Alex Askaroff

Vickers Sewing Machines

 Turning weapons into plough shears

Now funny things happen with history. Just before the outbreak of WWI, around 1914, the giant Vickers Corporation started looking at sewing machines. The company had, throughout its history, continually diversified and expanded. At their peek the company was said to employ over 70,000 people around the country from ship building to steel castings, torpedoes to machine guns.

In fact as one of the countries largest employers they seemed to have their fingers in many pies. In the Second World War they were responsible for producing the amazing Supermarine Spitfire, which along with its Merlin Rolls Royce engine and its faithful partner, the Hurricane, helped save England in its darkest hour.

 
The plane that saved Britain in 1940 (well not this little plastic model)

In 1914 Vickers gaze fell upon an obvious sewing machine, the Frister & Rossmann. Not only were Vickers going to copy their machine they would steal their market as well. Well what could the Germans do about it? Not a lot.

Frister & Rossmann’s were being imported from Berlin by an importer called Pierssene. He must have known that importing from Germany, when they went to war, would be difficult if not impossible.  

As the great writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said, every man knew war was coming.

Pierssene possibly looked around Britain to find another manufacturer to supplement his supplies and keep his market going. His eye fell upon Vickers. It was a perfect match, he was an importer with all the designs, and they were a company that seemed to be able to make just about anything it set its mind to. After some appraisals Vickers approved the idea and a site was sought to make the machines.

An image of industrial espionage jumps to mind of the former importer running off with the plans of F&R's new machine to Vickers. Mind you that, in turn, was just a copy of a Singer-with an added reverse stitch anyway, maybe the patent laws would not cover their new model so anyone could copy it. There's no love lost in the sewing machine industry.

Now the funny thing is that Vickers and Frister & Rossmann had the same address in London of 24/25 Fore Street. So it was all above board and open. Vickers just took over where F&R left off. It could be so simple that Pierssene had arranged the whole thing as a distributor/agent who needed to secure supplies. I cannot imagine that F&R were happy about their British distributor selling an identical model to theirs but what could they do!

It did not do him any good for by 1919 Quitmann now appears as the main importer and agent for F&R machines and Pierssene all but disappears.

There were various court actions by Pierssene to carry on with the import rights to F&R but they failed and Quitmann won the day. The new firm carried on with the F&R name right up until the 1990’s. 

Time to read my History of Frister & Rossmann.

Another interesting point is that when Pierssene took over the F&R imports many years earlier from S Lowe he had his premises at 49 Fore Street, not 24/25 Fore Street, London. So he did stay at the same premises at the same time as taking on Vickers and handling F&R machines. Can you imagine the warehouse both machines stacked side by side?

Vickers was now in the sewing machine business and there was nothing the Berlin sewing machine giants could do about it. They were now the enemy and no machine with Made in Berlin stamped on the bed would sell in Britain. Buy British and be proud was the cry. 

After the Great War, to help German sales, all identification as to the origin of the German machines place of manufacture was removed.

So, this is the era that the Vickers Modele de Luxe appears. It is from this fascinating chapter in our sewing machine history that Vickers came and sadly went. 

Although their offices for the sewing machines were at Vickers House in Westminster, Vickers built a factory in Crayford, London, to handle the sewing machines. Labour and material shortages, and a massive output toward the war effort, made production of the sewing machine a long and arduous task.

However they persevered knowing that in peacetime there was little demand for machine guns but a huge demand for sewing machines. Every house in the country wanted one and even Singer could not supply the demand.

So throughout the war their head engineer Charles Edward Francis carried on with improvements to the basic model.

In October 1917 they applied for improvements to their sewing machine although it was not accepted and the patent granted until January of 1919.

Vickers 1917 patent application.

They were once again looking forward and it paid off. After hostilities ended they used a lots of the machinery that had made the Vickers weapons of war for sewing machine production. What a revelation!

*****

During the war huge advances had been made in technology but Vickers stuck with the old F&R patterns with their slight modifications to the reverse lever and shuttle (patent No 122,432). 

This was the opposite to their plane production. On the 14th of June 1919 a Vickers twin-engined Vimy Mk 4 Bomber took off from America and made the first successful crossing of the Atlantic. The Rolls Royce Eagle III engined bi-plane landed in Ireland 16 hours and 27 minutes later. Alcock & Brown had made history and also claimed the £10,000 prize offered by the Daily Mail.

