A wonderful way to start the day is by receiving the Writer’s Almanac via email There is a great poem and then some incredibly well-written history and seven days a week there it is in your inbox when you wake up. Today there is some history on the patron saint of the garment industry, Isaac Singer.

Isaac Singer patented his first sewing machine on this date in 1851.

As with many famous inventors (Edison for example) Singer didn’t really invent what we think he did. He didn’t invent the sewing machine. Many people came before him on that, particularly Elias Howe who held some important patents on it.  However, Singer did some improvements that got the speed up to 900 stitches per minute which was headed in the direction of modern machines that go over 6000 stitches per minute.

Singer also very importantly did figure out how to mass produce well-functioning sewing machines, getting the price to $10 (only $300 in today’s inflated currency.)

However, perhaps the most important thing he did was figure out credit plans so that just about everyone could afford a machine and he had folks all over the country paying installments.

Sewing machines drive our industry, single needle, double needle, coverstitch, overlock…    However, as you all know, credit really drives our business.

Singer died a multi-millionaire.

And what of Elias Howe?

Actually Howe won his suit for patent infringement and in a rare happy ending to such stories, he received royalties from Singer and died a millionaire himself.