.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ps8bb65caf.jpg

The cardboard boxed sets are later, and almost always for Rotary machines. The only difference between them is the bed mount attachments, which is the shirr plate that works with the ruffler when shirring, and the underbraider. And later ones don't have the underbraider as they went to top braiding.

On the later style top clamp sets, there are many variations. I've not got through my earler sets that use the direct mount feet or other adapters yet - but for the later sets, so far I have
6 for Standard
1 Foley & Wilson
2 Eldredge (pre National)
1 Davis
5 National
2 Free (early)
3 Free/New Home (after combined)
1 New Royal (old style)
6 White
4 New Home (before Free combined)

Not all are complete sets - so I'm still looking - and some are the same except for a Rotary set and a VS set - so only the plates are different. And I'm always looking for the extra feet that weren't part of the basic set, like cording and zipper feet, embroidery feet, hemstitchers (feet and plate) buttonholers and other fun stuff.

Really neat post - I learned a lot! Thanks Cathy!

Cathy that was great, I'm going to try to save it for reference.
I have a Pritzlaff Rotary[ATTACH=CONFIG]473103[/ATTACH]That I think is an early Davis.

Yeah, but I believe, Davis got em from Eldredge... I have matches for that one, Stag, Damascus, and something else I forget right now. Wish I had the cabinet! (but I don't want to seem presumptious, like I actually KNOW what I'm talking about) :rolleyes:

Now that is interesting - I was wondering about the Davis rotary . . .

Another interesting note the Pritzlaff name on the chart (for VS) is listed as taking the same needle and shuttle as the early Eldredge machines.

I'd bet money this machine was made by Eldredge/National. Now I'll have to look more into the Davis Rotarys and see if they were only reselling someone else's machines. We need our resident Davis expert to chime in!

Just checked Needlbar and it has the Pritzlaff Rotary listed under National with no reference to Davis at all. The good part - it's a lot easier to find attachments to fit National Rotary machines.

http://needlebar.org/cm/displayimage..._display_media

National made this model (Rotary A) and put a lot of different names on it. The above link has a short bit about the Pritzlaff company that sold machines with that name on them.

Rotary made by Davis is an uncommon bird. I have one missing it's bobbin case, bobbins and slide plate and have been looking for these parts or complete machine for years. Much more common is "Davis Rotary" made by National after the Davis bankruptcy of 1924. Pic of the distinctive Davis Rotary:

thanks for the picture - now I know what to look for.

National used a lot of other Mfg names after the original company went out of business - and that can make it hard when looking for a specific machine. I'm looking for a Leader or New Leader, and run into so many Nationals with those names on it, and it's very hard to convince the sellers they don't actually have a rare Leader Mfg machine made around 1890-1900 - but instead have a much more common National machine made around 1920 -1940. Seems the fact that what they are selling came with an electric motor does not mean much to them LOL!!

Thanks again Cathy, I wasn't sure about the pritz as I just got it about a week ago. I had briefly looked at something that made me think Davis.

Cathy do you have a photo of Leader you are looking for?

I'm not sure what the Leader I'm looking for looks like . . .

I was looking in the book "The Encyclopedia of Early American Sewing Machines, 3rd Edition" by Carter Bays, and he has a short section on machines of the era I'm interested in. " A comprehensive list of vintage sewing machines (circa 1900-1925)" and then a "brief company history" of the companies he considered of significance to this era. My goal was to have one from each company -

Davis (have)
Domestic (have)
AG Mason (have)
Household (have)
Foley & Wilson (have)
Standard (have)
Free (have)
National (have)
New Home (have)
White (have)
Wilcox & Gibbs (have)
Singer (have)

New Leader - Bays says this company is NOT the same as the earlier Leader Mfg that went out of business in 1884, but does not now know if it was a related. This second company has records of producing machines from 1926 -1933. He also says the names on the machine were related to the company name - such as New Century Leader, New Leader, New Love. Unfortunately for my needs, this book has only a handful of pages devoted to the machines I'm interested in. It has way more information on toy sewing machines!

The Boye list I have is from earlier than this machine would have been made, and I don't know if it's VS or Rotary.

Cathy,
Thanks for the great informative post. I need to get my act together on the history . So much info makes my old brain spin. You have an intriguing method to your collection. Not that broad a selection here in East Tennessee. Oh, and thanks for clarifying which Boye case you are using.

If I may make a note, the Singer 15 is not rotary, rather it is oscillating. Maybe you meant to type Singer 115?

Maria
Smoky Mountains of Tennessee

Well I have a 15 and 115 - actually more than one of each. I guess I should have refereed to them as "round bobbin" instead of rotary - and to tell you the truth, I've not looked to make sure my other non-Singer round bobbin machines are full rotary or oscillating as unless I'm fixing them, I don't really care.

I actually have one Free VS machine that is called a "Long bobbin Rotary"

So to clarify, I like early round bobbin machines, whether they are oscillating or full rotary.

Might be wrong, but it seems like the early generations of round bobbins were all full rotary. Someone can correct me on that.

I would love to know that, too. There are some real old Singer 15s... Are they rotary? mumble mumble might have to look on ISMACS....