How to determine the year of manufacture of the Singer sewing machine. Serial numbers of Singer sewing machines

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

Everyone remembers the dedication of Vladimir Mayakovsky: "To Comrade Netta, the ship and the man." In the same way, for everyday consciousness, an old sewing machine and its creator Isaac Singer "merged" in the name Singer. Moreover, the exquisite vintage technique over time pushed the portrait of the owner of the production into the background.

The highest reliability of all structural components allows, even after more than a century, to give out the perfect line, working with any materials - from the finest fabrics to rough leather. By no means idle is the owner's interest in how to determine the year of manufacture of the Singer sewing machine.

Mr. Singer, sewing machine and businessman

The accuracy and punctuality of the manufacturer of equipment will help us when, armed with patience and turning to the help of a universal modern friend - the Internet, we determine the year of manufactureSinger sewing machine. How, you ask? Very simple! "All moves are written down," as one notorious literary hero used to say. Detailed "talmuds" with serial numbers of black beauties seamstresses were carefully stored in the accounting departments of the Singer company, and then, in an abbreviated form, were transferred to the Web for all curious owners, collectors and hunters of old sewing equipment.

Of all the logs of the accounting register, only documents dated from 1851 (the year of the first production of the famous typewriter) to 1870 turned out to be inaccessible to analysts. Such scrupulous detailing of documents for the past century and a half does honor to any production! Therefore, let's say "thank you" to the talented inventor and his successors for the opportunity to satisfy the thirst for knowledge on the question: "How to determine the year of manufacture of the Singer sewing machine?"

Amazing production volumes

From the information provided, we can learn, for example, that already at the beginning of 1871 the serial number of sewing equipment leaving the conveyor was 611,000, at the beginning of the next year - 914,000, in 1973 - 964,000 and so on. As you can see, the demand for cars was not the same in different periods, and the circulation of their release changed from year to year, was not a constant value.

The millionth Singer was released already in 1873, the two millionth copy dates back to the end of 1875, the ten millionth was produced in 1891. 1899, penultimate in a century,ended at 16 831 099.

Singer affiliates

In addition to solving the question: "How to determine the year of manufacture of the Singer sewing machine?"

Letters M, P correspond to production in Scotland, N - in American New Jersey (city of Elizabeth). Since 1904, the marking B has been added for the American factory (a little more than one and a half million sewing machines were produced under it).

We are interested in the numbers of Russian-made vehicles in Podolsk that appeared in 1906, starting with the letter S, T (from 1908 it was replaced by the letter E, from 1911 - A). In addition to Podolsk, Singer branches existed in Prussian Witenberg, as well as in the state of Connecticut (the city of Bridgeport).

Obviously, for example, a 1904 Singer sewing machine can only be foreign-made, most likely American. The Singer Manufacturing Company (which existed since 1863) was present on the Russian market five years after the abolition of serfdom. The high cost of shipping equipment from overseas prompted thirty-five years later to establish production in Podolsk. Construction began in 1900, but initially, from 1902, the factory produced only individual parts for family sewing machines.

Doubling letters

In the 1920s, mass production prompted the labeling of products with numbers preceded by a two-letter code. Factories were built inBogota Colombia, Buenos Aires, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Quebec Canada, Australia, Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines. The nearest production facilities to Russia were located in the German Karsruhe, the Italian city of Monza, the French Bonnieres, in Istanbul, Pakistan.

In the US, another plant opens in South Carolina (Anderson) during this period, in addition to the traditional production in New Jersey.

History of the Russian Singer

The director of the enterprise built in Podolsk until the very revolution of 1917 was the engineer W alter Frank Dixon who built it. In 1913, with which it is customary to compare all the successes of Soviet construction, the daily production of sewing machines amounted to 2,500 per day, over 600,000 per year. The company enjoyed all the preferences of the Supplier of the Court of His Imperial Majesty. Its turnover increased seven times against the original, 3,000 branded stores were opened throughout Russia, the total staff of which exceeded 20,000 people. Products that were not inferior in quality to foreign ones were provided to the domestic buyer on an installment plan. That is why the Singer sewing machine is still found in almost every family.

The Podolsky plant in the early years of Soviet power produced small consumer goods - cast irons, coal-fired irons, openers and frying pans. Later, it was again transformed into the only enterprise in the Union that produced Podolsk sewing machines, and in 1994 returned to the bosom of the Singer company. Production efficiency is supported by cooperation with the transnational corporation "Semi-Tech".

Myths and the true story of "Singer"

The problem of how to determine the year of manufacture of the Singer sewing machine has not only an altruistic-historical aspect, but also a noticeable "tinge of treasure hunting." There is a myth that individual parts of the mechanism (in particular, the shaft) were created by designers from rare valuable metals (palladium and the like).

Possessing such an enviable rarity, apparently of family value, do not trust people who are suitable to "examine" it with a magnet in their hands in the expectation that the non-ferrous materials of the sewing machine will not show the properties of attraction.

Metals other than iron are found mainly in the frame of a limited edition foot sewing machine manufactured in the mid-30s. Their high molybdenum content makes them somewhat more valuable "scrap".

The tendency to sensationalism, characteristic of a society in a state of unrest, has led to the publication in the domestic press of another false information that some serial numbers of Singer sewing machines, lost precisely in Russia, promise their owners a prize of $ 1 million. It seems that there is no point in debunking such children's fables.

The truth is that in the merchant environment of our pre-revolutionary Fatherland, the idea has matured to produce under the same brand of their own, much lower qualitycounterfeit, the speed of which and the reliability of the nodes left much to be desired. The sign of a genuine "Singer" is an oval copper plate with the inscription "Tne Singer Manfg Co" placed on the frame. An individual number that starts with a letter of the Latin alphabet should be searched on the board.

It is worth checking the performance of your sewing machine by calling the master to adjust the mechanisms. After all, even the inventor Isaac Singer himself once spent a whole day "fighting" over the first, newly assembled brainchild, trying to get a perfectly even line. It turned out that the engineer, due to fatigue, simply forgot to adjust the tension of the upper thread. Perhaps bringing your rare item back to working order is also worth the bare minimum of effort!