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| History of the Singer Company |
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| The Singer Company is proud to have "taught the world to sew," a tradition that began over a century and one-half ago and still continues today. Although many inventors tried to make a machine that could sew a secure stitch, it was Isaac M. Singer who designed the world's first practical sewing machine in just 11 days. He was granted a patent in 1851 and set in motion the creation of the Singer Company, a manufacturing giant that still sells more sewing machines throughout the world than any other company today. By the beginning of the 20th century, over 21 million Singer sewing machines had already been manufactured. Singer's plant in Elizabeth, New Jersey was using the method of mass production as early as the 1870s, long before Henry Ford would apply it to automobile production. By 1908, the growing company was housed in the Singer Building, a 47-story building in New York City, at that time the first skyscraper and tallest building in the world. | |
| The research and development division of the Singer Company can be credited with the many subsequent innovations to the sewing machine. Electricity became widely available in the early 1930s, just in time for the launch of the much-collected Singer Featherweight 221. Singer introduced its model 206, the first zigzag machine in 1952. In the late 1950s, Singer pioneered the slant needle and top, drop-in bobbin. Many sewers and in particular, quilters, still treasure their Singer Model 401, made during that time. The revolutionary Touch & Sew machines with their "wind-in-place" bobbin were introduced in 1965. And with the launch of the Athena 2000 in 1975, the world of computerized sewing was born. Stop by and see a century of sewing machine innovation at Singer Sewing Shoppe L.L.C.. | |
