34 Facts About Isaac Singer

Isaac Merritt Singer was an American inventor, actor, and businessman.

Isaac Singer made important improvements in the design of the sewing machine and was the founder of what became one of the first American multi-national businesses, the Singer Sewing Machine Company.

Isaac Singer died in 1875, dividing his $13 million fortune unequally among 20 of his living children by his wives and various mistresses, although one son, who had supported his mother in her divorce case against Isaac Singer, received only $500.

Isaac Merritt Singer was born on October 27,1811, in Pittstown, Schaghticoke, New York.

Isaac Singer was the youngest of eight children born to a German father, Adam Singer, and his American wife, Ruth Singer.

Isaac Singer's siblings were John Valentine Singer, Alexander Singer, Elizabeth Colby, Christiana Cleveland, and Elijah Singer.

Isaac Singer developed and patented a "machine for carving wood and metal" on April 10,1849.

Zieber persuaded Isaac Singer to make a new start in Boston, a center of the printing trade.

Orders for Isaac Singer's wood cutting machine were not forthcoming.

Phelps asked Isaac Singer to look at the sewing machines, which were difficult to use and produce.

Isaac Singer concluded that the sewing machine would be more reliable if the shuttle moved in a straight line rather than a circle, with a straight rather than a curved needle.

Isaac Singer was able to obtain US Patent number 8294 for his improvements on August 12,1851.

Isaac Singer invested heavily in mass production utilizing the concept of interchangeable parts developed by Samuel Colt and Eli Whitney for their firearms.

Isaac Singer was the first who put a family machine, "the turtle back", on the market.

Isaac Singer opened the factory at Clydebank with 3,500 people making 8,000 sewing machines a week on average.

In 1941, the factory and area was severely damaged in the 'Clydebank Blitz' when at least 35,000 homes were damaged and 500 people, including 39 Isaac Singer workers were killed.

In 1871, Isaac Singer purchased an estate and settled with Isabella in Paignton, Devon, England.

Isaac Singer commissioned the 110-roomed Oldway Mansion as his private residence, with a hall of mirrors, maze and grotto garden; it was rebuilt by Paris Singer, his third son from Isabella, in the style of the Palace of Versailles.

Isaac Singer's prototype sewing machine became the first to work in a practical way.

In 1911, most of the mainly female workforce at the Clydebank Isaac Singer factory went on strike in support of 12 workers who had objected to increased workload and lower pay conditions imposed.

The Isaac Singer Strike was one of the key actions leading to protests known as Red Clydeside.

In 1830, at nineteen, Isaac Singer married fifteen-year-old Catherine Maria Haley.

In 1860, Isaac Singer divorced Catherine on the basis of her adultery with Stephen Kent.

In 1836, while still married to Catherine, Isaac Singer began a 25-year affair with Mary Ann Sponsler.

Together, Mary Ann and Isaac Singer had ten children, two of whom died at birth, including:.

Financial success allowed Isaac Singer to buy a mansion on Fifth Avenue, into which he moved his second family.

Isaac Singer continued to live with Mary Ann, until she spotted him driving down Fifth Avenue seated beside Mary McGonigal, an employee, about whom Mary Ann already had suspicions.

Reportedly, Isaac Singer had an affair with McGonigal's sister, Kate McGonigal.

Together, Mary McGonigal and Isaac Singer were the parents of seven children, two of whom died at birth, including:.

Isaac Singer was let out on bond and, disgraced, fled to London in 1862, taking Mary McGonigal with him.

Isaac Singer, meanwhile, had renewed acquaintance with Isabella Eugenie Boyer, a nineteen year old Frenchwoman, whom he had lived with in Paris when he was staying there in 1860.

Isaac Singer left her husband and married Isaac, who was by now fifty, under the name of Isabella Eugenie Sommerville on June 13,1863, while she was pregnant.

Isaac Singer died in 1875, shortly after the wedding of his daughter by Mary Eastwood Walters, Alice, whose dress had cost as much as a London apartment.

Isaac Singer's funeral was an elaborate affair with eighty horse-drawn carriages, and around 2,000 mourners, to see him buried locally in Torquay Cemetery, at his request in three layers of coffin and a marble tomb.