Posted 3 years ago
Gippsgirl
(1 item)
We have a lovely Singer treadle sewing machine which appears to be partially restored. The manufacture number is Y1467207. We know it was manufactured in 1920. Any further information is warmly welcomed!
Hi, Gippsgirl. :-)
It is indeed lovely.
Your machine is actually a bit younger than 1920.
Per the serial number tables at the International Sewing Machine Collectors' Society website, serial number Y1467207 was one of a block of 40,000 consecutive serial numbers (1431661 through 1471660) that was allotted by the central office to a particular factory (in this case, the Kilbowie factory) on June 27th, 1923, and all of them were destined to be stamped into the beds of model 66K machines (the "K" suffix on the model number means "Kilbowie"):
Y- 1431661 1471660 66K 40000 June 27 1923
http://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/serial-numbers/singer-y-series-serial-numbers.html
FYI, that allotment date is not a manufacture date. However, we might be able to estimate the date of manufacture for your machine, using that date, and the allotment date for the next block of Y numbers destined to be stamped into the beds of model 66K machines:
Y- 1650801 1686800 66K 36000 January 26 1924
You can see that there was a period of about six months between the two allotments. If we perform a few calculations, we could arrive at a reasonable estimated date of manufacture for your machine.
You could try it yourself. Here are a few tools to make it easier (hint: a six day work week was common in the 19th century and in the early part of the 20th):
https://www.timeanddate.com/date/duration.html
https://www.timeanddate.com/date/dateadd.html
https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/
https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/
Or you can just 'assume' (yes, I know about assumptions) that your machine was manufactured within six months of that first date.
I knew the minute I laid eyes on your machine that it was a model 66 because of that distinctive decal set which was only applied to model 66 machines, mostly at the Kilbowie factory.
The lotus decal set:
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/decals/decal09
I can't tell what pattern of face plate and access panel you have, but here is a gallery of those for you to peruse:
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/gallery_faceplates
Your cabinet looks like Cabinet Table No. 6:
http://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/5-6_cab.html
It looks to me like your treadle machine has a back-clamping presser foot, so that would make it a model 66-1. Here is a manual for a model 66-1:
https://archive.org/details/Singer661Manual
About the model 66:
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/66
About the Kilbowie factory:
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/kilbowie
Here is a circa 1934 documentary made at the Kilbowie factory:
https://movingimage.nls.uk/film/1592
And in case I forgot anything, here is a link to a post of advice for vintage sewing machines:
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/285089-vintage-sewing-machine-help
But if you still have questions, and don't want to plow through all of that, just ask them here. :-)
Hi again, Gippsgirl. :-)
I got my errands run, then took a nap, and must be feeling foolish, because I decided to do some math.
First, a bit of background. I recently stumbled on an Excel tool created by vintage sewing machine enthusiast and expert SteveH-VSS that calculates the approximate date of manufacture for a given vintage Singer, based on its serial number, certain information about the block of serial numbers to which it belongs, and the next pertinent block of serial numbers:
https://www.victoriansweatshop.com/post/excel-2010-sewing-machine-production-date-calculator-8214151
I don't have an account there, so I couldn't download it, but the idea behind it intrigued me sufficiently to try a less automated way of approximating its results.
I'll give it a whirl here with yours:
(The serial number on your machine):
Y1467207
(The block of serial numbers to which your serial number belongs):
Y- 1431661 1471660 66K 40000 June 27 1923
(The next block of serial numbers destined to be stamped into the beds of model 66K machines)
Y- 1650801 1686800 66K 36000 January 26 1924
http://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/serial-numbers/singer-y-series-serial-numbers.html
(The number of work days in the period):
https://www.timeanddate.com/date/workdays.html?d1=27&m1=6&y1=1923&d2=26&m2=1&y2=1924&ti=on&;
From and including: Wednesday, 27 June 1923
To, but not including Saturday, 26 January 1924
Excluding holidays, Sundays
in United Kingdom – Nationwide. Change Country / Change Constituent Country
Result: 181 days
213 calendar days – 32 days skipped:
Excluded 30 Sundays
Excluded 2 holidays:
Summer Bank Holiday (Monday, 6 August 1923)
Christmas Day (Tuesday, 25 December 1923)
(The size of the serial number block divided by the number of work days):
40000 ÷ 181 = 220.9944751381215
(The difference between your serial number, and the first one in the block):
1467207 - 1431661 = 35,546
(The difference divided by the rounded up number of machines per work day):
35546 ÷ 221 = 160.841628959276
(The first day of the period, plus the rounded up quotient):
https://www.timeanddate.com/date/dateadded.html?m1=jun&d1=27&y1=1923&type=add&ay=&am=&aw=&ad=161&rec=
From Wednesday, 27 June 1923
Added 161 days
Result: Wednesday, 5 December 1923
Is Wednesday, 5 December 1923 the date of manufacture for your machine?
