Isaac Singer

A brief history of a giant

 
Isaac Merritt Singer

What a man! When I first started, as a child, to hear stories about Isaac Singer I was enthralled. He had lived the American dream. A true rags to riches story. They say a few men are touched by fire in their lives, Isaac was one of these men.

Other books will blind you with facts, figures and endless dates. Let me tell you about the man who became a household name and his invention that changed the world.

Isaac Merritt Singer was the youngest of eight children. His father, Adam, was possibly of German-Jewish origin as there was a Jewish family in his hometown of Frankfurt, Germany, known as the Reisingers.

Isaac’s father arrived in New York in 1769 at the age of 16. This German immigrant had arrived in America to find a dream. Little did he know that his youngest son would fulfil that dream!

Who would believe that even today people sailing to America set eyes on one of Isaac’s wives! Yes, one of the first sights they see when nearing Ellis Island is the Statue of Liberty, is supposedly modelled on the most beautiful woman in 19^th century Europe , Singer’s half-French wife and actress, Isabella. Read on...

Gustav Eiffel, of Eiffel Tower fame, in Paris, built the structure in 1885. It enables Bartholdi’s Statue of Liberty to stand proud, welcoming people from all over the world.

Bartholdi originally asked his mother to sit for the statue but she could, or would, not stay still enough for long periods. Then he asked Jeanne-Emile Baheux de Puysiex a woman he met he while holidaying in America. She later became his wife. However it is still Isabella, the French actress, said to be the most beautiful woman in Europe, that is rumoured finally sat for the statue.

Bartholdi’s Statue of Liberty,  possibly Singer’s wife Isabella!

Even as an old man, Isaac Singer's charm and wealth attracted beautiful women and Isabella was his last conquest. As a young man, by all accounts, he had the devil in him. He was a renowned womanizer and father to at least 28 children by several wives and countless lovers. However, I am jumping ahead. He has many miles to go and many hardships to face before he makes his millions.

Isaac's father, Adam Singer, set up business as a wheelwright and barrel maker, or cooper, married and started a family. History tells us that lived until 1855. He was 102, an amazing fact for the hard frontier life of those days.

Isaac’s mother, Ruth, left the family home when Isaac was a child to become a Quaker. It is said that in later years Adam Singer at the age of 99 went to find Ruth, possibly to tell her of the fortune their youngest son was making. He tracked her down in Albany , NY , only to find that, at the age of 96, she had passed away shortly before his arrival!

I am not sure about the reliability of these dates as they do seem extreme and mean that Ruth must have had Isaac when she was in her 50s. I suppose it is possible, there was little birth control. Maybe Isaac’s birth was the last straw for Ruth?

In the history books Isaac Singer seems to have been born in several locations in the New York area. One humorous solution was that Ruth had a slow birth in a fast wagon! However for our story we will go for the most likely town.

Some say Isaac was born in the small frontier town of Schaghticoke , NY, in 1811, some say Pittstown. His dad Adam was already nearly 60! Although the family moved away it would be back in New York City , many years later, that Isaac made an indelible mark on American history, building one of the first skyscrapers and one of the largest buildings in the world at that time.

Adam Singer remarried but Isaac never connected with his stepmother. Isaac now in Oswego must have had a hard childhood for, by the age of 12 and still a young boy, he slipped his running shoes on and ran as far away from home as he could.

There is little detail of his early years. It must have been hard on the road at such a tender age. What would make a child run from home is anybody’s guess. He probably stayed with some of his older brothers who had left home earlier. There are tales that he worked part-time and paid for rudimentary schooling between jobs as a mechanic and carpenter.

So how did the most famous name in the sewing world get into the sewing business? Isaac was smart, cunning and ruthless. He had to be to survive on the streets of 19^th century America. America was a bustling mass with immigrants flooding in and prosperity blooming. There were endless opportunities for those willing to grasp them.

After a few years in the wilderness Isaac reappears in history. He had learned the trades of mechanic and cabinetmaker. Two trades that later would combine to his benefit and make him one of the richest men in the world.

