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

Everyone commemorates Vladimir Mayakovsky: "To Comrade Nett, steamer and man." In the same way, for an ordinary consciousness, the old sewing machine and its creator Isaac Singer "grew together" in the name of Singer. Moreover, the exquisite vintage technique has, over time, pushed aside the portrait of the owner of production.

The highest reliability of all structural units allows even after a century or so to give out the perfect line, working with any materials - from the finest fabrics to rough leather. It is by no means idle that the owner is interested in how to determine the year of the sewing machine "Singer".

Mr. Singer, a sewing machine and a businessman

Accuracy and punctuality of the equipment manufacturer will help us, when we, armed with patience and turning to the help of a general modern friend - the Internet, determine the year of the Singer sewing machine. You ask, how? Very simple! "All moves are recorded," as one well-known literary hero said. Detailed "Talmuds" with serial numbers of black beauties-beloshwesk were accurately kept in the accounts department of the Singer company, and then, in a reduced form, were transferred to the Web for all curious owners, collectors and hunters after the old sewing equipment.

Of all the logs of the register of accounts, only documents, dating from 1851 (the year of the first release of the famous typewriter) for the 1870s, were inaccessible to analysts. Such scrupulous detailing of documents for a century and a half makes an honor to any production! Therefore, let us say to the talented inventor and his successors "thanks" for the opportunity to satisfy the thirst for knowledge on the question: "How to determine the year of the sewing machine" Singer "?"

Amazing production volumes

From the information provided, we can learn, for example, that already at the beginning of 1871 the serial number of the 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 typewriters was not the same in different periods, and the circulation of their output changed from year to year, was not a constant.

Million Singer saw the light as early as 1873, a two millionth copy refers to the end of 1875, a ten millionth was produced in 1891. 1899, the penultimate in the century, ended with a figure of 16,831,099.

Zinger branch

In addition to resolving the question: "How to determine the year of the sewing machine" Singer "?", Since 1900, you can establish, thanks to the letter marking, the place where this or that mechanism was made.

The letters M, P correspond to the production in Scotland, N - in the American New Jersey (the city of Elizabeth). Since 1904, for the American plant is added marking B (under it was released a little more than a half million sewing machines).

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

It is obvious that, for example, the sewing machine Singer 1904 of release can be only of foreign production, most likely, American. In the Russian market, the "Singer Manufactory Company" (which existed since 1863) was present five years after the abolition of serfdom. The expensive delivery of equipment from overseas prompted thirty-five years later to establish production in Podolsk. The construction was started in 1900, but initially since 1902 the plant prepared only separate spare parts for family sewing machines.

Doubling letters

In the 1920s, mass production prompted products to be labeled with numbers, preceded by a two-letter code. The plants were built in Colombia's Bogota, Buenos Aires, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Canadian Quebec, Australia, Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines. The closest production facilities to Russia were located in German Karlsruhe, the Italian city of Monza, the French Bonnieres, in Istanbul, Pakistan.

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

History of the Russian "Singer"

The director of the enterprise built in Podolsk until the revolution of 1917 was his engineer, Walter Frank Dickson, who erected it. In 1913, with which it was common to compare all the successes of Soviet construction, the daily production of sewing machines was 2,500 per day, more than 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 across Russia, with a total staff of over 20,000 people. The products, not inferior in quality to foreign, were provided to the domestic buyer in installments. That's why the Singer sewing machine is still found in almost every family.

Podolsk plant in the first years of Soviet power produced small consumer goods - cast iron, irons on the coal mine, openers and frying pans. Later it was again transformed into the only enterprise in the Union that produced sewing machines Podolsk, and in 1994 returned to the bosom of the Singer company. The efficiency of production is maintained by cooperation with the transnational corporation "Seven-Tek".

Myths and the true story of "Singer"

The problem of how to determine the year of release of the sewing machine "Singer" has not only an altruistic-historical aspect, but also a noticeable "shade of treasure hunt." 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, representing family value, do not trust people suitable for its "research" with a magnet in the hands in anticipation that the iron materials of the sewing machine will not exhibit the properties of attraction.

Metals, other than iron, are present mainly in the frame of a limited number of foot sewing machines produced in the mid-1930s. The high content of molybdenum makes them somewhat more valuable "scrap metal".

The tendency to sensation, peculiar to society in a state of turmoil, led to the publication in the domestic press of yet another false information that some serial numbers of sewing machines Singer, lost in Russia, promise their owners a prize of 1 million dollars. It seems that there is no sense in debunking such children's fables.

The truth is that in the merchant environment of our pre-Revolutionary Motherland the idea to produce under its own brand a much lower quality counterfeit, whose speed and reliability of the nodes left much to be desired. A sign of the authentic "Singer" is an oval copper tablet with the inscription "Tne Singer Manfg Co", placed on the frame. Individual number, which begins with the letter of the Latin alphabet, should be searched on the board.

It is worth checking the operability of your sewing machine, calling the master to adjust the mechanisms. After all, even the inventor Isaac Singer once, a whole day, "fought" over the first, just assembled offspring, trying to get a perfectly flat line. It turned out that the engineer, because of fatigue, simply forgot to adjust the tension of the upper thread. Perhaps, bringing in the working condition of your own rarity is also worth the most minimal effort!