Issac Merrit Singer

Story of a born MECHANICAL ENGINEER

SINGER’S STORY

Babu Appat

Isaac Merritt Singer

most famous now for his invention of the Singer sewing machine - yet many had patented sewing

machines before him.

Reason for Success

The reason his sewing machine achieved more fame than the others is that it was more practical, it could be adapted to home use and it could

be bought on hire-purchase.

EconomicsFor a down payment of just $5.00, a

purchaser could take the machine home and start sewing on it the same day. The Singer sewing machine became the first

home appliance, and the Singer company became one of the first American

multinationals.

LIFESTYLEEven so, during his lifetime, the

flamboyant Singer was as well known for his unconventional

lifestyle as for his sewing machines

BIRTHIsaac Merritt Singer was born in the hamlet of Johnsonville, in the

town of Pittstown, Rensselaer County, NY, on 27 October 1811.

He was the youngest son of Adam SINGER and his first wife.

FATHERAdam SINGER was a German immigrant whose birth name was Adam REISINGER. It is not known how many children Adam Singer and his two wives had, but there were at least two sons and a daughter;

the daughter's name was Elizabeth SINGER (see below).

CHANGING LIFEWhen Isaac Singer was 10 years old, his

parents divorced. After Adam Singer remarried, Isaac Singer did not get

along well with his stepmother, Ruth BENSON, so when he was 12, he

went to live with his elder brother in Oswego, NY

WORKIsaac Singer's elder brother had a machine shop, and Isaac went to

work there. It was there that Isaac grew to his full height of 6 feet 4

inches and where he first learned the machinist trade that would become

the basis of his fame and fortune

SUBSIDIARY INTERESTS

However, at this stage, Isaac did not realise this, and he would look for fame and fortune in another profession: acting.

MARRIAGEIn 1830, Isaac Singer married for

the first time. His bride was Catharine Maria HALEY. The

couple moved to New York City, possibly in 1831;

MARRIED LIFEThey are said to have lived with her

parents. However, by the summer of 1833, Isaac Singer was in Otsego County, NY, where

he was working at a machine shop owned by George POMEROY

GEOGRAPHY

This machine shop was located one mile south of the village of Fly Creek,

which is a few miles west of Cooperstown, Otsego County, NY.

Isaac Singer was also receiving mail at the post office in Cooperstown

BUSINESS

It is here that Isaac Singer perhaps first made the acquaintance of Edward

CLARK, his legal counsel and eventual business partner.*

CHILDREN

Isaac Singer and Catharine Maria Haley had two children: William SINGER, born in 1834, and Lillian

SINGER, born in 1837

DRAMA TROUPEBy 1836, Isaac Singer had been bitten

by the acting bug, and he joined a troupe of travelling players. When the

troupe performed in Baltimore, Singer, now 25, met 18-year-old Mary

Ann Sponsler. The following year, 1837, Singer fathered two children:

SON AND DAUGHTER

The daughter Lillian (mentioned above) by his wife Catharine and a son Isaac by Mary Ann Sponsler. The marriage

of Isaac and Catharine was effectively over after that, although the couple

did not divorce until 1860

FIRST PATENT

In 1839, Singer received his first patent. It was for a rock-drilling

machine, and it earned him $2,000.

MERRIT PLAYERS

Singer used this money to found his own acting troupe, the

"Merritt Players", with Mary Ann Sponsler.

SECOND MARRIAGE

Singer, not free to remarry legally, entered into a common-law marriage with Sponsler, who went on to bear

him 10 children.

ISSAC MERRIT AND Mrs. MERRIT

With the Merritt Players, Singer performed under the name Isaac Merritt, and Sponsler performed

under the name "Mrs Merritt"

COLLAPSE OF TROUPE

The Merritt Players toured the country until the money finally ran out. They happened

to be in Fredericksburg, Ohio, when the troupe disbanded, and Singer had to take

a job in a local print shop, where he conceived the idea of a machine to cut

wood blocks for printing images.

PROTOPYPE OF WOODCUTTER

After a short stint there, he also worked in Pittsburgh and then in New York City. In New York City, the prototype of Singer's

cutting machine was at the machine shop of A. B. Taylor & Co., but when the boiler

blew up at A. B. Taylor's, Singer's prototype was destroyed.

PROTOTYPE RECREATED

However, Orson C. Phelps, who had a machine shop in Boston, had heard about this cutting machine and invited Singer to

recreate it in his shop, where, coincidentally, Phelps also had some Lerow & Blodgett sewing machines.