He was also a showman. He thought of himself as an accomplished actor landing himself the role of Richard III with a group of travelling actors when he was only 19.

As a handsome young man, with an inventive mind, we find Isaac at the age of 28 having invented a machine for drilling and excavating rock. He had no use for his invention and sold it for a year’s wages.

With his new wealth he quickly put it to use and followed his first love—acting. He formed a group of actors called the Merritt Players and off they went around America treading the boards. Of course it was not long before his money ran out and he was back to working for a living. His first attempt at the American dream had failed but he was not finished, not by a long way.

Isaac could charm the socks of anyone, as one hotel manager remembered. Isaac, his wife and children arrived at the hotel penniless. Isaac performed for the guests to pay for board. When Isaac packed to leave the hotelier even gave him some money. He last saw the family heading out of town, into the wilderness on a buckboard.

In Fredericksburg, PA, his inventive mind was at work again, this time in inventing a wooden printer’s type. Don’t ask me what that was, I haven’t a clue! It was obviously not all that successful because, with all of Isaac’s powers of persuasion, he never managed to sell it. However it did lead to his greatest invention.

Isaac was a practical man with vision but he had a poor academic education. His writing, in later life, shows how much difficulty he had spelling even the simplest words. This did not slow the master showman down. His intellect was undeniable, even at a young age, by his being able to quote great chunks of Shakespeare at the drop of a hat. Always one for smooth-talking the handsome young actor and inventor wheeled and dealed his way through life.

By 1850 Isaac had rented a basement at 19 Harvard Place, Boston, MA. He tried in vain to sell his printing invention but once again failed to find a buyer. However, the light was at the end of the tunnel. He had rented his basement from a sewing-machine manufacturer called Phelps. Phelps made not very good sewing machines under licence for Lerow & Blodgett. None of them saw the huge potential in sewing machines that Isaac did.

Phelps asked Singer to repair many of the machines that kept coming back faulty. In fact very few of the machines sewed well in those days. While working on the machines it became clear to Singer’s inventive mind that improvements were necessary. Once again he went to work.

He raised $40 in capital from one of his associates, a Mr Zieber. The story goes that the money came about from a bet between the two men. Zieber was onto a good thing. If Isaac did make a sewing machine that worked he would get his money back and much more if Isaac failed-Zieber would win his bet!

The stage was set.

Isaac had just enough spare money to now have a go at making a practical machine. Something that, in the entire history of the world, had not yet been done.

Men had tried through the ages to make a good sewing machine but all had shortcomings. Supposedly ignorant of many of the patents of the time Isaac went to work. 

At last the first practical sewing machine was being built in a basement by a 39-year-old who still had a passion to make a fortune and, of course, win his bet.

Burning the midnight oil working on an invention that changed the world

Isaac’s versions of events were naturally flamboyant. In later life he often told of how he worked tirelessly for eleven days and eleven nights building the machine. How he went without food and grabbed only a few snatches of sleep. That may be true. Whatever the story the result was the same, a sewing machine that actually sewed.

After a few minor hiccups Isaac packed up his sewing machine and headed for the patent office in New York. Against all the odds he had come up with the first reliable and practical sewing machine. His only problem was that he had infringed several patents doing it. His worst nightmare came true when he found himself in court against one of the most powerful men in America, Elias Howe.

Howe had successfully been charging all the other sewing machine manufacturers for the use of his patents and Isaac Singer, the poor upstart, was going to be no exception. Although Howe had a rocky start in the sewing machine business, he had made his money suing everyone who had used some of his patented ideas. It is well worth reading his history by my fair hand. Elias Howe

One day Howe spotted one of Isaac’s machines being demonstrated in a shop window and immediately went in to complain. Isaac was there and an argument ensued, Isaac nearly booted him out of the shop. Howe left flustered and angry. He was used to manipulating others not being pushed around. He vowed Singer would pay!  

Isaac's first machines were monsters to move but produced a reliable stitch. 

