The First Conglomerate 145 Years of the Singer Sewing Machine Company
The sewing machine, America's Great Civilizer, represents the most important invention of the nineteenth century. No other discovery in past or modern times has so affected the world's working class. No other invention has so changed the global workplace or done more to enhance the quality of life all over the planet. No invention, no modern electronic computer or other home appliance has achieved as many sales or as much global recognition as the Singer Sewing Machine.The Singer Sewing Machine Company's 5,000 branch offices and sewing centers reached into 190 of the world's political entities. At one time, its weekly paychecks went out to 87,000 employees. To accommodate its global customer base, the company translated its sewing machine instruction and repair manuals into at least 54 languages. In many of today's third world languages, the word singer supplants both the verb for sewing and the noun in the defining compound expression, sewing machine, which survives as a singer machine. The global ubiquity of Singer sewing machines, its company factories, and its repair and instruction centers began evolving before the US Civil War. Singer families, like generational military families, also date from these years. For example, Singer's German-managed facilities employed three and four generations of workers from the same family. The company became so ingrained in German culture that World War II German aviators avoided bombing Singer's European manufacturing facilities believing them German-owned. When hostilities ended, relatively intact Singer facilities resumed full operations within days.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.