Patent records of the late 1880's clearly show the amount of effort being made by inventors to design the perfect true miniature sewing machine.
Unfortunately, many such designs cannot be fully assessed without production examples to hand - luckily, in the case of John Poyser's patents, a single known extant example has made this possible.
The first Poyser patent was initiated in the UK in 1886, and envisaged a miniature portable rotary-hook lockstitch machine of Wheeler Wilson type. The shuttle capacity of his design was to be the same, or very nearly that of a full sized hand or treadle machine.
In common with many contemporary designs of the period, all functional parts were attached to a vertical frame with an integral screw table clamp.
The patent made provision for a fully functional feed dog, together with stitch length adjustment.
With a view to sewing at a greater distance from the edge of the work, Poyser even envisaged the possibility of making the horizontal shaft and boss, the table, the sliding needle bracket and upper guide bracket all telescopic, so that they could be extended and secured by screws! The feasibility of extending the main horizontal shaft for connection to a treadle mechanism was also considered.
1888 saw a second patent with improvements in many areas of the basic design. Alterations were made in thread take-up, gearing and feed mechanisms. An extended fold-up fabric table was also introduced.
A final patent in 1892 addressed the practicality of forming a chain stitch within a Wheeler Wilson rotary system.
Without doubt, Poyser's patents provided the basis for a well-engineered miniature machine, the only known surviving example certainly confirms this.

G.D.
January 2000.