e.

[Illustration: Figure 26.--WILSON'S stationary-bobbin patent model,
1852; a commercial machine was used since Wheeler, Wilson, Co. had begun
manufacturing machines the previous year. (Smithsonian photo 45504-B.)]

Wilson, with his two partners, was occupying a room in the old Sun
Building at 128 Fulton Street, when Wheeler, on a business trip to New
York City, learned of the Wilson sewing machine. Wheeler examined the
machine, saw its possibilities, and at once contracted with E. Lee & Co.
to make 500 of them. At the same time he engaged Wilson to go with him
to Watertown, Connecticut, to perfect the machine and supervise its
manufacture. Meanwhile, Wilson had been working on a substitute for the
shuttle. He showed his model of the device, which became known as the
rotary hook, to Wheeler who was so convinced of its superiority that he
decided to develop this new machine and leave Wilson's first machine to
the others, who, by degrees, had become its owners.

Wilson now applied all his effort to improving the rotary hook, for
which he received his second patent on August 12, 1851 (figs. 24 and
25). Wheeler, his two partners Warren and Woodruff, and Wilson now
formed a new copartnership--Wheeler, Wilson, and Company. They began the
manufacture of the machines under the patent, which combined the rotary
hook and a reciprocating bobbin. The rotary hook extended or opened more
widely the loop of the needle thread, while a reciprocating bobbin
carried its thread through the extended loop. To avoid litigation which
the reciprocating bobbin might have caused, Wilson contrived his third
outstanding invention--the stationary bobbin. This was a feature of the
first machine produced by the new company in 1851, though the patent
for the stationary bobbin was not issued until June 15, 1852 (fig. 26).

In all reciprocating-shuttle machines a certain loss of power is
incurred in driving forward, stopping, and bringing back the shuttle at
each stitch; also, the machines are rather noisy, owing to the striking
of the driver against the shuttle at each stroke. These objections were
removed by Wilson's rotary hook and stationary bobbin. The locking of
the needle thread with the bobbin thread was accomplished, not by
driving a shuttle through the loop of the needle thread, but by passing
that loop under the bobbin. The driving shaft carried the circular
rotary hook, one of the sewing machine's most beautiful contrivances.
The success