Singer Corporation is an American manufacturer of consumer sewing machines, first established as I. M. Singer & Co. in 1851 by Isaac M. Singer with New York lawyer Edward C. Clark. Best known for its sewing machines, it was renamed Singer Manufacturing Company in 1865, then the Singer Company in 1963. It is based in

La Vergne, Tennessee La Vergne ( ) is a city in Rutherford County, Tennessee. The population was 38,719 at the 2020 census. La Vergne lies within the Nashville Metropolitan Statistical Area. History La Vergne was incorporated in 1861. Historical variant names inc ...

, near Nashville. Its first large factory for mass production was built in 1863 in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

History

Singer's original design was the first practical sewing machine for general domestic use. It incorporated the basic eye-pointed needle and

lock stitch Lock(s) may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainment * ''Lock ...

, developed by

Elias Howe Elias Howe Jr. (; July 9, 1819October 3, 1867) was an American inventor best known for his creation of the modern lockstitch sewing machine. Early life Elias Howe Jr. was born on July 9, 1819, to Dr. Elias Howe Sr. and Polly (Bemis) Howe in ...

, who won a patent-infringement suit against Singer in 1854. Singer Sewing Machine Patent Model, No

Singer obtained in August 1851 for an improved sewing machine that included a circular feed wheel, thread controller, and power transmitted by gear wheels and shafting. Singer consolidated enough patents in the field to enable him to engage in mass production, and by 1860 his company was the largest manufacturer of sewing machines in the world. In 1885 Singer produced its first "

vibrating shuttle A vibrating shuttle is a bobbin driver design used in home lockstitch sewing machines during the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. It supplanted earlier ''transverse'' shuttle designs, but was itself supplanted ...

" sewing machine, an improvement over contemporary transverse shuttle designs (see

bobbin driver Throughout history, lockstitch A lockstitch is the most common mechanical stitch made by a sewing machine. The term "single needle stitching", often found on dress shirt labels, refers to lockstitch. Structure The lockstitch uses two threads ...

s). The Singer company began to market its machines internationally in 1855 and won first prize at the Paris world's fair that year. The company demonstrated the first workable electric sewing machine at the Philadelphia electric exhibition in 1889 and began mass-producing domestic electric machines in 1910. Singer was also a marketing innovator and a pioneer in promoting the use of installment payment plans.

Early sales figures

By 1876, Singer was claiming cumulative sales of two million sewing machines and had put the two millionth machine on display in Philadelphia.

Singer in Scotland

People leaving Singer Sewing Machine Factory, Clydebank

In 1867, the Singer Company decided that the demand for their sewing machines in the United Kingdom was sufficiently high to open a local factory in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

on John Street. The Vice President of Singer, George Ross McKenzie selected Glasgow because of its iron making industries, cheap labour, and shipping capabilities. Demand for sewing machines outstripped production at the new plant and by 1873, a new larger factory was completed on James Street, Bridgeton. By that point, Singer employed over 2,000 people in Scotland, but they still could not produce enough machines. In 1882, McKenzie, by then President-elect of the Singer Manufacturing Company, undertook the ground breaking ceremony on of farmland at Kilbowie, Clydebank. Originally, two main buildings were constructed, each long, wide and three storeys high. These were connected by three wings. Built above the middle wing was a tall clock tower with the "Singer" name clearly displayed for all to see for miles around. A total of of railway lines were laid throughout the factory to connect the different departments such as the boiler room, foundry, shipping and the lines to main railway stations.

Sir Robert McAlpine Sir Robert McAlpine Limited is a family-owned building and civil engineering company based in Hemel Hempstead, England. It carries out engineering and construction in the infrastructure, heritage, commercial, arena and stadium, healthcare, educa ...

was the building contractor and the factory was designed to be fire proof with water sprinklers, making it the most modern factory in Europe at that time. With nearly a million square feet of space and almost 7,000 employees, it was possible to produce on average 13,000 machines a week, making it the largest sewing machine factory in the world. The Clydebank factory was so productive that in 1905, the U.S. Singer Company set up and registered the Singer Manufacturing Company Ltd. in the United Kingdom. Demand continued to exceed production, so each building was extended upwards to 6 storeys high. A

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...

with the company name was established in 1907 with connections to adjoining towns and central Glasgow to assist in transporting the workforce to the facility. Increased productivity came from 'scientific management' techniques which increased workloads whilst keeping salary overheads low, and in 1911, a mass walk out of 10,000 workers, the ' Singer Strike', took place in support of twelve women polishers, who had seen three staff dismissed, but the workload remained the same with no extra pay. It was significant in its recognition of the rights of women workers and '

collective bargaining Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for workers. The ...

