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Singer Company

American corporation
Also known as: I.M. Singer Company, Singer Manufacturing Company
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Singer Company: sewing machine
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An early sewing machine produced by the Singer Company.
Vincent de Groot
Areas Of Involvement:
sewing machine
manufacturing
Related People:
Isaac Singer

Singer Company, corporation that grew out of the sewing-machine business founded in the United States by Isaac M. Singer.

The company was incorporated in 1863 as the Singer Manufacturing Company, taking over the business of I.M. Singer & Company, which had been formed to market the sewing machine patented by Singer in 1851. The company assumed the name Singer Company in 1963 and was reorganized as Singer NV in The Netherlands in 2000. In 2004 the sewing business and the Singer trademarks were sold to a private U.S. investment firm, and in 2006 it became part of SVP Worldwide, which combined Singer with Husqvarna Viking and PFAFF, two other major sewing machine producers.

Singer's first sewing machine
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Isaac M. Singer's first sewing machine, patented in 1851, illustrated in Genius Rewarded; or, The Story of the Sewing Machine, 1880.
© Photos.com/Jupiterimages

Singer’s original design, which was the first practical sewing machine for general domestic use, incorporated the basic eye-pointed needle and lock stitch developed by Elias B. Howe, who won a patent-infringement suit against Singer in 1854. Singer, however, 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.

Singer Manufacturing Company factories
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Factories of the Singer Manufacturing Company, illustration from Great Industries of Great Britain, published by Cassell Petter and Galpin, c. 1880.
© Photos.com/Jupiterimages

Singer began to market its machines internationally in 1855 and won first prize at the Paris World’s Fair. The company demonstrated the first workable electric sewing machine at the Philadelphia electric exhibition in 1885 and began mass-producing domestic electric machines in 1910. Singer was also a marketing innovator and was a pioneer in promoting the use of installment payment plans.

Singer sewing machine
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Singer sewing machine, c. 1880.
© PhotoObjects.net/Jupiterimages

Besides sewing machines, the company also manufactured power tools, floor-care products, furniture, and electronics controls. In the late 1970s and ’80s Singer began to diversify into the production of aerospace electronics and other high-technology items.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Jeannette L. Nolen.