The History of the Singer Sewing Company
The History of the Singer Sewing Company
In 2001 the Singer Sewing Machine Company celebrated its 150th anniversary. In 1850, founder Isaac Merit Singer noted that another manufacturer's shuttle moved in a circle and the curved needle moved horizontally. Singer spent 11 days and $40 designing the first practical machine with a shuttle that moved to and fro in a straight line along with a straight up-and-down movement needle.
King of the road
The Singer Sewing Machine Company is a pioneer of the sewing machine industry, celebrating many firsts. Within two years of marketing sewing machines, Singer was the leading manufacturer in the US. By 1890 Singer controlled 80% of the worldwide market.
- First lightweight domestic machine (1858)
- First of three lock-stitch vibrating shuttle machine patents (1859)
- First patent for an oscillating shuttle sewing machine (1866)
Electronic whiz
By the late 1920s, Singer offered sewing classes, employed 27,000 people and produced 3000 sewing machine models. By the end of WWII, they reached $307.8 million in sales.
- The portable electric model 99K (1921)
- 4000 stitches per minute on the Model 95K (1949)
- First Zigzag machine (1952)
- Athena 2000, the first electronic sewing machine (1975)
- The Touchtronic 2001, first computerized sewing machine (1978)
State-of-the-art
The Singer Sewing Machine Company leads the market in sergers and embroidery machines. Singer sergers are the perfect companions to their conventional machines as they simultaneously sew and finish seams. Sewing machines range from the simple to sophisticated models, offering unlimited stitch patterns, monogramming, embroidery, and sideways sewing.
- The Quantum 4 and Quantum 5 overlock/serger machine offering the most stitches of any serger machine on the market (1990)
- The Quantum XL-100, top-of-the-line embroidery machine (1995)
- The Quantum XL-1000 embroidery machine with memory cards (1997)
- The Quantum XL-5000 fully automated/user friendly embroidery machine with Professional Sew-Ware (2001)