The most expensive Singer sewing machine. The history and cost of Singer sewing machines

On August 12, 1851, American inventor and entrepreneur Isaac Singer received a patent for a sewing machine. With robust design and advanced mechanism latest product gained incredible popularity. But in many ways, the talent of Isaac Singer himself served as the success of the company, who was able, with the help of effective marketing solutions, to convince millions of families of the need to buy his products.

The first prototype put up for sale was valued at $100. However, few were willing to spend that kind of money, because at home, women did an excellent job of sewing with a needle and thread. And the owners of the workshops, who used the cheap labor of disenfranchised seamstresses, were even less interested in the novelty.

Only some fundamental innovation could stimulate demand. And the inventor came up with an advanced system for those times. He decided to create a long-lasting product. If before Singer, any mechanisms after a breakdown were sent to a landfill or to a factory for repair, then his customers could order the necessary spare parts themselves to fix the malfunctions. Thanks to Singer, the sewing machine became the first household appliance allowing repairs at home.

I.M. was founded in 1854 by Isaac Singer and lawyer Edward Clark. Singer & Co. Immediately after the release of the first sewing machines ok Singer ran into another problem. He was fined $15,000 for illegally using a patent for a sewing needle with a hole in the end. The patent for this needle belonged to Elias Howe, who also came up with the design of one of the manufactured sewing machines, but it was unsuccessful. Having paid the fine, Singer, together with Howe and two owners of factories producing sewing machines, found investors and, buying up patents, formed a trust, ruining smaller manufacturers.

However, this was not enough to increase demand for Singer's products. Isaac Singer was not only a brilliant inventor, but also a brilliant businessman. He realized that it was important to convince everyone and everyone that they needed a sewing machine.

Striving for success, Isaac Singer was the first to start producing cars that were focused not on industrial production, but on ordinary housewives. Singer addressed them directly. The entrepreneur began to look for customers in theaters, placing advertisements on performance programs, as well as in churches: descriptions of sewing machines were distributed to parishioners at sermons along with religious literature. At fairs, his cars were shown not by brisk guys-dealers, but by specially hired beauties. Both men and their companions paid attention to them. Singer soon became a prestigious brand. A man who had a Singer brand sewing machine in his house was automatically considered successful.

But Singer wanted his products to be available to millions of families. For this, he went on another revolutionary marketing ploy. Already in 1854, he began to sell cars in installments.

If antiques, then who is ready to buy or sell a Singer sewing machine (Zinger, Singer, Singer)? What antique value does it represent, how much does it cost, what is the price depending on the year of issue, and is there such a dependence? What is the difference Zinger - Singer (Singer - Singer), which sewing machines are valued more, foot or manual? What are the myths about the mysterious ramparts and shuttles from precious metals hover around a famous brand?
In the Antiques - Sale section, on antique forums, these questions are regularly asked, reviews and answers are very different. Let's dot all the points.

The talent turned out to be the ancestor of franchising - his cars were produced all over the world. Accordingly, the name of the designer and owner of the trademark was written in different languages. The surname Singer is written in different languages ​​​​through both “S” and “Z”. A variant of the Zinger sewing machine was produced in Germany (a subsidiary of an American company).

This is the answer to the question - is there a difference Zinger - Singer (Singer - Singer).

At the beginning of the 20th century, the company, which at that time was called the Singer Manufacturing Company, was headed by Douglas Alexander. It was under him that in 1908 the company erected the skyscraper The Singer Building on Broadway, where the headquarters of the corporation was located. The Singer Tower became the first skyscraper in New York and marked the beginning of a kind of competition in the city, and later throughout the world - the skyscraper race. For a long time, the 47-story building remained the tallest in the world. From the base of the foundation to the top of the flagpole, the height of the building was 205 meters. Above this skyscraper was only the Eiffel Tower. In 1968, the building was demolished to replace it with a US Steel skyscraper.

Singer entered the Russian market back in the 1860s with the help of the German Georg Neidlinger, who had a warehouse in Hamburg and 65 sales centers in Russia.

In 1902, a factory was launched in Podolsk that produced cars with the Russified Singer logo (to which was soon added the then "quality mark" - the inscription "Supplier of the Court of His Imperial Majesty"). These machines were not only widely distributed throughout Russia, but were also exported to foreign countries, including Turkey, Persia, Japan and China. By the beginning of the First World War, the plant was producing 600 million cars annually. They were sold directly to 3,000 company stores, and also delivered by mail.

In 1918, the Podolsk factory passed to the Bolsheviks. Under Soviet rule, the Podolsk brand was quite popular in the country for several decades. Singer was one of the few popular foreign brands in the USSR.

After the collapse of the USSR, these machines were massively bought up by the owners of underground workshops for sewing leather goods, in the style of Italy or Turkey, for simple reasons:
- the Singer sewing machine easily coped and made a flawless stitch even on very thick leather,
- tritely worked without electricity, which made it possible to make production highly profitable, low-cost and practically uncomputable.
It was all in the 90s, now underground workshops have gone into oblivion, and new generation sewing machines have appeared.

