INVENTOR

Isaac Singer

1811 - 1875

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Isaac Merritt Singer (October 27, 1811 – July 23, 1875) was an American inventor, actor, and businessman. He made important improvements in the design of the sewing machine and was the founder of what became one of the first American multi-national businesses, the Singer Sewing Machine Company. Many others, including Walter Hunt and Elias Howe, had patented sewing machines before Singer, but his success was based on the practicality of his machine, the ease with which it could be adapted to home use and its availability on an installments payment basis. Singer died in 1875, dividing his $13 million fortune unequally among 20 of his living children by his wives and various mistresses, although one son, who had supported his mother in her divorce case against Singer, received only $500. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Isaac Singer is the 66th most popular inventor (down from 63rd in 2019), the 853rd most popular biography from United States (down from 622nd in 2019) and the 20th most popular American Inventor.

Isaac Singer is most famous for his short stories. His best known work is "Yentl, the Yeshiva Boy" which is a story about a girl who disguises herself as a boy to go to a Jewish school that would not allow girls.

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Among INVENTORS

Among inventors, Isaac Singer ranks 66 out of 426Before him are Louis Blériot, Emile Berliner, Willis Carrier, Étienne Lenoir, Theodore Maiman, and Louis Renault. After him are Alberto Santos-Dumont, John Deere, Henry Fox Talbot, Josephine Cochrane, Les Paul, and Ruth Handler.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1811, Isaac Singer ranks 9Before him are Évariste Galois, Urbain Le Verrier, Robert Bunsen, Maximilian II of Bavaria, Théophile Gautier, and William Makepeace Thackeray. After him are Harriet Beecher Stowe, Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Vissarion Belinsky, Karl Anton, Prince of Hohenzollern, François Achille Bazaine, and Louis Blanc. Among people deceased in 1875, Isaac Singer ranks 11Before him are Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Éliphas Lévi, Andrew Johnson, John Edward Gray, Heinrich Louis d'Arrest, and Charles Lyell. After him are Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander, Charles Wheatstone, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, 12th Dalai Lama, Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, and Moses Hess.

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Isaac Singer ranks 853 out of 20,380Before him are Kathy Bates (1948), Harvey J. Alter (1935), Willard Libby (1908), Lawrence Kohlberg (1927), Laura Bush (1946), and Monica Lewinsky (1973). After him are Edmund Phelps (1933), Paul Morphy (1837), Gary Becker (1930), Michio Kaku (1947), Larry Fink (1952), and John Coltrane (1926).

Among INVENTORS In United States

Among inventors born in United States, Isaac Singer ranks 20Before him are Hiram Maxim (1840), Samuel Pierpont Langley (1834), Charles Goodyear (1800), William G. Morgan (1870), Willis Carrier (1876), and Theodore Maiman (1927). After him are John Deere (1804), Josephine Cochrane (1839), Les Paul (1915), Ruth Handler (1916), George Eastman (1854), and John Browning (1855).