The McDowell Garment Machine

The McDowell Garment Machine is a pretty interesting contraption, used to convert a set of measurements into a bodice pattern that you can trace and cut out of fabric and make without having to do a lot of drawing. I have a few different ones, but this one arrived missing some knurled thumb knobs, which makes it impossible to use.


The machine itself is made out of engraved strips of brass, held together with rivets and screw-threaded rivets or rivet-headed screws, depending on how you look at it. There are also a few actual screws with a "plow" built into the head to keep them aligned in a slot. Without the knurled knobs, you can't "set" the axes of the strips to the desired sizes, which means the whole thing is useless. 
 





These screws, at least in the example in my collection, are standard 5-40 threads. So now you can order replacements with impunity and know they won't cross-thread!


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