Years later Howe tried to get Congress to allow him to extend, once again, his patent rights. Howe stated that the huge sums that he had made out of his patents were not enough. Needless to say popular opinion of him was not the same. Later Howe hired writers to boost his colourful version of the sewing machine saga.

Singer used all his talent and cunning to avoid Howe’s costs. Isaac’s machines came onto the market at $125, a fantastic and impossible sum for most normal families.

Isaac no longer needed his old partners, he needed a legal brain. Firstly to fight his court case with Howe and secondly to figure out how people could afford his machine. Into our story comes Edward Clark who instantly sees a huge potential in the new venture.

Isaac bullied Phelps, one of his partners, out. Then, in a brilliant move, he conned the other.

Clarke watched while Isaac did the dirty on both of his old partners. It appears that Clark was more than happy for them to be removed from what was to become such a huge financial boom, all he had to do was wait till Isaac needed him most and then strike a deal. Clark had no money to invest but he had something more precious to Isaac, legal talent!

Zieber was in failing health, probably due to the pressure Isaac was putting him under. The story goes that Isaac went to his bedside and promised he would look after Zieber’s family after his death. All he had to do was sign over his shares. Isaac would even give him $6000 to give to his offspring! (a huge amount) It seemed too good to miss. If only he could have seen the future! He was about to make the biggest mistake of his life...

No sooner had Zieber signed the shares over than Isaac hires the best doctors of the period to spare no expense in curing him. Zieber recovered!

In a stroke of devious genius Isaac had most of his business back and for what would become a pittance of the companies wealth. Zieber ended up working for Isaac as an employee, which he did, reluctantly, for many years.

It is extraordinary to think that Isaac could have been so cold blooded. Isaac and Zieber had been through so much together. When the pair had first met, according to Zieber, Isaac hardly had a shirt on his back, his jacket was torn at the elbows and he had not eaten. Zieber had clothed and fed Isaac and spent many hours with him talking of living the dream. Between them, they had been through great hardships. Zieber had also borrowed heavily to invest in Isaac and helped him in endless ways.

Isaac’s deed showed his ruthless side where money was concerned. This was the side that many felt when crossing the man that had grown up fast and hard.

However, he did not have it all his own way for the brilliant legal mind of Edward Clark was a match for Isaac’s more forceful tactics. Clark agreed to fight Howe in court, for a huge lump of Isaac’s business. Isaac, now pretty much penniless and in desperate need for money, had little option but to agree.

After all of Isaac’s cunning work, Clark got half his business without putting in a cent.

The partnership turned out to be one of the most successful in sewing history and, although they obviously did not trust each other, they both needed each other. They became uneasy bedfellows.

Incidentally, Isaac, with his persuasive manner also managed to get some of Elias Howe’s sewing machine competitors to refuse to pay the huge licence fees that Howe was demanding. This enraged the pompous Howe who went around to see Singer. He told him the demand for his patent had changed from $2000 to $25 000. Once again a heated argument ensued and Howe was shown the door. The stage was set for years of legal wrangling and court cases.

This is where Clark earned his share of the business. Not only did he keep Howe’s lawyers tied up in court but he devised the first official hire purchase scheme. Everyday people who could not afford $125 for a Singer machine could pay $3 per month for their sewing machines and so the never-never was born. Clark also devised multiple or group purchases where several people could get together to buy one machine.  

This genuine hire purchase slip, one of a whole book,  would have the amount paid monthly cut off the top. Some people paid for 15 years for one machine!

Of course for hundreds of years before Clark there had been bartering and exchange, money lending and part-payment, but it was Clarke who really did the paperwork and made it part of  our everyday life. Who remembers the Tallyman or knocker? He would turn up once a week or at the end of the month to get his payments on borrowed money. He would lend money for Tommy’s new shoes or a bicycle for the hubby, a little extra at Christmas. A million Tallymans kept their books of payments and travelled around the poorer communities of the world before Clarke’s scheme.

Eventually Howe beat Singer in court and Singer had to pay Howe huge sums. By then Singer had the money to pay, so it was painful but no real hardship. I keep jumping ahead, slow down boy.

