e received a
regular salary and additional money from the patent renewals. Wilson
petitioned for a second extension of his patents on April 7, 1874,
stating that, due to his early poverty, he had been compelled to sell a
half interest in a patent (his first one) for the sum of $200. Also he
stated that he had not received more than his expenses during the
original fourteen-year term. Wilson also stated that he had received
only $137,000 during the first seven-year extension period. These
figures were verified by his partner. The petition was read before both
Houses of Congress and referred to the Committee on Patents.[94] There
was strong feeling against the extension of the Wilson patents. The New
York _Daily Graphic_, December 30, 1874, reported:

[Illustration: Figure 136.--ALLEN BENJAMIN WILSON, 1824-1888. From a
drawing owned by the Singer Mfg. Co. Formerly, the drawing was owned by
the Wheeler & Wilson Mfg. Co. (Smithsonian photo 32066.)]

So valuable has been this latter four-motion feed that few or no
cloth-sewing machines are now made without it. The joint ownership
of this feature of the Wilson patents has served to bind the
combination of sewing-machine builders together, and enabled them
to defy competition by force of the monopoly. It is this feature
which the combination wishes to further monopolize for seven years
by act of Congress. The inventor has probably realized millions for
his invention. Singer 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 terms were worth a much larger sum. They have
been public property, so far as the feed is concerned, since June
15, 1873, and will remain so if too great a pressure is not brought
to bear on Congress 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 made the millions for he only received a small percentage
of the renewals' earnings plus his salary from the patents' owner, the
Wheeler and Wilson Manufacturing Company.

The Congressional Committee on Patents made an adverse report in 1874
and again in 1875 and 1876, when applications for an extension were
continued

Wilson died on April