Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Singer, Isaac Merritt

SINGER, Isaac Merritt, inventor, b. in Oswego, N. Y., 27 Oct., 1811; d. in Torquay, England, 23 July, 1875. He was a machinist, and devoted himself entirely to the study of improving sewing-machines. After years of close application he succeeded in completing a single-thread, chain-stitch machine, for which he received a patent. In the early part of his career he was assisted by Edward Clark, a wealthy lawyer, by whose aid he was enabled to establish a factory in New York. The Howe sewing-machine company sued him for infringing on their patents, but the matter was finally compromised. He then had some difficulty with Mr. Clark, in consequence of which, while each retained an equal interest in the machine, its manufacture was placed in the hands of a company. Mr. Singer soon became wealthy, and, leaving this country, resided for some time in Paris, but later removed to England, where he lived in a curiously constructed house that he built in Torquay.