Singer New Family Pre-Wound Bobbins??
 

I saw these on the auction site and since they had a buy it now that I thought was reasonable, I went for it.

I have seen a wooden bobbins like these before but I had no idea that they were this old and were available pre-wound with thread. What an interesting marketing idea!

When they arrive I will be trying them out ON my Singer New Family (Mina, the two foot treadle)

[ATTACH=CONFIG]506785[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]506786[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]506787[/ATTACH]

Those are neat. I wonder if they are refillable and if so how long they'd last in comparison to the metal bobbins?

Will those fit a Singer 127? That's the only Singer I have that uses long bobbins.

Joe

Very cool!!

who would ever guess there was pre wound bobbins back then. The 5D 6D must be thread size ?

You better start making glass covered display cases.

I believe the size is "50" & "60" Cotton. Does look like 5D & 6D.
40-60 cotton uses size 16 needle
60-80 cotton uses size 14 needle

Jon

Very cool! I'd like to see an empty one. I'm wondering how much thread they hold compared to a metal bobbin and how they were made.
Rodney

That's extremely cool Steve! If you're lucky it won't be cotton but silk.
You'll certainly find out as soon as you start unravelling (it takes almost no pressure to break 100+ year old cotton). If you want to be certain, burn a little: Burning cotton smells like you're ironing your t-shirt, silk smells like hair.
They don't look black: Is this just the photograph or have they faded to a greeny brown?
Regardless, it's a rare find, and I for one am keen to know more.
The Merrick Thread Co. seem to have been decades ahead of their time. I just Googled them and there's a few interesting hits.

Another interesting find - where/how do you find them?

Those are cool. Who would have thought!!

I love the pre-wounds I work with today - the tension is more consistent and there's usually more on them than something I wind myself. I bet this would be true of those ones as well. Certainly the wind looks as good or better than the best adjusted VS machine I've ever seen.

wow!!! something like that could be made in a pinch

OK, Yeah, these are officially way too cool!!! they fit flawlessly and spin as smooth as the steel ones.
Original shown for comparison (this is Mina, the 1873 two foot New Family treadle from San Francisco)

[ATTACH=CONFIG]507442[/ATTACH]

That's cool.

Someone with a lathe could use some oak dowel rod and make some of those very easily. Don't know why they would, but they could. :)

Joe

Great accessory find! I can't imagine wooden bobbins! I like the boxes too! Perfect fit for your machine!!

Is the thread cotton or silk?

I've been thinking about how they were made. My best guess would be a turret lathe if they had them back then, if not then a regular lathe fit with a collet to hold the dowel. They would have used a very sharp scraper cut to the profile of the bobbin. The process would most likely have been at least semi-automatic. Making them by hand would have been way too inefficient. However they made them it had to be quick and cheap for them to make any money. The wood is most likely not oak. They would have used something fine grained for pieces that small.
A neat little glimpse into some of the manufacturing technology available back then.
Rodney

Cotton. Burns like a slow fuse.... Smells like burnt cotton

A law suit was the first hit when I looked up that company. It was by J.P. Coats, who sued because this company's cotton production technique duplicated that of Coats. Six strand IIRC, so I thought it was probably cotton.

Is it brittle? I haven't seen old cotton that's not but never if it's more than 50 years old. If it were kept well I'd be happy to be wrong :p particularly since you have so much of it and I'm sure they were all filled beautifully.

Rodney,

Stupid question(s), what is a "turret lathe", and what would be wrong with oak?

I'm not familiar with lathes, the last one I used was in high school. That's been a couple years ago ... :( .

I only mentioned oak because the oak rod I have here is prettier than the regular dowel rod and a bit harder. Just thought it might be more durable. Probably not what the manufacturer had in mind though.

Joe

A turret lathe can crank out small parts without the operator doing much of anything but feeding it once they're set up. They are all mechanical, CNC has taken over mostly now. It may not have been a turret lathe. I don't remember the wood working equivalent. Duplicator lathe maybe?
Oak has really coarse and open pores. Not what you want when making small items. You want something much finer so it maintains it's shape and strength even at small diameters.
Rodney
Rodney

A turret lathe (or turret punch) is a machine that has several bits installed on a rotating head that allows an operator to quickly change tooling for repeated tasks without having to remove and install new tooling