Customer Reviews

A capitalist romance: Singer and the sewing machine

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A nice Biography of Isaac Singer, his Sewing Machine, and the Company that made him wealthly.
When Henry Ford was in diapers, Isaac Singer was starting the company that revolutionized not just sewing, but the retailing of manufactured products.
Singer created the first installment purchase plan, and created the first nationwide distribution system via traveling salesmand, and stores - in virtually every town in America. This book tells how it happened. From the pre-civil war inventions, through the vicious patent battles of the 1880s, the book lays out Singer's role in the manufacturing of the sewing machine. Singer's revolution allowed women to add hours of time to their lives, distilled from the former drudgery of hand sewing of clothing - and all household linens... Women instantly recognized the freedom inherent in the use of the machine, and Singer made it accessible by inventing the installment plan. For pennies a month, a woman could purchase what was then, and incredibly expensive item (The first machines sold for $100.00 and more - ). By the 1890's, over a million machine had been sold. Shortly after the turn of the century, Singer built the tallest building in the world (at the site of the World Trade Center), but his private pecadillos made him pariah in New York, where he had many mistresses, children, and, even more than one wife at one time! He moved to Paris to avoid the publicity, and died overweight, and still a reprobate!
An interesting, and little known (today) history of a company that had a huge impact on the history of this country - and especially the lives and development of women!
It's not the best written work, but a good quick read, and interesting!