Posted 3 years ago
jazz17
(1 item)
Can'seem to find Model and age of this machine. Don't know anything about sewing but of course know the name Singer, especially since I am not that far from Cooperstown NY which I believe there is some connection to.
Hi, jazz17. :-)
So you couldn't find out anything about your vintage Singer sewing machine, huh? :-(
We've had more than a few people show up here at Collectors Weekly Show & Tell with that complaint. I suspect the problem is that they typed the serial number into an Internet search engine, and when they got nothing back, they got discouraged.
Unless the particulars (especially the serial number) of any given machine have been posted online since the dawn of the general user Internet (roughly 2000 CE), that approach is doomed to fail.
Singer actually has the most complete records of any vintage sewing machine company with production information for over ninety-six million machines, but they aren't broken down to the level of individual serial numbers, but rather are for blocks of serial numbers, expressed as ranges.
Per the Singer serial number tables at the International Sewing Machine Collectors' Society (ISMACS) website, the serial number stamped into the bed of your machine (EF212586) was one of a block of 50,000 consecutive serial numbers (208681 through 258680) that was allotted to the Clydebank factory, and all were destined to be stamped into the beds of model 99K machines (the K suffix stands for "Kilbowie," which is what the Clydebank factory was originally called):
*snip*
EF- 208681 258680 99k 50000 July 29 1949
*snip*
http://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/serial-numbers/singer-ef-series-serial-numbers.html
http://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/singer_dating_by_serial_number.html
The Singer serial number tables aren't infallible, so I usually run machines through Sandman Collectibles Singer ID template:
https://www.sandman-collectibles.com/id-singer-machines.htm
Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good look at the face plate on your machine. That's OK, because there is a way to differentiate between Singer model 66 and model 99 machines. The Singer badge is mounted lower on a model 99 (so yes, your machine is indeed a model 99):
https://oldsingersewingmachineblog.com/tag/difference-between-singer-66k-and-99k/
About the Singer model 99:
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/99k
The decal set on your machine is called Filigree:
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/decals/decal04
Here are some manuals (the model 99 is a three-quarters size model 66, so the operation is the same):
https://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/manuals/singer-model-66-sewing-machine-manual.pdf
https://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/manuals/singer-model-66-18-sewing-machine-manual.pdf
http://needlebar.org/main/sident/99.pdf
https://res.cloudinary.com/singer-sewing/image/upload/fl_attachment/Singer-Website-Library/outdated_product/SINGER_99-13_Sewing_Machine.pdf
https://maritime.org/doc/pdf/singer-99-24-instructions.pdf
About the Clydebank/Kilbowie factory:
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/kilbowie
And just for grins (because it's out in your neck of the woods), about the Elizabethport factory:
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/elizabethport
https://www.ericwilliamsblog.com/left-behind-in-elizabeth-the-singer-manufacturing-company-part-1/
https://www.ericwilliamsblog.com/left-behind-in-elizabeth-the-singer-manufacturing-company-part-2/
Before I forget, there are now some smart phone apps that will allow people to look up Singer serial numbers. I can't vouch for the Apple one, but I downloaded and tried the Android one, and it works, albeit it provides slightly less information that looking up the serial number manually at ISMACS:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.picarious.singer&hl=en_US&gl=US
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/singer-serial-db/id1493070456
In case I forgot something, here is a collection of vintage sewing machine links (but if you don't want to plow through all of that, just ask questions here in a comment. If I don't know the answer, I'll go out there into the wilds of the Internet, and see what I can find:
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/285089-vintage-sewing-machine-help
Whoops, knew I'd forget something, but you probably figured out this particular tidbit from the line in the serial number table: that particular block of serial numbers was allotted to the factory July 29th 1949.
Now, that doesn't mean your machine was made on that exact date. That's when the central office gave the factory their marching orders.
One of the vintage sewing machine enthusiasts at the victoriansweatshop dot com forum developed a tool to estimate what date a particular machine rolled off of the line:
https://www.victoriansweatshop.com/post/excel-2010-sewing-machine-production-date-calculator-8214151
But you'd need an account there to download it. You can get roughly the same results using free tools like this, plus some elbow grease:
https://www.timeanddate.com/date/dateadd.html
However, you'd be making a lot of suppositions, like how many days off the workers got every week, plus holidays, strikes, equipment breakdowns. etc.
You might just content yourself with looking at the allotment date of the next block of machines destined to stamped into model 99 machines, and 'assume' that yours was made by then:
EF- 600941 660940 99k 60000 January 5 1950
If you want to see the workers in action, watch this circa 1934 documentary made at the Clydebank factory:
https://movingimage.nls.uk/film/1592
D'oh! Yesterday I completely missed your allusion to the importance of Cooperstown, NY in Singer history:
*snip*
During the 1840s, many inventors were developing machine driven needle and thread devices to replace hand stitching then done by seamstresses and tailors. While employed at a machine shop in Boston at the time, Singer encountered a dysfunctional sewing machine made by another inventor. While attempting to make the machine work Singer envisioned a sewing machine design of his own. With financial help from others and a lot of trial and error, Singer produced his first working model and set out to acquire a patent.
Singer sought legal assistance to do so from Ambrose Jordan in New York City. There was a lot of litigation between sewing machine patentees going on, so Singer asked Jordan to defend him when a lawsuit was brought against Singer. Jordan declined but directed him to his son-in-law, Edward Clark.
Not only did Clark defend Singer, he formed a business partnership with him in 1851. The patent infringement lawsuits continued for this duo and other sewing machine companies. Tired of the seemingly endless and costly rounds of litigation, several of these companies agreed to join the country's first patent pool. It put the sewing machine business onto a profitable track and the competition now became which company could build and sell the best machine.
No doubt the Singer machine was successful, giving Singer and Clark vast amounts of wealth. By 1900 the Singer Co. employed 60,000 people.
Clark became interested in Cooperstown because his father-in-law had started his law career there. Clark's wife, Caroline, had been born and spent her childhood in Cooperstown.
In 1854 Clark purchased the Apple Hill property, which straddled the Susquehanna River not far from where the river begins at Otsego Lake.
Clark, his wife and their children traveled overseas quite a bit, so it wasn't until 1869 when they built the "Fernleigh" mansion on Apple Hill. The Clarks made Cooperstown their summer residence, but became involved in life around the village for generations to come.
The fortunes earned by the Singer-Clark partnership resulted in the numerous philanthropic endeavors the Clark family has made in the Cooperstown area.
*snip*
https://www.thedailystar.com/opinion/columns/a-sewing-machine-patent-had-influence-on-cooperstown/article_67c0ceb8-dd7c-5653-a0b4-200b3eb6e9de.html
This tidbit I find very interesting:
*snip*
It was Edward [Clark] who began construction of the famous Dakota apartment building in Manhattan, not completed until after he died
*snip*
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2007-05-19-0705170640-story.html