Posted 3 years ago
AnythingOb…
(1778 items)
Slowly but surely my rust garden is getting some rearrangement (read: additions?) for Spring of 2022. Shown here finally nestling into its new spot under the window is the rest of the remains of an antique SINGER sewing machine I've already shown here (a couple times) which hasn't ever managed to find a good place since it all followed me home...now, it'll provide some "texture" and "balance" (cough, cough) to my collection out there and'll probably make the wild ivy happy too, in the near future... ;-)
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/271692-old-rusty-singer-sewing-machine--a-so
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/286424-the-old-singer-sewing-machine-finally-st
Now the machine's head leans against the iron frame and treadle on one side with a clay flowerpot holding the assorted other small metal bits in front of and electric motor behind the frame on the other. (and *none* of it is in the way in the carport anymore?!)
Pics 3 & 4 are the only thing I did to (any of) it when moving it this time, that being taking an extra moment to carefully remove its original badges so they don't continue to rot away with all the rest of it. Chances are they've fully 'weathered' themselves already, of course, but there's also no particular reason they still need to be on it...I think I can be pretty certain this machine is already well past the 'point of no return' when it'd come to any form of reuse for anything but (visual interest and) scrap metal weight, but I can still keep those little parts (with the rest of my collection of nameplates from officially dead machines and things) as evidence of its existence on Planet Earth.
A new pic #4 has just been added here, to show an unexpected "2" cast into the iron which was formerly hidden behind the model number plate. The serial number of the machine can also still be seen, G3539196.
Dude, I think you should reunite the badge and model number tags with the sewing machine head, otherwise you'll be creating a headache for some future archaeologist.
While you're at it, you could shine up the serial number cartouche so I can look up the number. Yeah, it's a sickness. };-)
We know that it can't be older than 1899 because of the patent, but it could be quite a bit younger.
Judging from what I see in the concatenated serial number tables, Singer made a little less than a million (937,511) of them between 1900 and 1958. That's not counting any machines for which records were lost to various catastrophes (fire, war, etc.).
One million actually isn't a lot of machines for Singer, but the industrial models tended to be that way. Fifty eight years, however, is a fairly long time for one model.
The only Singer assignee patent I could find with that date:
https://patents.google.com/patent/US619873A/en
https://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/model-31-tailors-sewing-machine.html
https://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/model-list/classes-1-99.html
https://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/Trade-Literature/Sewing-Machines/pdf/sil10-202.pdf
I just edited this showing and added another pic of the serial number for you, Keramikos. :-) I actually did 'think about it' when taking the plates off, basically for the reason you mention, but ultimately decided it'd be safer to keep them apart now since it seems unlikely that it'll ever get "researched" again...?
Also noticed today that the frame itself has been modified, by (rather crudely) cutting out an inch or so of its top at the upper RH side, just under where the table would have been. Guessing (only!) that maybe this thing didn't really come with the electric motor originally?
I love the rust garden but it’s still sad to see an old Singer treadle machine finally pass away….(sniffle, blot a tear).
Makes me wanna go give my sweet, still perfectly useful old Singer a hug! I’ve been meaning to do a few little sewing projects with “her”.
The rust garden isn’t really “the end”….she’ll still be a conversation piece.
And, in case you don’t look at Pinterest, the base could have a whole “new life” as a table if you painted it and put a slab of wood on top.
The bases are hard to come by…someone would be glad to buy it from you, even rusty.
AnythingObscure, Aw, thanks. Just for little old me. :-)
Serial number G3539196 was one of a block of 5,000 sequential numbers ([G]3538776 through [G]3543775) allotted by the central office April 9, 1914 to the Elizabethport factory for use on model 31 sewing machine heads:
*snip*
G- 3538776 3543775 31 5000 April 9 1914
G- 3637001 3642000 31 5000 May 25 1914
*snip*
https://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/serial-numbers/singer-g-series-serial-numbers.html
https://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/singer_dating_by_serial_number.html
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/
Your machine probably rolled off of the assembly some time between April 9th and May 25th of 1914, but it was a fairly narrow squeak, given that World War I began in June of that year:
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/world-war-i-history
That's interesting about the frame having been cut in order to motorize it.
I suppose it was a pivotal time when more than a few machines that started out as manual got converted to motor operation. That one picture at ISMACS that I linked earlier shows a 1906 treadle that had been converted to motor operation.
An interesting tidbit that was uncovered when you removed the model plate is the number "2." I actually don't know what that means. It obviously was something meant for internal use.
In poking around for Singer's involvement in supporting the war effort, I found this piece about Singer in Russia. It's got nothing to do with your machine, but it's a fascinating read:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/enterprise-and-society/article/manufacturing-germans-singer-manufacturing-company-and-american-capitalism-in-the-russian-imagination-during-world-war-i/9CF1D8B56E8CA2BA26E6D01EB06BB922
Watchsearcher, Yeah, I getcha about the sentiment. :-(