Howe then gave up suing everyone and, on legal advice, joined the enemy. All the patent holders pooled their patents and joined The Sewing Machine Cartel. For the first time in history, in 1857, patent-pooling happened. This was really an illegal monopoly that ended up needing government legislation to bring to a halt. I can just imagine the table where they all met. They had been suing each other for years but money had made them uneasy bedfellows.

However, the all-powerful Sewing Machine Cartel had years of suing all fledgling sewing machine companies. This allowed the few to dominate sewing machine production for years and become rich, stifling most American competition.

Once again we are jumping ahead, Isaac is not  quite out of the woods, he still cannot afford a new suit. In addition he makes mistakes. He failed to notice that the treadle cabinet, that he made to stow his machine in and on which it is used, is unique. He was beaten to the patent office and missed out on patenting the treadle base of his machine.

Isaac was on the verge of untold wealth but if was not an easy ride.

Why buy a sewing machine? None of them had ever worked properly before! Why buy a Singer? Who was Singer? Certainly not the household name he is today.

This is where Isaac’s superb salesmanship comes into action. Much like before, in his acting career, he packed up his machine and he and his entourage hit the road. He goes to shows, to theatres, to factories and displays—"Gather round ladies and gentlemen, come see the future!"

He tirelessly demonstrates his amazing invention that not only stitches but is also guaranteed to stitch for 12 months without failure!

All of his acting skills, used to promote his machine, start to pay off. The master showman has a great publicity stunt up his sleeve. He goes to one of the largest sewing factories in America with the Press in tow. Here he has a race with not one—or two—but three of the fastest hand-sewing girls in a factory of over 3000 staff.

He unpacks his sewing machine and off they go. By the end of the race not only has he beaten all three girls but the machine has worked flawlessly and with the much stronger lockstitch. The press were impressed, the factory was too—placing an immediate order for the machines.

Incidentally, rumour has it that some of the women in the early pictures, that Singer used to promote his sewing machine, were also his mistresses!

Was this one of Singer's mistresses?

Unlike Walter Hunt, an earlier inventor of a sewing machine, Isaac knew he was on to a winner and would not let Hell or high water get in his way. They say Hunt’s daughter had actually put Hunt off his invention. She feared that thousands of women would find themselves out of work if he went ahead with making a sewing machine.

The facts turned out to be quite the opposite, creating a whole new industry and cheaper clothes for the masses. Once Isaac set up a demonstration just along the road from the famous P T Barnum. More people flocked to Singers demonstration than Barnum’s museum on Broadway.

Isaac, after struggling for most of his life, had finally come of age and so had the sewing machine. Almost single-handed, with bloody determination and against all the odds Isaac had ushered in the dawn of the sewing machine industry.

Machines started to sell at an amazing rate. For the first time in history, in America, proper mass production was going on. The new age had arrived, which affected not only sewing machines but also more deadly inventions such as firearms! It is said that both Samuel Colt and Oliver Winchester gained knowledge for their mass production of arms from the sewing machine industry.

The money started rolling in. As word spread about the reliability of Singers machines that had previously sold slowly were moving faster and faster. Isaac soon moved out of his workshops and looked for bigger premises as 10 machines turned into a 100 then a 1000. From his earnings Singer could pay of Howe's court rulings.

Edward Clark’s clever hire purchase plan also helped tremendously and was copied by all the other sewing-machine makers of the day and then by just about every company in the world. Clarke also drew up a plan to trade-in old machines for new ones at a ridiculously high rate of $40 per trade. All old machines were quickly destroyed to stop them being resold. This policy continued right up to the 1960s and many Singer shops had presses in their storerooms to crush old machines. I know for sure that the Singer shop in Eastbourne , my hometown, had a seven-ton press in the basement for crushing competitors machines.

At last, Isaac’s machine, that he had invented-copied-made was to revolutionise the world and provide him untold wealth until his death. He had become the first Bill Gates.

His bank balance, along with is waistline, expanded rapidly. Isaac was a flamboyant and good-looking man at his peak—and now had money rolling in beyond his wildest dreams. He let Clark run most of the daily grind of their business while he set about enjoying the fruits of his labour.

