This is the story of a born mechanical engineer. How he tried various ways for earning a livelihood. How he utilised his capabilities as a machinist. How he engaged himself in a theater. How he made his fortune etc. Please read and draw inspiration to build up a successful career.

1. Story of a born
MECHANICAL ENGINEER

2. SINGER’S STORY
Babu Appat

3. Isaac Merritt Singer
most famous now for his invention
of the Singer sewing machine -
yet many had patented sewing
machines before him.

4. 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.

5. Economics
For 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.

6. LIFESTYLE
Even so, during his lifetime, the
flamboyant Singer was as well
known for his unconventional
lifestyle as for his sewing
machines

7. BIRTH
Isaac 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.

8. FATHER
Adam 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).

10. CHANGING LIFE
When 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

11. WORK
Isaac 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

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

13. MARRIAGE
In 1830, Isaac Singer married for
the first time. His bride was
Catharine Maria HALEY. The
couple moved to New York City,
possibly in 1831;

14. MARRIED LIFE
They 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

15. 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

16. BUSINESS
It is here that Isaac Singer perhaps first
made the acquaintance of Edward
CLARK, his legal counsel and eventual
business partner.*

17. CHILDREN
Isaac Singer and Catharine Maria
Haley had two children: William
SINGER, born in 1834, and Lillian
SINGER, born in 1837

18. DRAMA TROUPE
By 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:

19. 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

20. FIRST PATENT
In 1839, Singer received his first
patent. It was for a rock-drilling
machine, and it earned him
$2,000.

21. MERRIT PLAYERS
Singer used this money to found
his own acting troupe, the
"Merritt Players", with Mary Ann
Sponsler.

22. SECOND MARRIAGE
Singer, not free to remarry legally,
entered into a common-law marriage
with Sponsler, who went on to bear
him 10 children.

23. ISSAC MERRIT AND
Mrs. MERRIT
With the Merritt Players, Singer
performed under the name Isaac
Merritt, and Sponsler performed
under the name "Mrs Merritt"

24. 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.

25. 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.

26. 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.

27. SEWING MACHINES
Sewing 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

28. 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

29. ELIAS HOWE
US inventor Elias HOWE (1819-1867)
patented his sewing machine on 10
September 1846.

30. 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

31. PATENTED
Isaac Singer received his sewing-
machine patent, number 8294, on 12
August 1851

32. 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

33. 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.

34. 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.

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

36. 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

37. FOURTH FAMILY
And Singer also had a "fourth"
family with Mary MCGONIGAL,
an employee at his company's
factory

38. 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

39. ARRESTED FOR BIGAMY
This embarrassment was too much for her,
and Sponsler had Singer arrested for
bigamy.

40. 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

41. SPONSLER-FOSTER
Meanwhile, Mary Ann Sponsler
lost no time in marrying John E.
FOSTER in Boston in 1862

42. LAST MARRIAGE
Singer 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

43. English Riviera
The couple settled in Paignton, Devon,
England, near Torquay, in the West
Country, in an area known as the "English
Riviera".

44. OLDWAY MANSION
They bought an estate there and began to
build a 115-room house known as
Oldway Mansion, seen in the
photograph.

46. 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

47. A FACTORY
Singer established a sewing-machine
factory in Scotland in 1867. It was located
at Clydebank, near Glasgow.

48. 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

49. 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.

50. 24 CHILDREN
By his five "wives", Singer fathered 24
children, of whom two had died
young. In his will, Singer
acknowledged 22 children

51. PARIS SINGER
Isaac Singer's son Paris Singer redesigned
Oldway Mansion in Versailles-like
splendour.

52. 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

53. 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

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

55. 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

56. The Song

57. THANK YOU
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