Vibrating shuttle

The bobbin inserts from the rear, and the tip is pointed for the purpose of intercepting the small loop temporarily created (by a brief upward needle motion) in the upper thread—see pictures below of its operation.

In 1868, Stephen French, working at the Gold Medal Sewing Machine Company in Orange, Massachusetts, patented an improved method of driving the vibrating arm.

The initial design of the Porter/Baker shuttle would change little throughout the 86 years[4] that it would remain in production at White and then at Singer.

This can be seen in the following shuttle-threading diagrams taken from the White and Singer instruction manuals: The following photo gallery shows the vibrating shuttle cycling through a single stitch.

The vibrating shuttle was a significant innovation towards the goal of a simple, fast, and reliable lockstitch sewing machine, and the design remained popular for decades.

Rotary and hook-based designs are superior because they do not cause their sewing machine to shake and 'walk' the way that vibrating and transverse shuttles do.