Editing Singer Corporation (section)

=== World War II ===
During [[World War II]], the company suspended sewing machine production to take on government contracts for weapons manufacturing. Factories in the United States supplied the American forces with [[Norden bomb sight]]s and [[M1 Carbine]] rifle receivers, while factories in Germany provided their armed forces with weapons.<ref>Sanders, Richard [http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/53/clark.html Robert S. Clark (1877–1956)], ''Press for Conversion! magazine, Issue 53, "Facing the Corporate Roots of American Fascism," March 2004. Published by the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade.''</ref>

In 1939, the company was given a production study by the government to draw plans and develop standard raw material sizes for building [[M1911 pistol|M1911A1 pistols]]. The following April 17, Singer was given an educational order of 500 units with serial numbers S800001 &ndash; S800500. The educational order was a programme set up by the Ordnance Board in the U.S. to teach companies without gun-making experience to manufacture weapons.

Singer delivered 500 units to the U.S. government. Although Singer was unable to produce 100 guns a day, which the government contract required, the War Department was impressed with the quality of their pistols and asked the company to produce navigation and targeting equipment components.{{r|popmech}} The pistol tooling and manufacturing machines were transferred to [[Remington Rand]] whilst some went to the [[Ithaca Gun Company]]. Approximately 1.75 million 1911A1 pistols were produced during World War II, making original Singer pistols relatively rare and collectable.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Karash|first1=Karl|title=Singer Manufacturing Co|url=http://www.coolgunsite.com/images/1911/singer1911a1.htm|website=coolgunsite.com|publisher=Moore, Ty|access-date=April 15, 2019|year=2002}}</ref> In 2017, one sold at auction for $414,000.<ref name=popmech>{{cite web | title=When the Singer Sewing Machine Company Built the Best .45 Pistol Ever Made | website=Popular Mechanics | date=November 2, 2021 | url=https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a23340620/singer-sewing-machine-company-45-pistol-gun/ | access-date=November 25, 2022}}</ref>

In December 1940, Singer won a contract to produce the M5 Antiaircraft Director, a version of the UK-designed [[Kerrison Predictor]]. The [[US Army]] had previously adopted the [[M7 Computing Sight]] for their [[37 mm gun M1]] anti-aircraft guns, but the gun proved temperamental and [[Sperry Corporation]] was too busy producing other systems to build the required number of M7's. After testing in September 1940, the Army accepted the Kerrison as the M5, and later, the [[Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/60|Bofors 40 mm gun]] in place of the M1.<ref name=Mindell1995>{{cite journal|title=Anti-aircraft fire control and the development of integrated systems at Sperry, 1925-40|journal=IEEE Control Systems Magazine|volume=15|issue=2|date= April 1995|pages=108–113|issn=1066-033X|doi=10.1109/37.375318|first=David A. |last=Mindell}}</ref>