m. singer company new york new york united states headquarters la vergne tennessee usa parent svp worldwide international semi tech microsystems 1989 2000 website singer.com a singer treadle sewing machine singer corporation is an american manufacturer of sewing machines first established as i. m. singer & co. in 1851 by isaac merritt singer with new york lawyer edward 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 near nashville . its first large factory for mass production was built in elizabeth new jersey in 1863 . 1 contents 1 the company 1.1 early sales figures 1.2 singer in scotland 1.3 world war ii 2 marketing 2.1 diversification 2.2 21st century 3 singer buildings 4 list of company presidents 5 four best selling domestic singer sewing machines 6 see also 7 references 8 further reading 9 external links the company edit old singer logo a singer 1851 sewing machine 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 howe who won a patent infringement suit against singer in 1854 . patent no. 8294 of august 12 1851 introduced one of the most useful machines and one of the most remarkable men that have figured in the development of the sewing machine . isaac merritt singer strolling player theater manager inventor and millionaire brought into the business a new machine and novel methods of exploitation which gave a powerful impulse to the youthful industry . the singer improvements met the demand of the tailoring and leather industries for a heavier and more powerful machine . 2 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 sewing machine an improvement over contemporary transverse shuttle designs ; see bobbin drivers . 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 . early sales figures edit source 3 year 1853 1859 1867 1871 1873 1878 units 810 10 953 43 053 181 260 232 444 262 316 by 1876 singer was claiming cumulative sales of 2 million machines and displaying the 2 millionth in philadelphia . 4 singer in scotland edit workers leaving singer sewing machine factory on clydebank in 1867 the singer company decided that the demand for their sewing machines in the uk was sufficiently high to open a local factory in john street . glasgow was selected for its iron making industries cheap labour and possibly because at the time the general manager of the us singer sewing machine company was george mckenzie who was of scottish descent . demand for sewing machines outstripped production at the new plant and by 1873 a new larger factory was completed in james street bridgeton . by now singer employed over 2 000 people in scotland but still they could not produce enough machines . in 1882 george mckenzie president elect of the singer sewing machine company undertook the ground breaking ceremony on 46 acres of farmland at kilbowie clydebank . originally two main buildings were constructed each 800 foot 240 m long 50 foot 15 m wide and 3 storeys high . these were connected by three wings . built above the middle wing was a huge 200 foot 61 m tall clock tower with the singer name clearly displayed for all to see for miles around . 2.75 miles 4.43 km of railway lines were laid through the factory to connect the different departments such as the boiler room foundry and shipping and to lines to main railway stations . sir robert mcalpine 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 . 5 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 us singer company set up the singer manufacturing company ltd. as a uk registered company . demand continued to exceed production so each building was extended upwards to 6 storeys high . in the first world war 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 . 6 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 modernisation programme 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 . 7 world war ii edit painted singer sewing sign in kingston ny a singer sewing machine with electric retrofit during world war ii the company suspended sewing machine production to take on government contracts for weapons manufacturing . factories in the us supplied the american forces with norden bomb sights and m1 carbine rifle receivers while factories in germany provided their armed forces with weapons . 8 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 us ordnance board to teach companies without gun making experience to manufacture weapons . after the 500 units were delivered to the government the management decided to produce artillery and bomb sights . the pistol tooling and manufacturing machines were transferred to remington rand whilst some went to the ithaca gun company . original singer pistols are collectable and in excellent condition sell for 25 000 to 60 000 with the highest paid 80 000 at auction in 2002 . 9 marketing edit 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 machine . this eventually resulted in a patent sharing accord among the major firms . 10 marketing strategies included focusing on the manufacturing industry 11 gender identity 12 credit plans 13 and hire purchases . 10 singer s marketing emphasized the role of women and their relationship to the home evoking ideals of virtue modesty and diligence . 14 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 . 10 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 10 and sold globally through the use of direct sales door to door canvassers to demonstrate and sell the machines . 15 diversification edit singer in malta in the 1960s the company diversified acquiring the friden calculator company in 1965 packard bell electronics in 1966 and general precision equipment corporation in 1968 . gpe included librascope the kearfott company inc and link flight simulation . in the 1968 also singer bought out gps systems and added it to the link simulations systems division lssd . this unit produced nuclear power plant control center simulators in silver spring md ; while flight simulators were produced in binghamton new york . in 1987 corporate raider paul bilzerian made a greenmail 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 was sold to the astronautics corporation of america in 1988 and the electronic systems division was purchased by gec marconi in 1990 renamed gec marconi electronic systems and later incorporated into bae systems . the sewing machine division was sold in 1989 to semi tech microelectronics a publicly traded toronto based company . 16 for several years in the 1970s singer set up a national sales force for cat phototypesetting machines of unix troff fame made by another massachusetts company graphic systems inc. 17 this division was purchased by wang laboratories in 1978 . 21st century edit the singer corporation produces a range of consumer products including electronic sewing machines . it is now part of svp worldwide which also owns the pfaff and husqvarna viking brands which is in turn owned by kohlberg & company which bought singer in 2004 . its main competitors are brother industries janome aisin seiki a toyota group company that manufactures toyota necchi and e & r classic sewing machines and juki . singer buildings edit singer was heavily involved in manhattan real estate in the 1800s through edward 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 to build a 12 story loft building at broadway and prince street in lower manhattan . the building is now considered architecturally notable and has been restored . 18 the 47 story singer building 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 and was the tallest building to be intentionally demolished until the twin towers of the world trade center were destroyed in the september 11 attacks . 19 at their clydebank scotland factory singer built a 200 ft 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 . 20 singer railway station built to serve the factory is still in existence to this day . the famous