Isaac Merrit Singer was born in Rensselaer County, New York on October 27, 1811. After attending public school in Oswego, he ran away from home and became an apprentice in a machine shop in Rochester. And for 20 years (1830-1850), he lived as a roving actor and part-time mechanic. His life changed, however, in 1851, when he built a greatly improved version of a sewing machine he had seen. A remarkable device, his invention made possible continuous sewing, both straight and curved; it also made it possible to stitch at any place on the material.
That same year, he entered into a partnership with an attorney, Edward Clark; and by 1860, they were the world's foremost sewing-machine manufacturers. After the Singer Manufacturing Company was incorporated in 1863, he retired and moved to England. Singer lived for 12 years in a palace he had built (the Wigwam) on the English coast and died on July 23, 1875, in Torquay, England.