Imagine life with no machines. Make your own shoes. Sew your own clothes. Wash clothes by hand. Walk everywhere. Life can be very hard! But people today have a very easy life. It is not because of machines. It is because of inventors.

Isaac Singer was an inventor. Life became easy because of his invention. His story began in 1811. He was born poor. He was the eighth child of a German immigrant. At age 12, he ran away from home and became an actor. An actor did not make much money, so Isaac also learned to be a mechanic. When he needed money, he worked as a mechanic.
In 1851, Singer was working as a mechanic in Boston. Someone told him he could make a lot of money if he could make a good sewing machine. Singer needed money. There were already several kinds of sewing machines. But none of them worked well. In eleven days, Singer made the first sewing machine that really worked.

Singer and two other people started the I.M. Singer Company. They made sewing machines. Soon everyone wanted to buy one. The Singer Company used a great new idea to sell its machines. People did not have to pay all the money at one time. They could pay a little money every month or every week.

The sewing machine changed life in the United States. Women did not have to sew clothes for the family. For the first time, people could buy ready-made clothes and shoes.

Isaac Singer became a very, very wealthy man. He stopped working and retired. He built a house with 115 rooms in England. When he died, his 24 children fought over his money.