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Sewing machine
Women's lives were transformed by the sewing machines Isaac Singer built - though he himself had no interest in driving social change.
Women's lives were transformed by sewing machines, which made a "never-ending, ever-beginning task" far less arduous and time-consuming. But Isaac Singer, who made his fortune from these devices, was far from a champion of women's rights. Tim Harford tells a story of how self-interest can sometimes be a powerful driver for social change.
On radio
Saturday
05:50GMT
BBC World Service except East and Southern Africa & South Asia
Image credit
Advert for Singer's Patent Sewing Machine, 1899. Photograph by The Montague Studio, Brooklyn (Credit: The New York Historical Society/Getty Images)
Broadcasts
- Saturday 05:50GMTBBC World Service except East and Southern Africa & South Asia
- Saturday 14:50GMTBBC World Service News Internet
- Next Sunday 14:50GMTBBC World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Next Sunday 15:50GMTBBC World Service Australasia, UK DAB/Freeview, News Internet, Online & Europe and the Middle East only
- Next Sunday 22:50GMT
- Next Monday 04:50GMTBBC World Service South Asia
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