Singer Manufacturing Sewing Machine Manufacturer. This large manufacturer of both industrial and home-based sewing machines took over the Bridgeport-based Wheeler and Wilson Sewing Machine Company in the fall of 1905 and focused its Bridgeport plant production on industrial use machinery. By the 1950's, Singer produced more than 4,000 varieties of family and industrial sewing machines for a world-wide market. Over the decades, the company's East Side plant employed hundreds of Bridgeporters, including the city's "Stoker-Mayor," Dennis Mulvilhill, who gave up shoveling coal at Singer's to run for office and won. The plant's whistle was an East Side institution for years; both workers and residents alike set their watches by the familiar 6:45am and 12:45pm blows and town officials often used the whistle to herald important city events.