Part 20 (1/2)

[Illustration: Figure 136--ALLEN BENJAMIN WILSON, 1824-1888 Fro ned by the Wheeler & Wilson Mfg Co (Smithsonian photo 32066)]

So valuable has been this latter four- machines are now made without it The joint ownershi+p of this feature of the Wilson patents has served to bind the coether, and enabled them to defy competition by force of the monopoly It is this feature which the combination wishes to further ress The inventor has probably realized er admits that his patents, which are much less important, paid him two millions prior to 1870, since which time he has not been compelled to render an account The Wilson patents with their extended terer sum They have been public property, so far as the feed is concerned, since June 15, 1873, and will reress for their extension A monopoly of this feed motion for seven years more would be worth from ten to thirty millions to the owner--and would cost the people four times as much

Wilson had not e of the renewals' earnings plus his salary fro Coressional Coain in 1875 and 1876, when applications for an extension were continued

Wilson died on April 29, 1888

ISAAC MERRITT SINGER

[Illustration: Figure 137--- ISAAC MERRITT SINGER, 1811-1875 Fro Co (Ser, whose na rants Isaac was born on October 27, 1811, in Pittstown, New York, but o He worked as a mechanic and cabinetmaker, but acquired an interest in the theater Under the name of Isaac Merritt, he went to Rochester and beca an absence from the theater, he completed his first invention, a mechanical excavator, which he sold for 2000 With the anized a theatrical troupe of his ohich he called ”The Merritt Players” When the group failed in Fredericksburg, Ohio, Singer was stranded for lack of funds

Forced to find so plant that nized the need for an i one, he found no financial support in Fredericksburg and decided to take the machine to New York City Here, the firive Singer rooue Street factory to build machines A boiler explosion destroyed the first machine, and Taylor refused to advance e B Zieber, a bookseller who had seen the type-carving machine, considered its value to publishers

Zieber offered to help Singer and raised 1700 to build another er and Zieber took the machine to Boston where they rented display space in the steam-powered workshop of Orson C Phelps at 19 Harvard Place Only a few publishers came to look at the er, conte his future, beca ett Phelps welcon of thethemachine with the eyes of a practical machinist He criticized the action of the shuttle, which passed around a circle, and the needle bar, which pushed a curved needle horizontally Singer suggested that the shuttle ht needle be used vertically Phelps encouraged Singer to abandon the type-carving ies toward the i er sketched a rough draft of his proposed machine, and with the support of Zieber and Phelps the work began

Singer continued to be active in the sewing-machine business until 1863

He land

While living at Torquay he conceived the idea of a fabulous Greco-Roer called it ”The Wigwam” Unfortunately, after all his plans, he did not live to see its coer died on July 23, 1875, of heart disease at the age of sixty-three

FOOTNOTES:

[93] _The Proceedings and Debates of the 43rd Congress_, First Session, 1874 Congressional Record, vol 2, part 3, petition read to the House by Mr Creaham read a similar petition to the Senate on May 19, 1874 Both were referred to the Coranted

_Bibliography_

ADAMS, CHARLES K Sewing machines In vol 7 of _Johnson's universal cyclopaedia_, New York: D Appleton and Co, and felting machines Pp

341-353 in _The Practical Mechanic's Journal's record of the great exhibition, 1862_ 1862

---- On the sewing ress _Journal of the Royal Society of Arts_ (April 10, 1863), vol 2, no 542, p

358

AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY _The life and works of George H

Corliss_ (Privately printed for Mary Corliss by the Society) 1930