An actor turned inventor, Isaac Singer democratized clothing production with the sewing machine he patented in 1851. Although not the first (Elias Howe introduced a design in 1846), Singer’s machine was more reliable and could sew nine hundred stitches per minute, whereas Howe’s model only sewed 250. Within two years, it was hailed as “one of the most efficient labor-saving devices ever introduced to public notice.” Aiming the product at women and putting it within reach of a wide range of buyers, Singer and his business partner Edward Clark established an international commercial empire.
Singer commissioned this portrait while living in Paris, after scandals about his private life forced him to relocate to Europe. U.S. artist Edward Harrison May painted him in clothing that reflects his wealth and notorious extravagance. (source)
The grand staircase of Versailles at Oldway Mansion, Paignton, Devon, United Kingdom,
The grand staircase of Versailles, which was destroyed in 1752, has cast a European shadow. This astonishing re-creation of 1904-07, based on engravings, is at Oldway Mansion the private residence of Isaac Singer, and rebuilt by his son Paris Singer in the style of the Palace of Versailles.
So these are very different paintings, but I was wondering if you had anything for Albert Aublet's Selene, or R. B. Kitaj's The Wedding. Love the blog, btw
This one made me think of Fatoumata Kébé, unfortunately her books don’t (yet?) exist in English :( She's a French astrophysicist who has a PhD from the Institute of Celestial Mechanics in Paris, she's written two books so far and both are love letters to the moon—literally for one of them, it's called Lettres à la lune. The other one, La lune est un roman, is more scientific (but very readable) while Lettres is about the moon in literature and poetry. They were both published recently, hopefully they'll get an English translation at some point!
I’m also reminded of Mary Ruefle’s essay Poetry and the Moon, from her collection Madness, Rack and Honey—I recommend the whole book :)
It has been noted many times that there are more sad poems than happy poems in this world, and [...] I would guess that the moon occurs more frequently than the sun as an image in lyric poetry. And I wonder, why? I could start with a dozen reasons: insomnia; [...] or the fact most of the poems in this world have supposedly been written by heterosexual men, who desire women, and the moon is embodied, in so many languages, as a woman.
[Moreover] there is a greater contrast between the moon and the night sky than there is between the sun and the daytime sky. And this contrast is more conducive to sorrow, which always separates or isolates itself, than it is to happiness, which always joins or blends. And to stand face-to-face with the sun is preposterous—it would blind you. The moon has no light of its own; our apprehension of it is but a reflection of the sun. And some believe artists reflect the creative powers of some original impulse too great to name.
At first I thought this one should be some sort of family saga, with lots of characters and events spanning decades, something like Charles Lewinsky’s Melnitz—but then the messiness of it and the wedding theme made me think of Isaac Singer’s Enemies: A Love Story. Singer’s short stories also feel quite like this. I prefer Melnitz and would recommend it more heartily but that’s because I really enjoy big hefty books, that let you spend a lot of time within the same story and in the company of the same characters.
On this day, September 10, in 1846, the Massachusetts machinist and inventor Elias Howe, Jr. (1819-1867) was awarded U.S. Patent 4,750, the first United States patent for a sewing machine using a lockstitch design.
Others had proposed and even manufactured designs for mechanical sewing apparatus, beginning with a German immigrant to London, Charles Weisenthal, who, in 1755, patented a needle to be used in such a machine, though he proposed no machine with which to pair it. Others would soon follow, though their machines similarly were incomplete or suffered design faults that prevented them from working well enough to be put to practical use.
The French inventor Barthélemy Thimonnier invented a machine that was patented by the French government in 1830, and within ten years was operating a factory with 80 machines sewing uniforms for the French army. But Thimonnier’s factory was destroyed by Parisian tailors who feared that his machines would put them out of work. Despite repeated efforts and new patents for improvements to his machine in 1841, 1845, and 1847, which received prizes and acclaim when exhibited at the 1855 World Fair in Paris, Thimonnier’s invention was a commercial failure, and he died a poor man in 1857.
Howe’s invention almost met the same fate, as he struggled to find financial backers to assist in the production of his machine. As he persevered with little luck in turning his invention into a commercial product, other more financially savvy entrepreneurs began manufacturing machines using his design. Most famously, Howe was forced to pursue a court case against Isaac Singer and Walter Hunt from 1849 to 1854, as the two men had begun selling a machine based on his patent. Howe eventually won the dispute. Much of the settlement and royalties he earned as a result went toward providing equipment for the 17th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry of the Union Army during the Civil War, a unit in which he also served as a private. But the funds also allowed him to establish The Howe Machine Co. in Bridgeport, Connecticut around 1866. Both Elias Howe Jr. and Isaac Singer died wealthy men.
The sewing machine in this July, 1943 advertisement was created nearly 100 years after Howe’s patent was granted. Industrial designer Peter Muller Munk’s (1907–1967) contribution to the design was the replacement of the traditional metal sewing machine shell with Durez plastic, which he proposed would not only reduce the weight of the machine, but would also offer options for color finishes that would appeal to consumers.
The item is part of the Hagley Library’s John Okolowicz collection of publications and advertising on radio and consumer electronics (Accession 2014.277). To view it online, alongside other material from this collection, click here to visit its page in our Digital Archive.
I would say that the sexual organs express the human soul more than any other part of the body. They are not diplomats. They tell the truth ruthlessly.