' and predated the labour movement known as '

Red Clydeside Red Clydeside was the era of political radicalism in Glasgow, Scotland, and areas around the city, on the banks of the River Clyde, such as Clydebank, Greenock, Dumbarton and Paisley, from the 1910s until the early 1930s. Red Clydeside is a ...

'. A centenary film was made by the BBC about the female workers who stood up to the American management. In the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, sewing machine production gave way to munitions. The Singer Clydebank factory received over 5000 government contracts, and made 303 million artillery shells, shell components, fuses, and aeroplane parts, as well as grenades, rifle parts, and 361,000 horseshoes. Its labour force of 14,000 was about 70% female at war's end. From its opening in 1884 until 1943, the Kilbowie factory produced approximately 36,000,000 sewing machines. Singer was the world leader and sold more machines than all the other makers added together. In 1913, the factory shipped 1.3 million machines. The late 1950s and 1960s saw a period of significant change at the Clydebank factory. In 1958, Singer reduced production at their main American plant and transferred 40% of this production to the Clydebank factory in a bid to reduce costs. Between 1961 and 1964, the Clydebank factory underwent a £4 million modernization program which saw the Clydebank factory cease the production of cast iron machines and focus on the production of aluminium machines for western markets. As part of this modernisation programme, the famous Singer Clock was demolished in 1963. At the height of its productiveness in the mid 1960s, Singer employed over 16,000 workers but by the end of that decade, compulsory redundancies were taking place and 10 years later the workforce was down to 5,000. Financial problems and lack of orders forced the world's largest sewing machine factory to close in June 1980, bringing to an end over 100 years of sewing machine production in Scotland. The complex of buildings was demolished in 1998. An archive about the factory, the strike and the history of its business in Scotland, is regarded as a recognised collection of national significance by Museums Galleries Scotland.

Marketing

Paolo Monti - Servizio fotografico - BEIC 6346702

The Singer sewing machine was the first complex standardized technology to be mass marketed. It was not the first sewing machine, and its patent in 1851 led to a patent battle with Elias Howe, inventor of the

lockstitch A lockstitch is the most common mechanical stitch made by a sewing machine. The term "single needle stitching", often found on dress shirt labels, refers to lockstitch. Structure The lockstitch uses two threads, an upper and a lower. Locksti ...

machine. This eventually resulted in a patent sharing accord among the major firms.Joan Perkin, "Sewing Machines: Liberation or Drudgery for Women?" History Today 52 (Dec. 2002). Marketing strategies included focusing on the manufacturing industry, gender identity, credit plans, and "hire purchases." Singer's marketing emphasized the role of women and their relationship to the home, evoking ideals of virtue, modesty, and diligence. Though the sewing machine represented liberation from arduous hand sewing, it chiefly benefited those sewing for their families and themselves. Tradespeople relying on sewing as a livelihood still suffered from poor wages, which dropped further in response to the time savings gained by machine sewing. Singer offered credit purchases and rent-to-own arrangements, allowing people to rent a machine with the rental payments applied to the eventual purchase of the machine, and sold globally through the use of direct-sales door-to-door canvassers to demonstrate and sell the machines.

World War II

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the company suspended sewing machine production to take on government contracts for weapons manufacturing. Factories in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

supplied the American forces with Norden bomb sights and

M1 Carbine The M1 carbine (formally the United States Carbine, Caliber .30, M1) is a lightweight semi-automatic carbine that was a standard firearm for the U.S. military during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. The M1 carbine was produced ...

rifle receivers, while factories in Germany provided their armed forces with weapons. In 1939, the company was given a production study by the government to draw plans and develop standard raw material sizes for building M1911A1 pistols. The following April 17, Singer was given an educational order of 500 units with serial numbers S800001 – S800500. The educational order was a program set up by the Ordnance Board in the U.S. to teach companies without gun-making experience to manufacture weapons. Singer delivered 500 units to the U.S. government. Although Singer was unable to produce 100 guns a day, which the government contract required, the War Department was impressed with the quality of their pistols and asked the company to produce navigation and targeting equipment components. The pistol tooling and manufacturing machines were transferred to

Remington Rand Remington Rand was an early American business machine manufacturer, originally a typewriter manufacturer and in a later incarnation the manufacturer of the UNIVAC line of mainframe computers. Formed in 1927 following a merger, Remington Rand w ...

whilst some went to the

Ithaca Gun Company The Ithaca Gun Company is a manufacturer of shotguns and rifles originally established in Ithaca, New York, in 1880. History Over the years, Ithaca made numerous firearms, most notably the Ithaca Flues double-barreled shotgun and the Ithaca 37 ...