Then, in the early 90s, when everything containing even a drop of precious metals was stolen from everywhere, and was born, and then inflated to unimaginable sizes, the Myth about the value of sewing machines Zinger - Singer (Singer - Singer): first on S, then on Z , then with certain numbers. It was said at first that the drive shaft was made of platinum (palladium) to prevent corrosion, then that it was not made, but only covered, that the shuttles in some sewing machines until 1930 were made of platinum, gold and even palladium.

It is enough to know at least a little of the character of a German to laugh heartily at such fantasies.

This legend has been the cause of several murders committed by treasure hunters. So, a group of teenagers from Naberezhnye Chelny, having learned that precious metals were contained inside the cars, began to hunt for the old Singers. One of their victims was a woman old age who opened the door to the unknown. As the police found out, nothing else was stolen from the house, except for the sewing machine.

However, the Internet is literally littered, and the entrances are regularly full of messages of the following order: “I will buy a Singer sewing machine (Zinger - Singer - Singer)”, “ready to buy a Singer sewing machine”, “Urgently buy a Zinger sewing machine”, etc. What's the matter?

And this is just the new kind a stunningly staged scam.

A seemingly harmless advertisement for the purchase of such a sewing machine for very decent money:
“If you want to sell your Zinger sewing machine, look carefully at the name to see if it's called Singer. It's quite different cars. Carefully inspect the entire machine with a magnet, excluding, of course, places made of cast iron. Turn the machine over, you can see the white shafts, examine them. The magnet should react weakly or not at all. The smaller the reaction, the higher the cost of this machine. The exact cost of the machine can be found out only after the spectral analysis of the metal. The shafts of the Zinger machine contain palladium."

BUT! since it is not known exactly until what specific year the shafts were platinum, you will be offered to drill the shaft in two places and send the chips for analysis in a letter, at the same time pay the cost of reagents (300-500 rubles). You will no longer see your money, and no one will buy a car from you.
There is also a legend that, with the advent of Soviet power, the inhabitants of the mountainous regions melted down their gold into the beds of sewing machines. Assuming that this may be true, we will consider each individual instance even more carefully.

According to another legend, in 1998, Singer announced a search for sewing machines manufactured in the century before last, with a special serial number starting with the number 1. It is most likely that this copy is located in Russia, and its owner will receive a prize of a million dollars. Until now, buyers of antiques travel across the expanses of our country in search of cars with a lucky number.

There is an even more incredible legend that there are about 300 Singer cars cast entirely in gold. Allegedly, after the revolution in Russia, representatives of the wealthy stratum of the population emigrated to Europe en masse. However, in order to leave, it was necessary to part with all the jewels. Only household utensils were allowed to cross the border. Therefore, enterprising emigrants melted the precious metal into the shape of Singer machines, and the resulting ingots were dyed black.

In 2009 in Saudi Arabia Another legend arose, according to which, the needles of old Singer sewing machines contain a legendary substance, the so-called "red mercury". A small amount of such a substance costs 2-3 million dollars. According to rumors, the presence of red mercury can be checked using a conventional mobile phone, next to the substance in which, supposedly, the signal disappears.

Completely upset? Do not be upset, your Singer sewing machine is still for sale, provided that it has been preserved in perfect condition, with a chic bed and ideally with documents, rubles for 500 pickup. The cars themselves as antiques or collectibles are not interesting, they take up a lot of space, they are not very interior and are not in demand by collectors at all. Slightly more valued are machines from small batches of rare models and if your sewing machine was released in the area of ​​​​the year the Singer company was founded.

An interesting fact: the name "Popovka" comes from the name of Popov's trading house, which was engaged in the distribution and sales of sewing machines in Russia.

The famous sewing machine Zinger (or Singer) is already a treasure in itself, because it is very reliable and durable, even if not antiques, even if neither platinum, nor palladium, nor gold were used in the details of its mechanism. There are no valuable metals in it, you can not spoil it, but you can work on it and earn a living. Again, memory and flight of fancy.

From beautiful openwork cast legs-stands you can make a stunning interior masterpiece! This is what designers use with success, turning the cast-iron frame of the Singer sewing machine into amazing tables, adding glass, wooden or mosaic tabletops.

Sources:

The "terrible" secret of the Singer sewing machine.

Part 3. Sawing, Shura, sawing. They are gold...

Rumors about the fabulous high cost of antique Singers are due to myths-legends that can neither be confirmed nor refuted.

You can only check for your own typewriter;)

Legend number 1. Platinum part (most often the shaft acts as such). Given that the weight of the shaft is about 2 kilograms, the cost of a machine with such a shaft will be around 45 thousand USD. The narrators refer to the fact that at the beginning of the 20th century, platinum was not yet considered a precious metal and cost much less, than now. The wear resistance of this metal is good, so the manufacturers produced a batch of machines with such a detail, and this batch went abroad. There is even a version that the serial numbers of such units are known, and the risk of buying the “wrong” machine for those in the know is reduced to a minimum. Sometimes in this legend, platinum is replaced by palladium. To check, it is advised to use a magnet. If it is not attracted to the shaft, then the shaft is not cast iron, but from a “suspicious” metal. They also advise you to take a closer look at the plaque-emblem "Singer". On "platinum" cars, this emblem is made in the form of a plaque. On other copies, it is embossed on the case or drawn.