By 1860 Singer’s factory had produced over 13,000 machines at $125 a piece. At a time when the average wage was a few dollars a week it was already a fortune! He could not spend the money as fast as he was earning it. Within a few years the company was making over a million machines a year.

Isaac went on to embrace the good life. He had a string of mistresses and wives. He managed his affairs with little privacy and gave the papers of the day wonderful print material. As his wealth grew so did his excesses, especially where women were concerned.

His offspring rose in number, almost by the month. Many say that he had at least 28 children by a dozen or more wives and mistresses. He was even married to two women, and keeping a mistress, all at the same time! In the same city— New York! The real figure of his offspring will never be known.

How he managed to keep his intriguing life going is anybody’s guess! He was burning the candle at both ends and loving it!

It is all too possible that he was over-compensating for his very hard start in life. Now, not only could he afford a new suit, he could buy the shop!

Isaac did everything in style. He had the grandest and most expensive parties, loved dancing and telling tales of his days of struggle and hardship. It is said that he even travelled to work in a specially commissioned coach. Bright yellow, 30 feet long and pulled by twelve black horses. He would ride up Central Park to his magnificent office. Everyone would know who was coming and children would often run along beside his carriage shouting to him in the hope of a few coins.

The Singer building, the world's first skyscraper over 600ft high finally finished in 1908.

Within a few short years he was the figurehead of a multi-national company that was expanding to every country. Singer machines were being carted across African deserts and up the Amazon with new agents appearing in every town. In the larger towns there would be several agents and shops all selling Singer machines.  

Incidentally, Singer never made any sewing machines for anyone except Singer. This was unlike most of the other companies who were only to happy to put any name you wanted on the front of a machine if you bought enough of them.

Eventually it all caught up with him. His constant womanising, touring and a series of scandals turned many Americans against him. Their favourite son became ostracised from society and scandalised in the papers. Rude-mouthed, hot-tempered and arrogant. The women obviously loved it though in reality he had a dark and dangerous side!

Clark, constantly embarrassed by Isaac, came to him with a deal that allowed Isaac to retire and spend his wealth on one condition—that he departed America, this time for good! Clark ’s wife was delighted she was deeply religious and had always hated the man. She would not even let him step inside her house.

Before Isaac left he was once again courting (surprise, surprise) however, the woman had a daughter and the daughter was even prettier. Isaac turned all his charm and wealth on her. She was Isabella a half-French half-English beauty. Described as the most beautiful woman in Europe .

Singer wasted no time in enticing her or maybe it was the other way around—who knows for sure! There is no doubt that the divorced beauty was a spectacular catch for him and, with his wealth, charm and looks how could she resist?  

Before long Isabella was installed in Isaac’s Fifth Avenue home and fell pregnant. Isaac had trouble with one of his divorces but, finally, married a very heavily-pregnant Isabella. Because they had to leave America the obvious place was Paris, France, where he had first met Isabella and the city their son was named after.

Singers last residence in the United States was in a home nicknamed the "Castle" that Singer had built in Yonkers , New York . Not to be confused with the "Castle" that Singer Company president Frederick Bourne built on Dark Island. Isaac Singer and family, Isabella and children, lived in Yonkers for about two years before finally leaving for Paris in 1867.  

It must have been a sad day when Isaac and his new family set sail for Europe. He left behind his American dream and looked to the future in a foreign land. 

He had been to England a few years earlier but, strangely enough, found the life in London boring.

At 53, Isaac, and his entourage, toured Europe before settling down in Paris. Their address in Paris was No.83 Boulevard Malherbes. However, things were not to be and three years later, in 1870, the Franco-Prussian war erupted. Isaac packed up and headed for the safety of England .

After a stay in London, where he was the centre of society, the family settled in the West of England. Isaac laid plans for a grand house and gardens—palatial by all standards—with the most magnificent circular ballroom that he quaintly called the Wigwam.

