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, near Nashville. Its first large factory for mass production was built in 1863 in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
This timeline of clothing and textiles technology covers the events of fiber and flexible woven material worn on the body; including making, modification, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, and manufacturing systems (technology).
A sewing machine is a machine used to sew fabric and materials together with thread. Sewing machines were invented during the first Industrial Revolution to decrease the amount of manual sewing work performed in clothing companies. Since the invention of the first sewing machine, generally considered to have been the work of Englishman Thomas Saint in 1790, the sewing machine has greatly improved the efficiency and productivity of the clothing industry.
A bobbin is a spindle or cylinder, with or without flanges, on which wire, yarn, thread or film is wound. Bobbins are typically found in sewing machines, cameras, and within electronic equipment. In non-electrical applications the bobbin is used for tidy storage without tangles.
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.
Elias Howe Jr. was an American inventor best known for his creation of the modern lockstitch sewing machine.
A power loom is a mechanized loom, and was one of the key developments in the industrialization of weaving during the early Industrial Revolution. The first power loom was designed in 1786 by Edmund Cartwright and first built that same year. It was refined over the next 47 years until a design by the Howard and Bullough company made the operation completely automatic. This device was designed in 1834 by James Bullough and William Kenworthy, and was named the Lancashire loom.
An overlock is a kind of stitch that sews over the edge of one or two pieces of cloth for edging, hemming, or seaming. Usually an overlock sewing machine will cut the edges of the cloth as they are fed through, though some are made without cutters. The inclusion of automated cutters allows overlock machines to create finished seams easily and quickly. An overlock sewing machine differs from a lockstitch sewing machine in that it uses loopers fed by multiple thread cones rather than a bobbin. Loopers serve to create thread loops that pass from the needle thread to the edges of the fabric so that the edges of the fabric are contained within the seam.
Elna is a Swiss brand and former manufacturer of textile machines, including fabric presses and sewing, overlock and coverstitch machines. Elna sewing machines are included in the collections of the Museum of Design, Zürich, Tekniska museet, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art.
Allen Benjamin Wilson (1823–1888) was an American inventor famous for designing, building and patenting some of the first successful sewing machines. He invented both the vibrating and the rotating shuttle designs which, in turns, dominated all home lockstitch sewing machines. With various partners in the 19th century he manufactured reliable sewing machines using the latter shuttle type.
Wheeler & Wilson was an American company which produced sewing machines. The company was started as a partnership between Allen B. Wilson and Nathaniel Wheeler after Wheeler agreed to help Wilson mass-produce a sewing machine he designed. The two launched their enterprise in the early 1850s, and quickly gained widespread acclamation for their machines' designs. Both Wheeler and Wilson died in the late 19th century, resulting in the company's sale to the Singer Corporation. Shortly after, the Singer Corporation phased out Wheeler & Wilson's designs. The company sold a total of nearly 2,000,000 sewing machines during its existence.
The United States provided many inventions in the time from the Colonial Period to the Gilded Age, which were achieved by inventors who were either native-born or naturalized citizens of the United States. Copyright protection secures a person's right to his or her first-to-invent claim of the original invention in question, highlighted in Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution, which gives the following enumerated power to the United States Congress:
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.
The Singer Model 27 and later model 127 were a series of lockstitch sewing machines produced by the Singer Manufacturing Company from the 1880s to the 1960s.. They were Singer's first sewing machines to make use of "vibrating shuttle" technology. Millions were produced. They are all steel and cast iron, and were built before the advent of planned obsolescence, and so they were designed to be repaired rather than replaced. Consequently many remain today, some in collections and others still in service. In company literature they were called "the woman's faithful friend the world over".
The rotary hook is a Bobbin driver design used in lockstitch sewing machines of the 19th and 20th century and beyond. It triumphed over competing designs because it can run at higher speeds with less vibration.
Throughout history, lockstitch sewing machines have used a variety of methods to drive their bobbins so as to create the lockstitch.
The White Family Rotary or White FR was the first sewing machine produced by the White Sewing Machine Company using a rotary hook bobbin driver. It joined the successful White Vibrating Shuttle on White's expanding product line and eventually eclipsed it. It was originally sold as a treadle with cabinet or as a hand-crank with carrying case; later, add-on electric motors with foot or knee control were available pre-installed or as a field upgrade. Typical cost for this machine as a treadle with a cabinet was US$65 in 1909, which is about US$1532 adjusted.
The White Sewing Machine was the first sewing machine from the White Sewing Machine Company. It used a vibrating shuttle bobbin driver design; for that reason, and to differentiate it from the later White models that used a rotary hook design instead, it came to be known as the "White Vibrating Shuttle" or "White VS". In 1879 it cost USD50 to US$125 depending on which table or cabinet it was to be mounted in. The White VS continued in production, with improvements, until the early 1900s.
The Jones Sewing Machine Company was a British manufacturer of sewing machines founded in 1860 by William Jones and Thomas Chadwick under the name Chadwick and Jones that later become known as the Jones Sewing Machine Company.
The Singer Featherweight is a model series of lockstitch domestic sewing machines produced by the Singer Manufacturing Company from 1933 to 1968, significant among sewing machines for their continuing popularity, active use by quilters and high collector's value.
Kimball & Morton were a Glasgow-based manufacturer of domestic and industrial sewing machines active between 1867 and 1955.