Legend number 2. It is said that during the war the Nazis hid a lot of gold and valuables in a Swiss bank. And the access code and cell details are allegedly stamped on the shaft of the Singer machine. Unfortunately, this information cannot be verified by the owners of the machine.

Legend number 3. During the October Revolution of 1917, the frames of the machines were poured out of gold and painted black. Thus, the nobles and the bourgeois stratum managed to take gold out of the country, deceiving the vigilant red commissars. A modified legend says that in this way gold was exported from Nazi Germany (when Hitler came to power, the export of valuable metals was banned from the country). By the way, gold is also not magnetic;)

Legend #4 . "Palladium" cars exist, but they are associated with a scam to export valuable metal from the country by bureaucrats and the party elite in 1992-2002.

Legend number 5. In fact, the high cost of cars is associated with the scams of officials for the return and laundering of VAT. Several "solid" companies were created abroad, buying old Singer cars for big money. True, they did not buy these machines from everyone. The reason for the refusal of “foreign” sellers was hidden either in the mythical letter “Z”, or in the mismatch of the serial number with the desired one, or in the lack of money for this moment. From "their" such machines were bought without problems. And at the end of the year, the Russian government paid (read "returned") to foreign buyers VAT in the amount of 18% of the purchase amount.

Legend No. 6 . Truly a legend. In Saudi Arabia in 2009, there was a boom in the search for Singers, their purchase and sale, and even theft, as a rumor spread that the needles of old Singers contained a terrible substance - red mercury. Such a needle can cost, allegedly, 2-3 million USD. And red mercury is used either to search for ancient treasures, or to build heavy-duty bombs. And the presence of red mercury in cars was advised to check using ... a mobile phone signal. In the presence of this most valuable substance, the signal should have completely disappeared.

Legend number 7. More of a scam than a legend. There is an opinion that the rumor about precious metals in the Singers was started by scammers in order to:
1. Buy cars for little money, spread information about the high value of the units via word of mouth, sell devices for a good amount.
2. Buy cheap antiques. Under the guise that your machine is "not the one." But they can buy it. But for a price much lower than previously indicated. At the same time, the purchase price of an antique gizmo is imposed much lower than the real market price.
3. Analyze the components and parts of your machine for the presence of precious metals. This event is not cheap. As a result, the crooks receive money for chemical analysis and, again, offer the owner, disappointed in the availability of platinum, to buy his antique "junk" for a penny.

A long time ago, about 10-12 years ago, there was a very intriguing hype, rather muddy in nature.

The fact is that at one time all nimble and greedy personalities were quite actively looking for a Zinger sewing machine, they gave quite considerable sums up to 6000 [.o.] for it (for comparison - at that time it was possible to buy a 2-room apartment for these money). The reasons for such a frenzied, and most importantly, unexpected demand were and remain unknown. All sorts of swindlers, swindlers and rogues of all calibers themselves could not really explain anything. At the same time, there were several versions, none of which, of course, could be confirmed in detail. I heard about people who gave away money/apartments/cars on the sly, but could not subsequently sell this very machine to those who fanned the hype, under the pretexts of "the wrong series", "this is a Singer, but we need a Zinger", "they took a lot of cars, so far no money" and so on.

Time passed, and I completely forgot about this story. Until the day before yesterday, when, for completely abstract reasons, I did not stumble upon a discrepancy between the spelling of Zinger and the correct one - Singer. The trademark is currently owned by Pfaff, which took over the bankrupt company. Remembering the hype, I tried to find on the Internet, which I did not have then, some data about it. I read a lot of interesting things, but I did not find a clear answer.

What it was - a brilliant PR move by the marketers of a dying company (the company had a hard time just in those years), some kind of mega-divorce of the local benders - I still don’t know. Here are just a few quotes from various sources:

"... In 1851, in the USA, the industrialist and mechanic Isaac Singer, together with the inventor Alain Wilson, improved the Ellios Howe sewing machine and organized the Singer company for the production of sewing machines. Subsidiary companies were established in Japan, Europe. In 1900 "I. Singer organized in Russia in the city of Podolsk, first workshops, then a machine-building plant for the production of sewing machines. A year, 1.5-2 million Singer sewing machines were made. Before the October Revolution of 1917, more than 5 thousand worked at the PMZ . workers..."

"... there is some kind of zinger, but its price is a legend. there are rumors that the presser foot was made of palladium."

"One friend explained to me that only some selected cars are bought for such bucks, and, as I understand it, even the year of manufacture is not important - until about 1910, in some cars the main shaft was made of PLATINUM. It is checked very simply - pure platinum was used there - it's a non-magnetic material, you bring a magnet to the shaft and... if it doesn't stick to it, you have a machine with a couple of kilograms of platinum inside.

"in short, once upon a time there was some kind of cleansing, and the bourgeoisie (read bagachi) melted gold into Singer beds, and then painted it."

“In one village (in Moldova, it seems), a rumor spread that in those typewriters where there is a little Zinger (and not Singer, as it should be), there is some kind of platinum shaft. And they have such a typewriter in every house.

So here. The people gathered, let's disassemble the experimental machine. It means that a man brings a magnet to this shaft. I quote further:
- CLEAN! (With expression)... pause... steel!"

