I just finished a book that many of you might enjoy.... and it is on topic too!!! The book is "Singer and the Sewing Machine: a Capitalist Romance" by Ruth Brandon. It is not only a biography of Isaac Merritt Singer but a history of the sewing machine. Wonderful reading and very informative. (This also seems to indicate where the Merritt sewing machine name came from. )
I.M. Singer was a cad, a showman, and much more. He fathered and acknowledged, over 20 children, and had 4 families at the same time for several years. But he also was able to invent a lot of the details that made sewing machines practical and available to everyone.
Have fun, Pati, in Phx