SEWING MACHINESSewing machines were far from new. The

British inventor Thomas SAINT had received the world's first patent for a

sewing machine in 1790, before Singer was even born. French tailor Barthelemy THIMONNIER invented a more practical

sewing machine in 1829

WALTER HUNT’S MACHINE

It is generally recognised that US inventor Walter HUNT invented the first American

sewing machine in about 1833, but because he failed to patent it at the time,

he had trouble staking his claim

ELIAS HOWE

US inventor Elias HOWE (1819-1867) patented his sewing machine on 10

September 1846.

LEROW & BLODGET MACHINE

Isaac Singer's cutting machine was not a success, but while he was at Phelps's

shop in Boston, Singer conceived a way to improve the Lerow & Blodgett sewing machines and make them much more

practical

PATENTED

Isaac Singer received his sewing-machine patent, number 8294, on 12

August 1851

Jenny Lind Sewing Machine Company

With financing from George B. Zieber, Singer went into partnership with Zieber

and Phelps to found the "Jenny Lind Sewing Machine Company", named after

Stockholm-born soprano Jennie Lind (1820-1887), known as the "Swedish

Nightingale", who had a highly successful tour of the US in 1850-1852

COMPANY RENAMED

The company was soon renamed I. M. Singer & Co. The venture was a huge financial success, and it made Isaac

Singer a wealthy man.

Singer lived in a Fifth Avenue mansion in New York City with his "wife" Mary Ann Sponsler and their children in the 1850s

and the early 1860s.

DIVORCE FROM CATHARINE

He had finally been divorced from his first wife Catharine in 1860, having accused HER of adultery with one Stephen KENT

THIRD FAMILY

But all was not as it seemed, for Isaac Singer was again leading a double - in fact, triple - life. Singer had a "third"

family with Mary EASTWOOD WALTERS, who bore him a daughter, Alice

EASTWOOD

FOURTH FAMILY

And Singer also had a "fourth" family with Mary MCGONIGAL, an employee at his company's

factory

CLASH

She had already borne Singer five children and had set up a household with him as the MATTHEWS family, when one day Mary Ann Sponsler

saw her husband driving in a carriage with Mary openly

ARRESTED FOR BIGAMY

This embarrassment was too much for her, and Sponsler had Singer arrested for

bigamy.

RELEASED ON BAIL

He was released on bail, but his reputation was ruined, and in 1862,

Singer and Mary McGonigal sailed for Europe, where Singer would remain

for the rest of his life

SPONSLER-FOSTER

Meanwhile, Mary Ann Sponsler lost no time in marrying John E.

FOSTER in Boston in 1862

LAST MARRIAGESinger and Mary McGonigal lived first

in London, but soon Singer went to Paris, where he met Isobelle Eugenie

BOYCE SUMMERVILLE. He married her on 13 June 1865, and this

marriage endured for the rest of his life

English Riviera

The couple settled in Paignton, Devon, England, near Torquay, in the West

Country, in an area known as the "English Riviera".

OLDWAY MANSION

They bought an estate there and began to build a 115-room house known as

Oldway Mansion, seen in the photograph.

LIVING TOGETHER

Several of Singer's children by earlier liaisons came to live with him there. They

moved into this mansion as soon as it was habitable, and Singer's daughter

Alice was married there in 1875

A FACTORY

Singer established a sewing-machine factory in Scotland in 1867. It was located

at Clydebank, near Glasgow.

First American Multinationals

He also set up factories in France, near Paris, and in Brazil, at Rio de Janeiro, making the Singer company one of the first American multinationals

SINGER DIED

Singer died in Paignton on 23 July 1875, age 63 years. He was buried in Torquay.

After his death, his many children fought over his estate.

24 CHILDREN

By his five "wives", Singer fathered 24 children, of whom two had died

young. In his will, Singer acknowledged 22 children

PARIS SINGER

Isaac Singer's son Paris Singer redesigned Oldway Mansion in Versailles-like

splendour.

ISADORA DUNCAN

Paris Singer fathered a son by US modern dancer Isadora DUNCAN (1877-1927), but this son was killed in a car crash in 1913

while still a child

Elizabeth SINGER COLBY (1801-1872)

Isaac Singer had an elder sister named Elizabeth SINGER, who was born 16

July 1801 in Germany and died on 18 August 1872 in Oswego, NY

TO THE USA

When she was a toddler, she emigrated to the USA in 1803 with her parents.

THE SINGERS

On 4 December 1819 in Granby, Oswego County, NY, she married

Daniel D. COLBY. They had 13 children. She is buried in Union

Rural Cemetery in Oswego

The Song

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