"A batch of sewing machines (about 800 pieces) of the Singer brand came with a small piece (28 grams) made of pure platinum ....."

A little experience brings order to my thoughts: "ZINGER is not worth the crazy money. It was a scam of an all-Ukrainian scale when several people began to buy these machines, telling everyone that they contain gold and platinum. There is nothing there. I worked on scrap metal, hundreds of these passed through my hands machines. I personally dismantled a dozen. "

“On the weekend, a sewing machine master came, while he was working, they started talking ... He told about precious metals - from old Singers, with a foot drive. There is a company emblem and letters - made of gold, painted. It seems there was a batch of such. XZ , or the owner was afraid, or he wanted to take the gold abroad, but released the cars. That's where it went from there. There seems to be a kilo of gold for 4. "

"1. The German company Singer produced sewing machines for export to America (and some other countries) with the inscription Zingerso that the Americans read it as "Singer" (Singer - in English Singer). I don't know how these machines got to Russia.

2. Platinum detail is not a fairy tale. Platinum has good wear resistance. At the same time, at the beginning of the 20th century, platinum was not a precious metal and, accordingly, was much cheaper than now (this case is not the only one in history, there are even opposite cases).
To conquer a consumer niche abroad, Singer could supply a platinum part as a greater reliability.

3. The shaft weighs approximately 2 kg. Price 1 gr = 720 rubles. , 2kg = 1,440,000 rubles = $ 49,000
therefore, the price of this machine (taking into account the costs of obtaining the machine and selling it is paid) is not less than $40,000 and not more than $50,000

4. Magnet testing is not enough to determine platinum! You can check the density with water.

5. A whole series of such machines has been released (these are not the only copies), their numbers for buyers are also known. (There is no lottery)

6. There is one small coincidence in the release of this model: how they stopped making the part platinum - at the same time they stopped making the Zinger emblem in the form of a plaque, but began to beat it out on the case or draw it. (No plaques of gold!)

7. This boom around Zinger is not only in Russia, it also exists abroad. Selling a whole car is worth it in Europe - there, for owning it, at least they won’t shoot you and honestly lay out its cost.

Attempts have also been made to encourage adventurous citizens to listen to the voice of reason with the help of facts:

"Now about what real value your old "zinger" has, and how not to be deceived when selling it. First of all, it should be borne in mind that there are several myths about “zingers” among dealers. The first is that the "zinger" and "singer" are different cars and cost differently. The first caller on the ad will definitely tell you about it. Like, if “Singer” is written on the typewriter, then this is not at all what you need, and it costs a penny. If the inscription on the typewriter says "Zinger", then this is the same real "Singer", and it costs more than a thousand dollars. Don't believe! The name of Isaac Singer in English is written Singer, and all cars are called the same way. The only reason for the emergence of this myth could be that in Russia at the end of the 19th century there was already a “leftist”. It was the sewing machine of the merchant Popov, it was sold under the brand name "Singer", "Spouses of Popov", "Singer and Popov". But it is much more primitive than a real "zinger" and sews much more slowly. It's hard to confuse them.

The second myth that can be found on the Internet: the price of the machine depends on the content of the precious metal palladium from the platinum group in the working parts of the machine. In order to determine the price of the machine, you will be asked to examine its shafts (lower metal parts) with a magnet. The less "magnetized", the more expensive the machine. They even offer to send shavings from the machine shaft for analysis somewhere in Perm. By the way, this myth may not be so far from the truth. We were told by the precious metals department that this method of protecting parts from rust was sometimes used in the past.

This myth has already become the cause of the murder. In June 2001, a group of teenagers in Naberezhnye Chelny began to hunt for "zingers" after hearing that precious metals were contained inside the cars of this brand. Their victim was elderly woman who recklessly opened the door of her apartment to strangers. She was killed right on the doorstep of her house. The police found out that nothing was missing from the apartment, except for the sewing machine.

And finally, the third myth. It says that in 1998 the Singer company announced a search for a typewriter of the century before last with a certain number starting with one. This machine must be located in Russia, and as soon as it is found, its owner will be paid a million (!) Dollars. Since then, buyers have been especially actively rummaging through the expanses of our vast country in search of a happy car. Those who want to know more about this can search for this announcement themselves - they say it was published in AIF or Komsomolskaya Pravda in 1998. But this myth is also not very close to the truth, since the Singer company is not currently in a position to spend such a lot of money on advertising purposes.

"Legend #1 "Gold Emblem on Singer"
On sewing machines, manufactured by SINGER, they used an overhead plaque of copper (1867 approx - 1879), then they began to use brass, the coating was lacquered (more precisely, thermolacquer). it is resistant to oil and if it is not wetted often and not grabbed, it will shine for a long time.
Method of execution - cold stamping.
Pay attention to how the box is made, or at least the table of the sewing machine is glued laminated timber with veneer.
If you even saved on wood, let me remind you that there are no such savings on machines made in the USSR. each child of the table and drawer is solid!) then what the hell is a golden emblem.

