An improvement in the Morey and Johnson machine was patented by Jotham
S. Conant for which he was issued a patent on May 8, 1849. Conant's
machine offered a slight modification of the cloth bar and of the method
of keeping the cloth taut during the stitching operation. No successful
use of it is known.

A second improvement of the Morey and Johnson patent was also issued on
May 8, 1849; this United States patent (No. 6,439) was to John Bachelder
for the first continuous, but intermittent, sewing mechanism. As shown
in the patent model (fig. 19), his clothholder consisted of an endless
belt supported by and running around three or any other suitable number
of cylindrical rollers. A series of pointed wires projected from the
surface of the belt near the edge immediately adjacent to the needle.
The wires could be placed at regular or irregular distances as required.
The shaft of one of the cylindrical rollers, which supported the
endless clothholder, carried a ratchet wheel advanced by the action of a
pawl connected to the end of the crankshaft by a small crankpin, whose
position or distance from the axis of rotation of the shaft could be
adjusted.

[Illustration: Figure 18.--A MOREY AND JOHNSON sewing machine as
illustrated in _Scientific American_, January 27, 1849. (Smithsonian
photo 45771.)]

By this adjustment the extent of the vertical travel of the impelling
pawl was regulated to control the length of the stitch. A spring catch
kept the ratchet wheel in place at the end of each forward rotation of
the wheel by the pawl. A roller placed over the endless belt at its
middle roller pressed the cloth onto the wire points. A curved piece of
metal was bent over and down upon the top of the belt so that the cloth,
as it was sewed, was carried toward and against the piece by the belt.
The cloth rose upon and over the piece and was separated from the
points. When the machine was in motion the cloth was carried forward,
passed under the needle, was stitched, and finally, passed the separator
and off the belt. A vertically reciprocating, straight, eye-pointed
needle, a horizontal supporting surface, and a yielding cloth presser
were all used, but none were claimed as part of the patent. These were
later specifically claimed in reissues of this patent. Bachelder's one
specific claim, the endless feed belt, was not limited to belt feeding
only. As he explained in the patent, a revolving table or a cylinder
might be substituted