Mystery Machine

[Uwe]

I don't think we have it quite nailed down yet. The body casting of ours has more of an I-Beam cross section, whereas most of the machines we've considered so far have a round or oval main casting cross section. The lower front arm on our machine also goes to the top of the head, not into the center. 

Apparently there's a mind-boggling variety of manufacturers that made these machines. Christoph Schiffmann in Germany has the most extensive collection I've seen so far.

I had no idea there were so many copies of this design by so many manufacturers! It's almost like the hundreds of long-defunct U.S. Auto companies that were all tried their hand at making variations of the same car design and didn't survive past the second decade of last century.

From Schiffmann list:

The Adler 27 has a similar body casting, but the lower front arm is not right:

 

 

The C. Schmidt & Hengstenberg has the correct front lower arm that curves up to the top of the swivel head - very few machine have that design detail. Alas, the body casting has a rounded cross section, not I-beam like.

 

 

Maybe I'll contact Herr Schiffman to see if he can identify the precise model of ours. 

Edited September 13, 2016 by Uwe

[mikesc]

Got to agree with you there Uwe, I was basing my assessment of the manufacturer on the pictures on the machine, but, the details on the castings on the stand are definitely like those of the C. Schmidt & Hengstenberg in your lower picture, maybe the machine is a hybrid ?( someone replaced the head with another but kept the stand ? ) ..Just noticed that I left the http:// part on all those links above, whilst not allowing scripts* from LW ( doing so makes the back end end of the forum here auto-link them back to this same page,I must remember not to for anyone interested, here are the links that actually "link out", I posted the above ones and then got busy without checking to see if they worked..
http://leblogdecallisto.blogspot.fr/search/label/Claes

http://www.schmitt-photography.de/?p=750

http://www.dtoday.de/startseite/bilder/detailansicht_mmid,9761.html

http://needlebar.org/cm/thumbnails.php?album=428

http://www.cl-maschinenbau.com/unternehmen/history.php?lang=en

*When you have over 2000 tabs open ( like I do ATM ) allowing scripts slows the machine to a crawl, over 5 GiB of RAM used just for scripts ( not counting what is being used by other programs I have running at the same time ) from various sites in all the tabs. the ones here that seem to et RAM are the pre-ticked "notify me" ones, horrible idea, that ought to be set to "opt in" not "opt out", ie: not pre ticked boxes, anywhere, for anything..on any site, ever.. :(((

It is also waaaay less work for the website server,if one is not "auto-opted in" to "follow" and "notify" and "let others know that I'm following" etc etc..Going through unticking all boxes now..Great site and resource, but that "auto opt in" to so much of that kind of stuff is crazy, and burns CPU cycles and RAM at both server and Browser, ( not to mention all the emails that it generates ) ends..

 

Edited September 13, 2016 by mikesc

[Wizcrafts]

Mike;

You can deactivate all or some notifications through your control panel on LWN. There are separate categories for browser notifications and email notifications. As for the default settings, they are standards set by the software developer. They leave it to sys admins to alter the universal templates affecting all selectable board options. In our case, this is an ongoing slow process.

[mikesc]

Yep ..did all of that just after posting the above Wiz I discovered that ever since my join date ( two years ago ) I was "opted in"  for "immediate notifications" by email, of each and every post, by anyone ( without realising ) to every thread I'd ever posted in, and some I hadn't even posted in..good thing I run my own mail server, otherwise some ISP might be getting on my case about "inbox full" , I must have thousands of emails from here to go and empty / delete..I hear what you say about some software / website designers..if they can "bloat it" with "bells and whistles" they will, and they leave all the "bells and whistles" set to "on as default", without making it obvious ( or "off as default", which is the intelligent way, and the latter way saves the site owner some money on bandwidth and CPU RAM etc ) all those calls to the server and "notification of new post" emails flying out add up, raise server running costs, and can also be expensive for visitors who are not on unlimited data plans...and the poor souls on mobile phones with non "unlimited data plans", data bills go through the roof.