Legend #2 "Smuggling Precious Metals on the Singer"
Regarding the attempt to export non-ferrous materials abroad by making gold, platinum, palladium and other details.
In general, did anyone try to make a shaft on their own?
At least brass? Let me remind you that it pours easily, it will retain its shape well when cooled. Working with brass does not require special metalworking skills.
So, this is a fairy tale. Because the cost of work on the manufacture of that same shaft, coupled with the cost of precious metal, is not economically feasible. Negative work. There are more cost-effective methods of smuggling.
And they say that when the Royal Navy captured the Bluebeard ship, the mast inside was made of gold. (since how did he swim on THIS)

Legend #3 "Palladium (platinum) plating to reduce friction in slide bushings on the Singer"
In the dimensions of the sewing machine, with only 2 shafts and 2 connecting rods, friction was compensated only by lubrication. If someone, well, at least someone saw the shafts on the industrial SINGER of 1861, then there the lubricant flows right through the grooves on the shaft and there is an oil pump. To REDUCED WEAR (a close fairy tale), they used overheating of the metal in places of increased friction, and not spraying from precious meth. Because the steel shaft momentarily breaks the brass or bronze bushing. The same thing happens with approximately the same viscosity of platinum and palladium.

Legend #4 "Silver (platinum, palladium, iridium) anti-corrosion coating on Singer"
The lower shaft and connecting rod on Singers were covered with red lead or silver.
Has anyone ever heard of a piece of silver containing silver?"

Well, the final attempt to dot the letter Z in the word Singer:

How to explain the rush demand for it, which appeared out of nowhere and went nowhere? Let's try to figure it out.
I admit the existence of several samples, perhaps even thousands of samples of counterfeits of the Singer sewing machine with the letter "s" replaced by the letter "z". As well as I admit that the Singer company itself could, in certain years, use a different metal for the shaft in sewing machine. Both of these options allow the existence of a precious metal shaft, even platinum, even palladium. Even if they were in price even then, do not forget that people did not have information, the Internet. At least a real sale, at least a real purchase, at least the composition of the material, few could know, as well as the people or organizations that would purchase these materials. Long live progress! Now every milkmaid (sorry, dear milkmaids) can consider herself a business woman, a tamer of prices and space. But even now, with the omniscient Internet, the formation of 11 classes and heels of corridors, people are trying to determine the composition of the substance using magnets, candles and saliva. What can we say about those, by our standards, cavemen.
I admit that there were some cases when a massive cast-iron bed for a sewing machine was smelted from gold, painted black to look like cast iron, and freely removed from the houses of the rich by the Red Commissars in the dashing Bolshevik years. On the contrary, the Red Indians, under the leadership of the leader, would be amused by the count sewing a nightcap for himself on the Singer, and they would even help him load the typewriter into the wagon train, and even not one - let him take it in. The idea with weights, which Mikhail Panikovsky had his eye on, was by no means taken from the ceiling, but it was 1930 in the yard. I admit that already in our time, gold flowed over the hill in a similar way, and the customs officer jealously observing the state or his own interests unscrewed the worthless “palladium shaft”.
Sewing machines were produced for many years, at least 70 years, at different factories, in different countries, and the design practically did not change, but the content of one or another metal in the components, including the shaft, could change. Therefore, some of the shafts are magnetized well, some are magnetized poorly, some are not magnetized at all, but this is not connected with the precious metal, but only with chemical composition become.
I do not know of any real case of platinum being found in the shaft, although I do not exclude this possibility.
I am personally familiar with real people who bought the Singer, but not the Zinger with certain numbers, for US$1,000-3,000, hoping to resell it up to US$30,000. But they bought what they bought, but they could not sell it. According to rumors, some dealers even managed to buy a Zinger typewriter, but it was a Singer typewriter skillfully or handicraft painted by craftsmen with or without an art education.
Surprisingly, there were those who wanted to buy a machine for 1000-3000 US dollars, but there were no more willing people for 3,000-30,000 US dollars. At least in Russia. That's bad luck, there was a rumor, there were cars, there were addresses, there were buyers, and there were end buyers, but they didn’t work with everyone, or rather they didn’t buy from anyone, but they drove advertising. Despite the fact that in Russia every second huckster bought or almost bought a similar sewing machine, he could not sell it to anyone, either within the country or abroad. The resellers did not give more than 3,000 US dollars, and no one could contact the next resellers, although they were, and did not hide, but either the goods were rejected - the wrong year, the wrong country, then they assured that it was a fake, then they asked to wait, citing for problems with foreign customers, there was no money, in short, they “fed breakfast”, and this was done by the entire second echelon of buyers.
However, abroad, there were several reputable companies that bought such sewing machines, with certain numbers. These reputable firms bought sewing machines, very expensive, but not from everyone. Their motto was practically vegetable-based: “We will buy everything, but not from everyone!”. From Russia, Singer sewing machines were regularly sent by wagons to the addresses of these reputable companies. All documents were drawn up in accordance with the laws of both countries, the cost of each Singer typewriter was different, but ranged from 900,000 to 1,500,000 rubles. Sewing machines were exported as items containing precious metal.
Who needs to pay 1,500,000 rubles for something that really costs 5,000 rubles? It turned out that no one. Upon arrival at the warehouse of the overseas company, the sewing machines, without being unloaded, were sent for scrap metal at a price of 17 US dollars apiece.
And at the end calendar year a reputable foreign company modestly asked the Russian government to return to it the allegedly paid VAT in the amount of 18% of the transaction amount with the Russian company. There is no need to explain that the money, through several Russian firms, carried out a circuit of movement and again fell into the accounts of reputable foreign firms, waiting for the next wagon of diamond-containing or tungsten-enriched Singer, with uranium additives, with a plutonium core.
There were no antiques, no precious metals, no banking codes, no nostalgic firms, no rabbit breeding or monkey breeding. What was just implemented was a modified VAT refund scheme, paid out of the pockets of taxpayers by idiotic bureaucrats. Well, besides this, there were murders, robberies, robberies, purchases for crazy money of absolute illiquid assets - all this also happened.
In 2002, the bureaucrats finally saw the light and made changes to the VAT refund law. And ironically (which suggests some corruption and collusion) the price of palladium did drop dramatically in 2002 from US$1,000 per gram to US$170 per gram.
The scheme is so psychologically literate, uncompromising, embodied on a Russian scale, that the same handwriting becomes visible, the handwriting of the master who carried out the no less intricate, mysterious and ingenious scheme for the export of "red mercury" from Russia. But that is another story.
But the need for inventions is cunning. Followers of the scheme, petty hucksters, with the ambitions of speculators toilet paper, offer to conduct for 5-20 US dollars, a chemical, biological, molecular, furious and other analysis of chips from the shaft of your machine, in which, frankly, there is nothing. In the event that it contains platinum, they promise to buy it for ... here you can bet any amount that will make you run for a file and a checkbook. Needless to say, your shavings will be thrown into the trash, and in a reply letter, they will write that there is no platinum, but do not lose hope, last week we bought three cars for ....
Happiness LOHA (People Educated Well) is brighter than the sun. "

