American enterprises: American business history
Transparent tape can produce X-rays, more because you don't know sticky things, how a refrigerator-sized machine can store chocolate, and a fashion expert in the 1950s may teach us what to wear. "Most Americans think that if you make a better mousetrap, the world will come to you," said Peter Liebold of the museum, one of the curators of the new exhibition. "In fact, this is not true. If you build a better mousetrap, it may rot in the corner of your garage.
First of all, Isaac Mei Lite Singh can hardly claim to have invented the sewing machine. It was elias howe who created the original concept of sewing machine and obtained the patent in 1846, charging a high license fee to anyone who tried to manufacture and sell similar products. But Singh is an eccentric entrepreneur. Actors and fathers of more than 20 children from different partners have come up with some methods to improve the Howe model, such as a thread controller, which binds a vertical needle to a horizontal sewing surface.
Singer applied for a patent for his machine in 185 1 and established the i.m. Singer Company, but at that time, a few other inventors had made their own patent improvements to Howe's original concept, including adding a needle and a continuous feeding device and other improvements. All these innovations add up to what lawyers call the "patent jungle", and many of them can claim the key parts of an invention. Triggered a sewing machine war.
"People sue each other, consume their resources and fight with each other instead of developing their own machines," Liburd said. Coupled with the high licensing fees that manufacturers have to pay, it seems that it is not worth investing to build a better mousetrap.
At that time, Orlando, a lawyer and competitor manufacturer and president of Grover Baker Sewing Machine Company? Brunson? Orando Brunson Potter put forward an unprecedented idea: factions can merge their own commercial interests. Because a powerful and profitable machine needs several parts covered by different patents, he proposed an agreement to charge a reduced license fee and distribute it to patent holders in proportion.
Howe, Singer, Grover, Baker, Wheeler and Wilson finally believed in the wisdom of this idea, and they jointly created the first "patent pool". It combines nine patents into a sewing machine portfolio, and four stakeholders get a certain percentage of income from each sewing machine. According to their contribution to the final design,
"Although this patent pool contains nine patents that are considered necessary for high-quality sewing machines, three of them are particularly important," explained Ryan Lampe, an associate professor at California State University East Bay, who has written several articles about the patent pool, especially about singers. He listed these patents: "elias howe's patent for four-motion feeding sewing needle, Wheeler and Wilson's patent for four-motion feeding, and Singer's patent for combining vertical needle and horizontal sewing surface. "
The company's early advertisements boasted many superlative words, including "always ready" and "it allows this concept" that sewing machines can develop because it is so dependent on many people's invention concepts, "Liburd said. About ten years after Likangxing came into effect in the alliance, the cost of each machine dropped from $25 (almost half of the total price) to $5; Dozens of new manufacturers have entered the industry.
So this crowdsourcing sewing machine can be widely sold and distributed. But why did Singh prove to be an endurance person? This is not because of isaac singer himself. Liebhold called him a "pacesetter" rather than a businessman. On the contrary, smart businessmen are in charge of the company, especially lawyer Edward Clark, who co-founded I.M. Singer &; Company. Company. He founded the company's early advertising campaign and designed the "installment plan" for customers who could not afford expensive machines-the first payment plan in the United States.
Clark also has the wisdom to squeeze unstable singers out of the company's active management company. 1863, he dissolved their partnership and established a singer manufacturing company.
"It is true that a series of senior executives of the singer company have promoted the development of the company, which is the contribution of all of them. They really set up a company and made it dominant in this field, Liebhold said.
The company has expanded door-to-door sales, partly because the installment plan requires lobbyists to collect payment once a week, but it also allows salespeople to take products to the homes of potential customers and show them how such a novel machine can simplify their lives. The company has opened a gorgeous exhibition hall to show the working principle of the machine (the exhibits will include a scale model of the original concert hall).
Singh also actively acquired second-hand sewing machines to suppress the secondary market of second-hand sewing machines. Like the latest iPhone today, Singer will launch a new sewing machine model and encourage consumers to replace the old model. The exhibition in the museum also includes a scale model of the singer tower.
. The company's central headquarters in Manhattan's financial district is one of the earliest corporate skyscrapers in the United States, and it has been the tallest building in the world for about a year. The company's organizational structure is one of its other major innovations, creating a centralized bureaucracy to manage its expansion footprint. The exhibition includes a scale model of Singh Tower, whose central headquarters is located in Manhattan's financial district, from which it controls and disseminates its sales agents around the world. It is one of the earliest enterprise skyscrapers in China, and it is the tallest building in the world in a year or so.
Singh also actively explored the international market and opened factories around the world to minimize transportation costs and import tariffs.
It seems obvious to us now, but "the development of multinational companies is an invention in itself, and how you do it is very difficult," Liebhold said.
Nowadays, the concept of "subversion" is very popular in the business world. Those developing applications and new startups can regard Singer as an original disruptive technology.
"Invention is a new creative idea, but it is difficult to market it and make people adopt it, which is often more difficult than the invention itself," Liebhold said.
The permanent exhibition "American Enterprise" opened at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. on July 1. The exhibition traces the development of the United States from a small country dependent on agriculture to one of the largest economies in the world. "