Oldway Manor Paignton, England

The doors were large enough to allow a coach and horses straight in to unload, out of the rain, so as not to spoil the ladies’ evening gowns. The Wigwam is still there, as is his house, now council offices. Well worth a visit if you are ever in the vicinity of Paignton down the West Country.

While he may have been shunned by America the wealth that he brought to England was most welcome. He employed hundreds of local workmen on his palace and became a popular sight around the town of Paignton. Isaac settled into his retirement with ease, enjoying his family and wealth.

Isaac in his prime

In July 1875 at the age of 64, Isaac died of heart failure. All the hardships of his early struggles had taken their toll, as had his over-indulgences in later life. 

He was deeply mourned and his funeral was almost like a state funeral with nearly 80 black carriages pulled by horses, some specially shipped in from France. Thousands of mourners and onlookers lined the streets as the procession slowly marched to his final resting place.

Isaac never lived to see his precious Wigwam completed.

Isaac's final resting place

And so, the most famous of all entrepreneurs was dead. He had blazed a trail that would never be followed, had lived life to the full and had enjoyed every moment.

I say never to be followed, let me tell you why. While Isaac’s early life was spent in obscurity his final years were spent in a blaze of wealth and publicity.

On most graves there are dates, birth and death. It is the little space between those dates that mean everything, the simple space that is the entire life of a person.

He really did start from nothing with little more than the clothes on his back. He really was what the American Dream was all about. The son of an immigrant, he made the first good sewing machine in history—whatever other makers tell you. He started proper mass production, pioneered hire purchase, oversaw the first patent pooling and had one of the first truly multi-national companies employing nearly 100,000 people. Singer machines were the first mass-marketed domestic appliance in the world.

Singer’s machine may just go down in history as the most useful invention of the 19^th century.

Singer was the first company to spend over one million dollars on advertising in one year. This, along with superb machines like the singer 12k, New Family machine of 1865 made Singer machines world leaders.

$1,000,000 advertising in one year!

The company later built one of the first skyscrapers that really did seem to touch the sky and, in his spare time, Singer fathered at least two-dozen children. In his lifetime his name was known by more people across the globe than any other person in history. What a simply amazing fact. Moreover, when he died as a grey haired old man, he was married to the most beautiful woman in Europe .  

 
I love some of the early ad's

Later, Clark sent his cousin and Ross Mc Kenzie over to Britain to build the largest sewing machine factory the world had ever seen at Kilbowie, Clydebank.

The factory had its own docks, shipyard, railways and even forests for wood. At its peak the factory employed around 14,000 workmen. One of the problems of getting men to work on time in the 19^th century was solved when Singers built the largest clock in the world, larger than Big Ben. Everyone in the valley could look out their windows and see the time. There was no reason to be late again. Clark continued to successfully run the Singer Company for many years.

The massive Singer factory at Kilbowie, Clydebank with the huge clock tower bigger than Big Ben

In his will, Isaac generously split his enormous wealth among his many children, wives and mistresses. There were several claims by other children for money. They ended up in protracted court cases. Had DNA testing been around we may have found out just to what extent Isaac was a ladies’ man!  

50 years on the throne, reason to celebrate!

They say Isabella modelled for Bartholdi’s Statue of Liberty before marrying a poor but very handsome Italian Count. Several of his wealthy children went on to marry into high society, some into the European royal families. Some took up important positions around the world. A few even carried on in their father’s ways. 

Paris Singer had an affair and a child with the famous dancer and actress, Isadora Duncan, before losing much of his wealth in the 1929 stock market crash.

All in all, the Singer name became synonymous with wealth and power. Not bad for a little runaway.

Now you see why I started this story by saying what a man!

Now who’s got the film rights!  

The End  

I hope you enjoyed my story please do let me know. alexsussex@aol.com 

Now buy the booklet $10, USA or £5. 

Fancy a good read: Ena Wilf  & The One-Armed Machinist

A brilliant slice of 1940's life: Spies & Spitfires

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                                                  © 2008

A short history of Isaac Merritt Singer, a legend in his own time.

Isaac Singer