And to her:

"The meaning was as follows, as you know, a sewing machine was in almost every home (especially in Jewish families) and it was difficult to come up with a more convenient container for small family valuables. The machine is full of hidden cavities. She does not attract attention to herself (for example, no one will be suspicious of a person moving from apartment to apartment or from city to city and at the same time carefully carrying / carrying his sewing machine, because everyone knows that the thing in the household is necessary and does not tolerate rough treatment). But the years went by, the owners changed, and the stash in the typewriters remained unclaimed.
Here it was launched smart people duck, they say there is a series of Singer machines, in the manufacture of mechanisms of which rare-earth metal was used (because they say then nobody needed it, so they riveted parts from it). And the people poured into buying. In buying up, they accepted the machine (for a short time, under the pretext of checking a series of parts), they quickly looked through it for hidden values, took out everything that was there, and then informed the owner that the series of the machine was not the same, the details were ordinary and the price of the whole machine was a ruble and a tail on market day. For the sake of appearance (and maintaining the hype), sometimes they really bought cars at high price, but mostly only inspected."

Until now, on some message boards you can find ads like this:
"Tell me what is manual typewriter- looks like a Singer in the pictures, but the name is nowhere to be found. Shuttle in the form of a bullet. Under the winding device there is a chased label with a crown, a coil and the letters G.N., and on the base there is a number without letters 1219780. The shaft at the bottom is not magnetized by a magnet from the speaker at all."

And in the end, instead of an epilogue - the final chord:
"12:43 15/04/2009

MOSCOW, April 15 - RIA Novosti.
Unprecedented excitement arose in Saudi Arabia after rumors appeared about the presence of the mythical substance "red mercury" in old Singer sewing machines, according to the local edition of Saudi Gazette, citing representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

It is believed that a small amount of this substance is worth several million dollars and can be used both in treasure hunting and in the creation of an atomic bomb. According to rumors, a small amount of "red mercury" is allegedly contained in the needles of sewing machines, and this can be checked using a mobile phone, which, if the Singer contains the desired substance, the signal allegedly disappears.

Rumors about the precious filling of "Singers" appeared in the Saudi segment of the Internet a few days ago and spread throughout the kingdom with great speed.

The police believe that they are the fruit of the activities of fraudsters who decided to take advantage of the situation that has arisen in the kingdom's markets, when the price of one Singer sewing machine reaches 200,000 riyals (50,000 dollars).

In some regions of the country, in particular, in El Qasim and Medina, the police are forced to control the work of markets where spontaneous points of sale of Singers have arisen, and to monitor an adequate price level.

How eager the Saudis are to become owners of "red mercury" is evidenced by the case in the town of Dhulum, where attackers robbed a number of sewing workshops and took out the coveted "Singers".

Despite repeated appeals from the Saudi authorities, explaining the complete anti-science of such an assumption, the boom around the Singers in the country continues.

Sewing machine Zinger (Singer, Singer, Singer) - Antique?

If antiques, then who is willing to buy or sell Singer sewing machine(Zinger, Singer, Singer)? What antique value does it represent, how much does it cost, what is the price depending on the year of issue, and is there such a dependence? What is the difference Zinger - Singer (Singer - Singer), which sewing machines are valued more, foot or manual? What myths about mysterious shafts and shuttles made of precious metals hover around a famous brand?

