Bobbin driver
Throughout history, lockstitch sewing machines have used a variety of methods to drive their bobbins so as to create the lockstitch.
| Names | Invented | Description | Picture | Notes |
| Transverse shuttle Longitudinal shuttle | 1846 by Elias Howe | Transverse shuttles carry the bobbin in a boat-shaped shuttle, and reciprocate the shuttle along a straight horizontal shaft. The design was popularized in Singer's 'New Family' machine. The design became obsolete once the other bobbin driver designs were developed. | Sometimes incorrectly called an "oscillating shuttle". Somewhat confusingly, the term "Transverse Shuttle" is usually used only to refer to a side-to-side motion of the bobbin. When moved in a front-to-back motion, as in the Howe machines, and the earliest Singers, the term "Reciprocating Shuttle" is used instead. | |
| Vibrating shuttle | 1850 by Allen B. Wilson | Vibrating shuttle machines reciprocate their shuttle through a short arc. The earliest vibrating shuttles used boat-shaped shuttles, but bullet-shaped shuttles soon replaced them. The design was popularized in the White Sewing Machine Company's 'White Sewing Machine' and Singer's 27-series machines. Now obsolete. | ||
| Rotary hook Rotating hook Rotary loop taker Revolving hook | 1851 by Allen B. Wilson | Rotary hook machines hold their bobbin stationary, and continuously rotate the thread hook around it. The design was popularized in the White Sewing Machine Company's 'Family Rotary' sewing machine and Singer's models 95 and 115. | ||
| Oscillating shuttle | 1877 by Lebbeus B. Miller and Phillip Diehl | Oscillating shuttle machines mount their bobbin on the hook, and reciprocate the hook through a short arc. The design was popularized in Singer's models 15 'Improved Family' and 31. | ||
| Oscillating hook | ? | Oscillating hook machines hold their bobbin stationary, and reciprocate the hook through a short arc. The bobbin lays horizontally, right under the needle plate. The design was popularized in Singer's model 66. |