[Wizcrafts]

I hear you Mike. As a part time web developer I have learned to resize and reduce images and compress codes to reduce bloat for people on metered Internet connections. It's not just mobile phone users either. In the USA there are people on satellite ISPs and still some on dial-up modems. When I got into web design I was on dial-up. So, I resized and reduced until my own web pages loaded in a reasonable time. I also write my own scripts and host them on my server. The only external scripting comes from Google ads.

[Gregg From Keystone Sewing]

Beautiful machine, and I've seen a lot of em.  

[UPFrank]

Back to the original topic, who can give a definite answer as to what the machines are that Uwe and I have, and can someone tell me how to thread the thing so I can use it?

We all know that there are many companies that have made them and that there are Chinese knockoffs still produced, but there has to be someone that can add some additional insight like what MikeSC added.

I don't plan on selling my machine as it likely has way more sentimental value than monetary, but I am curious what it may be worth?

Thanks again to those helping point us to a make and model for these machines.

[Constabulary]

As I said earlier, I have a CLAES manual in German language. Send me a PN if you are interested.

We once collected some pictures of patcher machines in this thread

 

[mikesc]

On the site that Constabulary linked to in that thread,

http://schiffmann-orthopaedie.de/fussorthopaedie-beckingen-merzig-lebach/antike-schuhmacher-naehmaschinen/

there is a machine ( but we can only see the stand ) which has the same two lions and castle entrance as yours..it says

"LSO Wolfhagen-Bründersen"

if shoepatcher joins in here, or steve ( singermania ) and they can give more info concerning the "chateau in France" that has the same model as shoepatcher's machine on steroids, I'll happily try to find a phone number for the chateau in question and see if I can get in touch with them and find out more..If it isn't too far away, I could maybe visit with my wife, and camera ( I will probably have to swear to her that I'm not gong to come back with yet another sewing machine but we both visit a lot of chateaux anyway each year. 

Btw..we definitely need more of what Constabulary refers to in that thread as "stolen pictures" , actual pictures "stolen"from ebay in particular ( as opposed to just links to ebay ) , a lot of links in that thread 404 because the auctions are now over and so there are no pictures of the machines, and the Russian link is also a 404.

Btw2..what is it with "lions rampant" and sewing machines from Germany ?

 

Edited September 14, 2016 by mikesc

[mikesc]

I just spoke on the phone  with a guy in Belgium who's wife put up a similar machine ( it has much more wear on the hand wheel , so no picture of the factory visible, and the crest with the lions and the castle entrance is not exactly the same ) for sale last year..The crest part on his says "SCHUTZ-MARKE" which he thinks is the name of the company who made it ? I think ( my German is not very good , I lived there, JHQ (Joint Headquarters) Rheindahlen when I was very young in 59 and again in 62, and have forgotten almost all of it, must re-learn it someday )..but I think that "Shutz- marke" means something like " trademark" or "marque déposé" ? Anyway he is going to ask his wife if they still have the machine ( imagine how many machines they must have for him to "not be sure if they still have a particular one around", they must have nearly as many as shoepatcher or singermania ..If they do, he'll scrutinise it it more closely, I'll be phoning him gain later today to see if there are any more details forthcoming, meanwhile here is the photo of the crest area featuring two lions rampant and again a castle entrance, but with a band of decorated work in the form of a letter S  ( made me wonder the "S" ) that they had in their original ad.

The "head" of his wife's machine looks to be the same as the one that UPFrank and Uwe have,

A little more researching around the web says that "shutz-marke" is definitely "trade mark" and that the S is / was  the logo of Adler..pic of a badge from another ( not a shoe patcher machine ) machine

http://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/79583-schutz-sewing-machine

This has the lions and the castle gateway, maybe (  UPFrank and Uwe ),  your machines are early Adlers ? before they put the "S" into their logo ?

Why would a company whose name begins with a "D"  for Dürkopp or an  "A" for Adler, use an "S" in their logo ?

A long article on the Dürkopp company here,

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/dürkopp-adler-ag-history/

says "By the 1880s several other Bielefeld firms were competing with Dürkopp", maybe the lions and castle entrance is the coat of arms for the town of Bielefeld ? So the machine -( of UPFrank and Uwe ) maybe came from some factory there, but maybe not Dürkopp ?

 

Edited September 14, 2016 by mikesc