of the machine is indicated in an article that appeared in
the June 1853 issue of _Scientific American_:

There are 300 of these machines now in operation in various parts
of the country, and the work which they can perform cannot be
surpassed.... The time must soon come when every private family
that has much sewing to do, will have one of these neat and perfect
machines; indeed many private families have them now.... The price
of one all complete is $125; every machine is made under the eye of
the inventor at the company's machine shop, Watertown, Connecticut,
so that every one is warranted ... agreement between Mr. Howe and
Messrs. Wheeler, Wilson & Co., so every customer will be perfectly
protected....[50]

[Illustration: Figure 27.--WILSON'S four-motion-feed patent model, 1854,
is not known to be in existence; this is a commercial machine of the
period. The plate is stamped "A. B. Wilson, Patented Aug. 12, 1851,
Watertown, Conn., No. 1...." (Smithsonian photo 45504.)]

This agreement was important to sales, as Elias Howe was known to have
sued purchasers of machines, as well as rival inventors and companies.

The business was on a substantial basis by October 1853, and a stock
company was formed under the name of Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing
Company.[51] A little more than a year later, on December 19, 1854,
Wilson's fourth important patent (U.S. patent 12,116)--for the
four-motion cloth feed--was issued to him (fig. 27). In this
development, the flat-toothed surface in contact with the cloth moved
forward carrying the cloth with it; then it dropped a little, so as not
to touch the cloth; next it moved backward; then in the fourth motion it
pushed up against the cloth and was ready to repeat the forward
movements. This simple and effective feed method is still used today,
with only minor modifications, in almost every sewing machine. This feed
with the rotary hook and the stationary circular-disk bobbin, completed
the essential features of Wilson's machine. It was original and
fundamentally different from all other machines of that time.

The resulting Wheeler and Wilson machine made a lockstitch by means of a
curved eye-pointed needle carried by a vibrating arm projecting from a
rock shaft connected by link and eccentric strap with an eccentric on
the rotating hook shaft. This shaft had at its outer end the rotary
hook, provided with a point adapted to enter