Singer Sewing in Historical Times of Conflict

In today’s blog post we take you on a fascinating little trip down memory lane and the power of domestic manufacturing! 

Though the Singer company is best known for manufacturing sewing machines, in historical times of conflict they produced other much-needed items as well. During the Second World War, for example, Singer utilized their expertise in precision engineering to expand into military production, making mostly rifles, but also sights, fire control equipment, and aircraft parts.

It all began when Singer produced a handful of .45s pistols on the eve of World War II.  The quality of manufacturing on their guns was so good that the U.S. Military asked the company to build more complicated equipment instead.  The War Department realized Singer’s pistols were of such high quality that the company was qualified to do more important work, and that Singer’s expert machines abilities would have been wasted on mere handguns. 

Washington then put the Singer Company to work on aviation-related components that required precision machining, particularly navigation and targeting equipment. During the war, Singer produced components for the Sperry T-1 bomb sight, B-29 bomber gunfire control computers, directional gyro and artificial horizon instruments, and automatic pilot parts. Singer built the sort of equipment pilots relied upon to find their targets, fend off enemy fighters, accurately deliver their bombs, and get home.