"Three-quarters of the world's sewing-machine cabinets" — Singer's South Bend works

Estimated for the peak year 1914 · The estimate is one researcher's, and is printed as his

The claim. That in 1914 three-quarters of all the sewing-machine cases and cabinets in the world were made in South Bend. The claim belongs to a named estimator: David Pollack, a Singer researcher, whose estimate the History Museum carries — at the plant's 1914 peak of about 3,000 employees, an output of about 2,000,000 cabinets, three-quarters of the world's production of them. A companion billing attaches to the plant itself: the Division Street works, finished in 1901–02 on about sixty acres, "was intended to be the largest sewing-machine cabinet factory in the world, and was exceeded only later by Singer's own works in Scotland."

The record. The plant's scale is documented independently of the fraction. By 1907 the works turned out 10,000 cabinet sets a day; South Bend was Singer's cabinet distribution center for the United States and overseas, its cabinets shipped to the Elizabeth, New Jersey plant for the American trade and directly to Glasgow, Hamburg and Berlin for the European, on Timothy Howard's 1907 account. The census of manufactures gives the industry frame in its own words: the making of sewing-machine cases was "practically confined to this city." What no record reached contains is a count of the world's cabinets in 1914 — the denominator the fraction needs. The estimate's numerator is consistent with the plant's documented daily output; its denominator is one researcher's judgment.

What the record leaves. The claim is partly supported: the works' dominance of its trade is documented by the census and by the company's distribution record, and the three-quarters figure stands as an attributed estimate — printed by its author's name, as the Businesses file prints it — not as a measurement. No second measurement exists to confirm or refute it, and none is invented here.

Sources

1. The Businesses file in this record — the Singer cabinet works whole: David Pollack's estimate for 1914 (about 3,000 employees, about 2,000,000 cabinets, three-quarters of the world's cases and cabinets), printed as its author's; 10,000 cabinet sets a day by 1907; the Division Street plant "intended to be the largest sewing-machine cabinet factory in the world," exceeded later only by Singer's own Scottish works.
2. Timothy E. Howard, A History of St. Joseph County (1907) — South Bend as Singer's cabinet distribution center for the United States and overseas.
3. The Industrial Revolution file in this record — the Census of Manufactures on sewing-machine cases "practically confined to this city."
4. The Exports file in this record — the cabinet trade's overseas reach at shipment level.