Isaac Merritt Singer: Sewing Machines and Sewing Seeds

Isaac Merritt Singer was not the first to invent a sewing machine. Elias Howe had a unit operating several years earlier. The litigation involving sewing machines mid 19th century swirled around 900 competing patents. But the Singer sewing machine was a superior unit in all respects, capable of 900 stitches a minute, the normal output of nearly 20 seamstresses. Mahatma Gandhi called the Singer sewing machine “one of the few useful things ever invented.” Author Harold Evans shared this view: "The reprobate inventor-innovator improved the lives of millions of people in the cities and small farming communities of America, in the mud-hut villages of Africa, in the teeming townships of Latin America, in the bazaars of Asia." Much of the Singer Manufacturing Company's success is attributable to Singer's partner, Edward Clark. Evans called Singer a reprobate for a very good reason: Singer had five wives--at the same time! And the face of his sixth wife is perhaps one of the most recognized faces on the globe. Singer fathered 24 children. His story is as fascinating as it is unusual, told by award-winning author and syndicated columnist Daniel Alef. [1,351-word Titans of Fortune article]