We are jumping ahead we need to go back a step or two.

*****

The biggest problem the mighty Vickers Company came up against was actually making one of the smallest items, the bobbin or shuttle case. This little marvel required over 100 separate handling operations to get perfect and it had to be perfect. With a VS or Vibrating Shuttle machine the tension and smoothness of the shuttle is vital in getting a perfect stitch. Mastered by Charles Francis they were on their way.

By 1916 they were well underway with a copy of Singers model 28 VS machine, a sturdy simple machine identical, except for the reverse and winder, to Frister & Rossmann's own copy of Singers best seller, confused? you should try writing it!

Due to the war and a shortage of man-power, production was slow. Other machines, like the Vickers Machine Gun, took priority. 

A Vickers machine gun ready for action

Strangely enough the man-power solution was right in front of them. The first, war-era, sewing machines ended up being partly made by German internees who were being held in England and went to work for Vickers, returning to their camps at night. It was not forced labour, anyone not wishing to participate would be allowed to go back to camp whenever they wished.

Although Vickers had started the long setup and manufacturing process of sewing machines in 1914, their first machine was not available to view until 1917. That was at Harrods for £4. Orders could be placed for the machine that would replace Frister & Rossmann machines from the shops for more than a decade.

By 1919, with Pierssene using his old F&R connections, the machines were being supplied instead of F&R machines to shops up and down the country. When, after the war, Frister & Rossmann were allowed to import machines again they had lost a sizable chunk of their market to the British giants.

Metal that would have been made into weapons was now being made into sewing machines. The world had turned from war to peace. In the 1920’s along with flapper girls and prosperity the Vickers machines flourished.

Frister & Rossmann could not do much about the new competition and Vickers took away a precious market putting another nail in the coffin of poor old Frister's. Although the name continued, in badge form only, on many models from around the world, the Berlin factory closed in the early 1920’s.

It is worth reading my Frister & Rossmann History. Even if I say so myself!

During the 1920's and 30's Vickers sewing machines flourished but rumblings from abroad and a new dictator in Germany spelled the end of the Vickers sewing machine.

By the middle 1930's demand was so high for armaments for the next World War they shelved the poor old domestic sewing machine and concentrated on weapons, ships and planes. Just as well really or we may all be speaking German now!  

As storm clouds developed over Europe the firm that had originally made machine guns then sewing machines went back to making to weapons of war rather than of peace. That was the end of Vickers from our little sewing machine saga. And so our violent world turns.

The Vickers Mark VI Light Tank

Their sewing machines were superbly built and lasted for generations. The early models were ornately decorated and still fetch a good price today if working well.

Vicktor sewing machine by Vickers. Entirely British!

After hostilities Vickers produced a few more machines in a yellow-cream, model 7000 and the Vicktor. Really just the early black ones with a modern spray finish.

By the 1950's, with all other sewing machine companies bringing in new better machines, they became an obsolete model. Vickers did try and keep up but it was a losing battle. Foreign imports were wiping the floor with the British companies.

This was one of the last models.

Vickers factory in Maldon near Wimbledon made the machines from scratch. Rusty iron castings were delivered to the factory where workmen like Reg Ray would shot-blast them and then machine out the rough castings. Reg lost the tip of one finger on a machine so he remembers well the factory, the noise and excitement of a huge engineering works.

On Fridays a 10 ton lorry would call and be filled to the brim with new complete machines. The serial numbers were all taken and double checked. One Friday the serial numbers did not add up. One machine was missing. The whole lorry was unloaded and checked, the lorry driver had pinched one of the machines and it was in his cab!

As the 1950's rolled on production went down until Vickers finally gave up its sewing machine side.

They later sold the rights to E. Harris & Co Ltd,of Lombard Road and Morden Road, London. And to BSM who continued to market the BSM machine and made many thousands of them over the next few years in a plain boring style.

Here endeth my research friends.

A brief history of the Vickers Sewing Machine
By
Alex Askaroff

Well, I do hope you enjoyed my brief history of Vickers. Do let me know I love to hear peoples thoughts: alexsussex@aol.com

Time for a great story from the war: Spies & Spitfires a true story of one girls life.

Vickers Armstrong, Vickers Armstrong, Vickers sewing machines. Vickers Supermarine.

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

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

Alex's stories are now available to keep. Click on the picture for more information.

Home        Index         Books