In chapter antiques- Sale, on antique forums, these questions are regularly asked, reviews and answers are very different. Let's dot all the points.

Isaac Merritt Singer - a reveler, a womanizer and a slacker (the biography of a genius is a separate story, I will post the details at my leisure, stay tuned), founded The Singer Manufacturing Company in the USA. He was forced to take up the improvement of the sewing machine by a debt that he was obliged to repay in 11 days. This is how the Singer was born. And he himself always liked to repeat: “For me, an invention is not worth a penny. Pennies - that's what interests me.

The talent turned out to be the ancestor of franchising - his cars were produced all over the world. Accordingly, the surname of the designer and the owner of the trademark was written in different languages. The surname Singer is written in different languages ​​​​through both “S” and “Z”. Option Zinger sewing machine produced in Germany (a subsidiary of an American company).

This is the answer to the question - is there a difference Zinger - Singer (Singer - Singer).

After the collapse of the USSR, these machines were massively bought up by the owners of underground workshops for sewing leather goods, in the style of Italy or Turkey, for simple reasons:

The Singer sewing machine easily coped and made a flawless stitch even on very thick leather,

Tritely worked without electricity, which made it possible to make production highly profitable, low-cost and practically uncomputable.

It was all in the 90s, now underground workshops have gone into oblivion, and new generation sewing machines have appeared.

Then, in the early 90s, when everything containing at least a drop of precious metals was stolen from everywhere, and was born, and then inflated to unimaginable proportions, the Myth of values ​​​​of sewing machines Zinger - Singer (Singer - Singer): first to S, then to Z, then with certain numbers. It was said at first that the drive shaft was made of platinum (palladium) to prevent corrosion, then that it was not made, but only covered, that the shuttles in some sewing machines until 1930 were made of platinum, gold and even palladium.

It is enough to know at least a little of the character of a German to laugh heartily at such fantasies.

However, the Internet is literally littered, and the entrances are regularly full of messages of the following order: “I will buy a Singer sewing machine (Zinger - Singer - Singer)”, “ready to buy a Singer sewing machine”, “Urgently buy a Zinger sewing machine”, etc. What's the matter?

And this is just a new kind of amazingly played fraud.

A seemingly harmless advertisement for the purchase of such a sewing machine for very decent money:

“If you want to sell your Zinger sewing machine, look carefully at the name to see if it's called Singer. These are completely different machines. Carefully inspect the entire machine with a magnet, excluding, of course, places made of cast iron. Turn the machine over, you can see the white shafts, examine them. The magnet should react weakly or not at all. The smaller the reaction, the higher the cost of this machine. The exact cost of the machine can be found out only after the spectral analysis of the metal. The shafts of the Zinger machine contain palladium."

That same shaft, do you think it could be made of palladium?

BUT! since it is not known exactly until what specific year the shafts were platinum, you will be offered to drill the shaft in two places and send the chips for analysis in a letter, at the same time pay the cost of reagents (300-500 rubles). You will no longer see your money, and no one will buy a car from you.

There is also a legend that, with the advent of Soviet power, the inhabitants of the mountainous regions melted down their gold into the beds of sewing machines. Assuming that this may be true, we will consider each individual instance even more carefully)))

1890, nothing has changed)))

Completely upset? Don't worry, your Singer sewing machine still for sale, provided that it has been preserved in perfect condition, with a chic bed and ideally with documents, rubles for 500 pickup. The cars themselves as antiques or collectibles are not interesting, they take up a lot of space, they are not very interior and are not in demand by collectors at all. Slightly more valued are machines from small batches of rare models and if your sewing machine was released in the area of ​​​​the year the Singer company was founded.

An interesting fact: the name "Popovka" comes from the name of Popov's trading house, which was engaged in the distribution and sales of sewing machines in Russia.

famous sewing machine Zinger (or Singer)- already a treasure in itself, because it is very reliable and durable, even if not antiques, even if neither platinum, nor palladium, nor gold were used in the details of its mechanism. There are no valuable metals in it, you can not spoil it, but you can work on it and earn a living. Again, memory and flight of fancy.

From beautiful openwork cast legs-stands you can make a stunning interior masterpiece! This is what designers use with success, turning the cast-iron frame of the Singer sewing machine into amazing tables, adding glass, wooden or mosaic tabletops.

Everyone remembers the dedication of Vladimir Mayakovsky: "To Comrade Netta, the ship and the man." In the same way, for everyday consciousness, an old sewing machine and its creator, Isaac Singer, "merged" in the name Singer. Moreover, the exquisite vintage technique over time pushed the portrait of the owner of the production into the background.

The highest reliability of all structural units allows, even after more than a century, to give out the perfect line, working with any materials - from the finest fabrics to The owner’s interest in how to determine the year of manufacture of a sewing

Mr. Singer, sewing machine and businessman

The accuracy and punctuality of the manufacturer of equipment will help us when, armed with patience and turning to the help of a universal modern friend - the Internet, we determine the year of manufacture of the Singer sewing machine. How, you ask? Very simple! "All moves are written down," as one notorious literary hero used to say. Detailed "talmuds" from black seamstress beauties were neatly stored in the accounting departments of the Singer company, and then, in an abbreviated form, were transferred to the Web for all curious owners, collectors and hunters of old sewing equipment.

