• Isaac Singer donated 1000 Singers to the US army during the Civil War
• Standard sizes for clothes were first invented during the Civil War, to facilitate the mass-manufacture of uniforms
• American housewives sewed army uniforms on their Singers as part of the war efforts
• Russia's Czar Alexander III had 250,000 tents for the Imperial Army made on Singer sewing machines
• Japan's Meiji Emperor was so impressed by the Russian Army uniforms during the Russo-Japan War that he adopted Western military dress, and ordered uniforms for his army to be made on Singers

• In 1868 US President Andrew Johnson sent a Singer sewing machine to the Queen of Madagascar as a diplomatic gesture; her Prime Minister received a pair of Smith and Weston pistols. Together, the gifts represented America's industrial supremacy
• The Colt .45 pistol model M1911 was manufactured by the Singer Sewing Machine Company during the first and second world wars, when demand was so high that Colt could not fulfill all the government orders

• Singer advertising in Russia, including a series of postcards depicting the Russian victory over Napoleon in 1814, identified the company with Russian military might
• The massive Singer factory in Podolsk, Russia was nationalized by the Bolsheviks shortly thereafter; Singer lost 1/3 of its assets worldwide in the debacle
• During WW II, German pilots went out of their way to avoid damaging Singer factories in other European countries, thinking it was a German company
• The Singer railroad in Quebec, built to move logs from Singer's timber lot to its mill in nearby Thurso, was expanded during WW II using German prisoners of war
• The Japanese sewing machine industry which arose after World War II, overtaking Singer and undermining the American industry was created with considerable help from General MacArthur

One of the many apocryphal stories about Mr. Singer is that he also invented the machine gun. While this story is not true, the system of mass manufacturing first invented by Samuel Colt for his repeating pistol lent itself beautifully to the sewing machine. "Colonel" Colt's machines for making interchangeable parts for his guns were easily modified by the sewing industry, and soon Singer factories could produce weapons as easily as they could produce sewing machines, and did so, beginning in the Civil War.

Sewing machines, guns and war have been linked ever since. In the 1890s, Singer put out a series of trade cards in the US celebrating American warships, and in Great Britain depicting British warships.

Singer sewing machines, the backs of the cards boasted, were "standard equipment" on these ships.

In fact, Singer sewing machines became an indispensable part of the equipment of every army, all around the world. 

During World War I Singer plants were volunteered for the war effort by the company. Singer's Elizabethport, New Jersey plant made 75-mm cannons in addition to the famous .45 automatic pistol. Its Scottish plant in Clydebank, the largest in the world, produced a wide range of munitions and armaments, while its Russian plant in Podolsk began producing artillery shells.

This postcard was posted in 1915 by a Russian soldier: "Dear mother and father. Since I'm an official of the Union my military conscription was postponed until January. I'm writing to you from Podolsk, where I'm working at setting in place an artillery shell plant at this factory."

While the Russian plant was nationalized by the Bolsheviks after the war, during World War II Singer plants in the US, Canada, and Scotland once again retooled for the war effort, producing armaments ranging from automatic pistols and anti-aircraft guns to castings for aircraft engine piston rings and wooden propeller blades. Even Singer's cabinet plant in Thurso, Quebec, which produced fine veneers, was refitted to manufacture airplane wings.

The German Singer plant in Wittenberg produced uniforms and armaments for the other side.

Singer sewing machine sales plummeted after the war as the domestic market for sewing machines declined in developed countries while cheap, innovative models from Japan and Europe flooded the market. Looking to diversify, Singer gradually moved into the aerospace and defense industries, buying the famous "Link" aircraft simulator company and becoming, through its subsidiary General Precision, one of the biggest contractors to service the US Department of Defense during the Cold War.