Isaac Singer was an American inventor and manufacturer who is best known for his invention of the first practical sewing machine in 1851. His company, I.M. Singer & Co., became the world's largest manufacturer of sewing machines. Hlhes was a German-born American inventor who was the first to patent a rotary-hook shuttle sewing machine in 1854. He was also the founder of the Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing Company, which became one of the leading manufacturers of sewing machines in the United States. Both Isaac Singer and Hlhes are remembered as pioneers in the development of the modern sewing machine.