Of all the register journals, only documents dated from 1851 (the year the famous typewriter was first produced) to 1870 turned out to be inaccessible to analysts. Such scrupulous detailing of documents for the past century and a half does honor to any production! Therefore, let's say "thank you" to the talented inventor and his successors for the opportunity to satisfy the thirst for knowledge on the question: "How to determine the year of manufacture of the Singer sewing machine?"

Amazing production volumes

From the information provided, we can learn, for example, that already at the beginning of 1871 the serial number of sewing equipment leaving the assembly line was 611,000, at the beginning of the next year - 914,000, in 1973 - 964,000 and so on. As you can see, the demand for cars was not the same in different periods, and the circulation of their release changed from year to year, was not a constant value.

The millionth Singer saw the light already in 1873, the two millionth copy belongs to the end of 1875, the ten millionth was produced in 1891. 1899, the penultimate year of the century, ended at 16,831,099.

Singer branches

In addition to solving the question: “How to determine the year of manufacture of the Singer sewing machine?”, With it is possible to establish, thanks to the letter marking, the place where this or that mechanism was produced.

The letters M, P correspond to production in Scotland, N - in American New Jersey (Elizabeth city). Since 1904, the marking B has been added for the American factory (a little more than one and a half million sewing machines were produced under it).

Of interest to us are the numbers of equipment that appeared in 1906 Russian production in Podolsk, starting with the letter S, T (from 1908 it was replaced by the letter E, from 1911 - A). In addition to Podolsk, Singer branches existed in Prussian Witenberg, as well as in (the city of Bridgeport).

It is obvious that, for example, a 1904 Singer sewing machine can only be foreign-made, most likely American. The Singer Manufacturing Company (which existed since 1863) was present on the Russian market five years after the abolition of serfdom. The high cost of shipping equipment from overseas prompted thirty-five years later to establish production in Podolsk. Construction began in 1900, but initially, from 1902, the plant prepared only individual spare parts for family sewing machines.

Letter doubling

In the 20s of the 20th century, mass production prompted the labeling of products with numbers preceded by a two-letter code. Factories have been built in Colombian Bogota, Buenos Aires, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Quebec Canada, Australia, Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines. The nearest production facilities to Russia were located in the German Karsruhe, the Italian city of Monza, the French Bonnieres, in Istanbul, Pakistan.

In the USA, another plant opens in South Carolina (Anderson) during this period, in addition to the traditional production in New Jersey.

The history of the Russian "Singer"

Until the revolution of 1917, the engineer Walter Frank Dixon, who built it, remained the director of the enterprise built in Podolsk. In 1913, with which it is customary to compare all the successes of Soviet construction, the daily production of sewing machines amounted to 2,500 per day, over 600,000 per year. The company enjoyed all the preferences of the Supplier of the Court of His Imperial Majesty. Its turnover increased seven times against the original, 3,000 branded stores were opened throughout Russia, the total staff of which exceeded 20,000 people. Products that were not inferior in quality to foreign ones were provided to the domestic buyer on an installment plan. That is why the Singer sewing machine is still found in almost every family.

The Podolsky plant in the early years of Soviet power produced small consumer goods - cast irons, coal-fired irons, openers and frying pans. Later, it was again transformed into the only enterprise in the Union that produced Podolsk sewing machines, and in 1994 returned to the bosom of the Singer company. Production efficiency is supported by cooperation with "Semi-Tech".

Myths and the true story of "Singer"

The problem, which consists in how to determine the year of manufacture of the Singer sewing machine, has not only an altruistic-historical aspect, but also a noticeable "treasure-hunting tint". There is a myth that individual parts of the mechanism (in particular the shaft) were created by designers from rare valuable metals (palladium and the like).

Possessing such an enviable rarity, apparently of family value, do not trust people who are suitable to "examine" it with a magnet in their hands in the expectation that the non-ferrous materials of the sewing machine will not show the properties of attraction.

Metals other than iron are present mainly in the frame of a limited edition foot sewing machine produced in the mid-30s. The high molybdenum content makes them somewhat more valuable "scrap".

The propensity for sensationalism, characteristic of a society in a state of unrest, led to the publication in the domestic press of another false information that some serial numbers of Singer sewing machines, lost precisely in Russia, promise their owners a prize of $ 1 million. It seems that it makes no sense to debunk such children's fables.

The truth is that in the merchant environment of our pre-revolutionary Fatherland, the idea matured to produce under the same brand of their own, much lower quality counterfeit, the speed of which and the reliability of the nodes left much to be desired. A sign of a genuine "Singer" is an oval copper plate with the inscription "Tne Singer Manfg Co" placed on the frame. An individual number that begins with a letter of the Latin alphabet should be looked for on the board.

It is worth checking the performance of your sewing machine by calling the master to adjust the mechanisms. After all, even the inventor Isaac Singer himself once spent a whole day "fighting" over the first, newly assembled brainchild, trying to get a perfectly even line. It turned out that the engineer, due to fatigue, simply forgot to adjust the tension of the upper thread. Perhaps bringing your rarity to working order is also worth the most minimal effort!