. Approximately 1.75 million 1911A1 pistols were produced during World War II, making original Singer pistols relatively rare and collectable. In 2017, one sold at auction for $414,000. In December 1940, Singer won a contract to produce the M5 Antiaircraft Director, a version of the UK-designed

Kerrison Predictor The Kerrison Predictor was one of the first fully automated anti-aircraft fire-control systems. It was used to automate the aiming of the British Army's Bofors 40 mm guns and provide accurate lead calculations through simple inputs on three main ...

. The

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

had previously adopted the M7 Computing Sight for their

37 mm gun M1 The 37 mm gun M1 was an anti-aircraft autocannon developed in the United States. It was used by the US Army in World War II. The gun was produced in a towed variant, or mounted along with two M2 machine guns on the M2/ M3 half-track, res ...

anti-aircraft guns, but the gun proved temperamental and

Sperry Corporation Sperry Corporation was a major American equipment and electronics company whose existence spanned more than seven decades of the 20th century. Sperry ceased to exist in 1986 following a prolonged hostile takeover bid engineered by Burroug ...

was too busy producing other systems to build the required number of M7's. After testing in September 1940, the Army accepted the Kerrison as the M5, and later, the

Bofors 40 mm gun Bofors 40 mm gun is a name or designation given to two models of 40 mm calibre anti-aircraft guns designed and developed by the Swedish company Bofors: *Bofors 40 mm L/60 gun - developed in the 1930s, widely used in World War II and into the 1990s ...

in place of the M1.

Post-war

Singer resumed developing sewing machines in 1946. After the not so well received Singer 206k, a first attempt in zig-zag machines, starting production in 1936, They introduced one of their most popular, highest-quality and fully-optioned machines in 1957, the 401 Slant-o-Matic. 2011 marked their 160th anniversary. Currently, they manufacture computerized, heavy duty, embroidery, quilting, serging, and mechanical sewing machines. In 2017, they launched their new Singer Sewing Assistant App.

Diversification

Early 20th-century Singer sewing machine in Malta

In the 1960s, the company diversified, acquiring the Friden calculator company in 1965 and

General Precision Equipment Corporation The General Precision Equipment Corporation was a major manufacturing company involved in the defense and space industries as well educational products and control devices for consumer goods. General Precision, Inc., was the principal operating sub ...

in 1968. Friden became Singer Business Machines which produced the Singer System 10. GPE included

Librascope Librascope was a Glendale, California, division of General Precision, Inc. (GPI). It was founded in 1937 by Lewis W. Imm to build and operate theater equipment, and acquired by General Precision in 1941. During World War II it worked on improvin ...

, The Kearfott Company, Inc, and Link Flight Simulation. In 1968 also, Singer bought out GPS Systems and added it to the Link Simulations Systems Division (LSSD). This unit produced nuclear power plant control room simulators in Silver Spring, Maryland: Tech Road building for Boiling Water Reactor (BWR), Parkway building for Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) and later moved to Broken Land Parkway in

Columbia, Maryland Columbia is a census-designated place in Howard County, Maryland. It is one of the principal communities of the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. It is a planned community consisting of 10 self-contained villages. Columbia began with ...

while flight simulators were produced in Binghamton, New York. For several years in the 1970s, Singer set up a national sales force for CAT phototypesetting machines (of

UNIX Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, an ...

troff troff (), short for "typesetter roff", is the major component of a document processing system developed by Bell Labs for the Unix operating system. troff and the related nroff were both developed from the original roff. While nroff was inte ...

fame) made by another Massachusetts company, Graphic Systems Inc. This division was purchased by

Wang Laboratories Wang Laboratories was a US computer company founded in 1951 by An Wang and G. Y. Chu. The company was successively headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts (1954–1963), Tewksbury, Massachusetts (1963–1976), and finally in Lowell, Massachuset ...

in 1978. In 1987, corporate raider

Paul Bilzerian Paul Alec Bilzerian ( hy, Փօլ Պիլզերեան, born 1950) is an American businessman and corporate takeover specialist. Education and family Bilzerian was born in Miami, Florida but grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts in an Armenian America ...

made a "

greenmail Greenmail or greenmailing is the action of purchasing enough shares in a firm to challenge a firm's leadership with the threat of a hostile takeover to force the target company to buy the purchased shares back at a premium in order to prevent the ...

