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5. Why do people want to buy the sewing machines from the I.M. Singer Company ?
Isaac Singer was an inventor. Life is easy because of his invention. His story begins in 1811.
He is born poor. He is the eighth child of a German immigrant. At the age of 12, he runs away from home and
becomes an actor. An actor doesn’t make much money, so Isaac also learns to be a mechanic. When he needs
money, he works as a mechanic.
Now it is 1851. Singer is working as a mechanic in Boston. Someone tells him he can make a lot of money if
he can make a good sewing machine. Singer needs money. There are already several kinds of sewing machines but
none of them work well. In eleven days, Singer makes the first sewing machine that really works .
Singer and two other people start the I.M. Singer Company. They make sewing machines.
Soon everyone wants to buy one. The Singer Company uses a great new idea to sell its machines. People don’t
have to pay all the money at one time. They can pay a little money every month or every week.
The sewing machine changes life in the United States. Women don’t have to sew clothes for the family.
For the first time, people can buy ready-made clothes and shoes.
Isaac Singer becomes a very, very wealthy man. He stops work and retires. He builds a house with 115
rooms in England. When he dies, his 24 children fight over his money.