I don't know.
Aside from the very real possibility that I made a mistake in my calculations and assumptions, there are other potential factors.
Just for one, I'm not convinced that the factory was able to make 220-221 machines that first day.
The notes for that circa 1934 documentary said that the Kilbowie foundry was turning out over a million castings a week, and I have no reason to disbelieve that. They had to make not only cast iron sewing machine heads, but steel face plates, access panels, et cetera. It took a lot of cast parts to make a single machine.
In 1934, it sounds like they did have some techniques to speed up the process, like dipping the steel parts in whale oil, and they might well have already been using some special techniques to reduce cooling time for the cast iron machine heads.
However, cranking out a million castings weekly is not quite the same thing as taking all the raw materials for a single machine, and turning them into a finished product in one day.
I'm skeptical that the factory would have been able to cast, trim, 'rumble', and paint even one cast iron sewing machine head in a single day, let alone do all the other things that need to be done to it.
This is not a perfect comparison, but I found this study interesting:
https://www.foundry-planet.com/d/analysis-of-controlled-air-cooling-for-castings-by-experiment-and-simulation/
The short version: for a 6" x 4" x 2" iron ingot, it took about 125-210 minutes to cool sufficiently to get it out of the mold, depending on whether they used any special techniques to reduce the cooling time.
And that wasn't even cool enough to pick up with your bare hands, let alone paint it.
Anyway, it's interesting.
Feel free to try these calculations for yourself, not to mention point out any flaws in my reasoning. :-)
Gippsgirl, I revisited that permalink for the number of work days in the period, and found that while it works fine on my hybrid, it didn't on my so-called smartphone.
If you try it yourself, and get results that don't jibe, you'll probably have to start from scratch, and redo the custom inputs excluding Sundays, and holidays in the UK:
https://www.timeanddate.com/date/workdays.html
Anyway, is any of this correct for workers at the Kilbowie factory in 1923/1924?:
https://libraryblog.lbrut.org.uk/2016/12/origins-bank-holidays/
I should probably find something else to do, huh? };-)
Wow Keramikos!!!
Your knowledge of Singer Sewing machines is amazing and I am very grateful to you for having shared links to explore and build my own knowledge of our much-loved Singer.
Very much appreciate your time spent on this amazing website -Collectors Weekly, which I stumbled upon by chance!
Thank you again Keramikos????
Gippsgirl, You're welcome. :-)
I'm actually not an expert. That would be the people behind all the websites I linked. I'm just an old Internet surfer who's developed a not altogether explicable fascination with vintage sewing machines, especially Singers.
I've somewhat reluctantly come to the conclusion that it might have been possible for Singer to take the raw ingredients for a single sewing machine and turn out one complete machine in a single day. Well, the metal parts, anyway.
What has finally half-way convinced me is the footage in the circa 1934 documentary where they show the machine that japanned the sewing machine heads (it starts at around 15:08).
The machine is built a bit like a Ferris Wheel, if you can imagine one that sits ten people side by side in a single car.
The worker puts ten unlacquered cast iron sewing machine heads on hooks (and removes ten lacquered ones from a row of hooks above), and then lowers them into a lacquer bath. As they lower into the lacquer, you can see another row of ten heads that have already been japanned descending from above, as well as yet another row of ten emerging from the lacquer bath behind the ones descending into it.
They probably developed some method of accelerating the drying of the lacquer, in addition to methods for accelerating the cooling of metal castings.
Lacquer on wood would be another matter, but they could work ahead on cabinets.
Finally, here are some interesting statistics about the Kilbowie factory:
*snip*
The Clydebank Factory was a key player in the sewing machine industry on a global scale. At its production peak in 1913 the factory had grown to occupy a site of over 100 acres, more than double the initial area of land purchased in 1881, manufactured over 80% of the company's product and, in 1913, shipped 1,301,851 sewing machines from its factory doors around the world with help from its 14,000 employees.
*snip*
https://www.west-dunbarton.gov.uk/leisure-parks-events/museums-and-galleries/collections/singer/
That works out to about 3,567 sewing machines per day. That's another group of people who awe me. Those incredibly hard-working people at the factories.