" run at Singer, and ended up owning the company when no " White Knight" rescuer appeared. To recover his money, Bilzerian sold off parts of the company. Kearfott was split, the

Kearfott Guidance & Navigation Corporation Kearfott is a defense equipment manufacturer founded in 1918 in New Jersey, United States. It is based in Woodland Park. Today the electronics division is part of BAE Systems, while the remaining Kearfott Guidance & Navigation division is a subsid ...

was sold to the

Astronautics Corporation of America Astronautics Corporation of America (ACA) was established in 1959 and is a US supplier, designer, and manufacturer of avionics equipment to airlines, governments, commercial and defense aircraft manufacturers, and other avionics systems integrator ...

in 1988 and the Electronic Systems Division was purchased the Plessey Company in 1988 and renamed Plessey Electronic Systems (and then acquired by GEC-Marconi in 1990, renamed GEC-

Marconi Electronic Systems Marconi Electronic Systems (MES), or GEC-Marconi as it was until 1998, was the defence arm of General Electric Company (GEC). It was demerged from GEC and bought by British Aerospace (BAe) on 30 November 1999 to form BAE Systems. GEC then renam ...

, and later incorporated into BAE Systems). The four Link divisions developing and supporting industrial and flight simulation were sold to Canadian Avionics Electronics ( CAE) and became CAE-Link. The nuclear power simulator division became S3 Technologies, and later GSE Systems, and relocated to Eldersburg, MD. The Sewing Machine Division was sold in 1989 to Semi-Tech Microelectronics, a publicly traded Toronto-based company.

20th century

Singer Nähmaschine in Osttimor 2017-04-22

Sales and profits grew until the 1940s. The market was affected in several ways. The USA market matured after WWII. Japanese manufacturers ate into the market with zig-zag sewing machines. Under the leadership of Donald P. Kircher, Singer diversified into markets such as office equipment, defense, and aerospace. Revenue of which 90% of revenue from sewing machines was reduced to 35% after diversification. In 1978 Singer moved its HQ from Rockefeller Plaza to Stamford, Conn. This relocation moved 430 jobs to the new location. During the 1980s Singer sewing machine markets were being hit with Japanese machines and European brands including Bernina, Pfaff, and Viking. In 1986, the original Singer company spun off its sewing machine business under the name SSMC. In 1989 Semi-Tech Global purchased SSMC renaming SSMC back to Singer. Semi-Tech Global incorporated Singer into Singer N.V. based in Netherlands Antilles owned by the Hong Kong holding company. Singer N.V. filed bankruptcy in 1999 and was acquired by

Kohlberg & Company Kohlberg & Company is an American private equity firm that focuses on leveraged buyout transactions. Founded by investor Jerome Kohlberg, Jr., the firm invests in a variety of transactions including leveraged carveout, take-private transactions, ...

. In 1997, Singer (Singer N.V.) US operations moved its consumer products to LaVergne, Tennessee. This location also served its wholesale distribution of sewing machines and parts. In 2006 The parent company of Singer - Kohlberg & Company, acquired Husqvarna and Pfaff brands. This merged the three brands into the current company the SVP Group. Its main competitors are Baby Lock, Bernina,

Brother A brother is a man or boy who shares one or more parents with another; a male sibling. The female counterpart is a sister. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to non-familia ...

Janome is a Japanese company that produces sewing machines, with manufacturing plants in Japan, Taiwan and Thailand. The company name until September 30, 2021 is . History The Pine Sewing Machine factory was founded on 16 October 1921. In 1935, the ...

Juki is a Japanese manufacturer of industrial sewing machines and domestic sewing machines, as well as high-technology SMT ( surface mount technology) assembly equipment and is headquartered in Tama-shi, Tokyo. It is one of the leading industrial m ...

and

Aisin Seiki is a Japanese corporation that develops and produces components and systems for the automotive industry. Aisin is a Fortune Global 500 company, ranked 359 rankings. Aisin is a member of the Toyota Group of companies. Aisin was founded in 196 ...

. Singer was heavily involved in Manhattan real estate in the 1800s through Edward C. Clark, a founder of the company. Clark had built The Dakota apartments and other Manhattan buildings in the 1880s. In 1900, the Singer company retained

Ernest Flagg Ernest Flagg (February 6, 1857 – April 10, 1947) was an American architect in the Beaux-Arts style. He was also an advocate for urban reform and architecture's social responsibility. Early life and education Flagg was born in Brooklyn, New ...

to build a 12-story loft building at Broadway and Prince Street in Lower Manhattan. The building is now considered architecturally notable, and it has been restored. The 47-story

Singer Building The Singer Building (also known as the Singer Tower) was an office building and early skyscraper in Manhattan, New York City. The headquarters of the Singer Manufacturing Company, it was at the northwestern corner of Liberty Street and Broad ...

, completed in 1908, was also designed by Flagg, who designed two landmark residences for Bourne. Constructed during Bourne's tenure, the Singer Building (demolished in 1968) was then the

tallest building in the world This list of tallest buildings includes skyscrapers with continuously occupiable floors and a height of at least . Nonbuilding structure, Non-building structures, such as towers, are not included in this list (for these, see ''List of tallest ...

and was the tallest building to be intentionally demolished until the Twin Towers of the

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...

were destroyed in the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

. At their Clydebank factory, Singer built a clock tower, which stood over the central wing and had the reputation of being the largest four-faced clock in the world. Each face weighed five tons, and it took four men fifteen minutes twice a week to keep it wound. The tower was demolished in 1963,17 years before the factory closed in 1980 and is now the site of Clydebank Business Park.

Singer railway station Singer railway station is a two-platformed staffed station serving Clydebank town centre, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It is located on the Argyle Line, west of and the North Clyde Line, west of . Passenger services are provided by ScotR ...

, built to serve the factory, is only one of two railway stations in the UK, named after a factory, and is still in operation today. The famous

Singer House Singer House (russian: Дом компании «Зингер»), also widely known as the House of the Book (russian: Дом книги), is a historic building in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is located at the intersection of Nevsky Prospekt an ...

, designed by architect

Pavel Suzor Count Pavel Yulievich Suzor (russian: Павел Юльевич Сюзор, French: Paul-Jules Persin comte Suzor, gw.geneanet.org 1844–1919) was a Russian architect, president of the Architects Society, and count. Biography Count Paul-Ju ...

, was built in 1902–1904 at

Nevsky Prospekt Nevsky Prospect ( rus, Не́вский проспе́кт, r=Nevsky Prospekt, p=ˈnʲɛfskʲɪj prɐˈspʲɛkt) is the main street (high street) in the federal city of St. Petersburg in Russia. It takes its name from the Alexander Nevsky L ...

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

as headquarters of the

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

n branch of the company. This

modern style The Modern Style is a style of architecture, art, and design that first emerged in the United Kingdom in the mid-1880s. It is the first Art Nouveau style worldwide, and it represents the evolution of the Arts and Crafts movement which was native ...

building (situated just opposite the Kazan Cathedral) is officially recognized as an object of Russian historical-cultural heritage. In 2018, a large factory fire destroyed a Singer distribution office and warehouse in Seven Hills, Sydney. Singer had manufactured sewing machines in Australia at a purpose-built plant in the western Sydney suburb of Penrith, from 1959 until 1967.

List of company presidents

* Isaac M. Singer (1851–1863) *Inslee Hopper (1863–1875) * Edward C. Clark (1875–1882) *George Ross McKenzie (1882–1889) *

Frederick Gilbert Bourne Commodore Frederick Gilbert Bourne (December 20, 1851 – March 9, 1919) was an American businessman. He served as the 5th President of the Singer Manufacturing Company between 1889 and 1905. He made the business "perhaps the first modern multinat ...

(1889–1905) * Sir Douglas Alexander (1905–1949) *Milton C. Lightner (1949–1958) *Donald P. Kircher (1958–1975) *Joseph Bernard Flavin (1975–1987) *

(1987–1989) *Iftikhar Ahmed (1989–1997) *Stephen H. Goodman (1998–2004)

Popular domestic Singer sewing machines

File:Singer12k.jpg, A Singer model 12K fiddle-bed from 1878 File:Singer66.JPG, A Singer model 66 with Lotus decals from 1922 File:Singer99b.jpg, A Singer model 99 from 1939 File:singer222k.jpg, A Singer Featherweight model 222k from 1954