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Not that I entirely trust anything on Wikipedia... But, this is a snip from the Singer report:
During WWII, the company suspended sewing machine production to take on government contracts for weapons manufacturing. Factories in the US supplied Americans with Norden bomb sights, M1 Garand rifles and M1911 pistols while factories in Germany provided their armed forces with weapons.
In 1939, the company was given a production study by the government to draw plans and develop standard raw material sizes for building M1911A1 pistols. The next year, April 17th, 1940, Singer was given an educational order of 500 units with serial numbers No. S800001 - S800500. The educational order was a program set up by the US Ordnance Board to learn how easily a company with no gun-making experience could tool up from scratch and build weapons for the government. After the 500 units were delivered to the government; the management decided their expertise would be better used in producing artillery and bomb sights. The pistol tooling and manufacturing machines were transferred to Remington Rand and some went to the Ithaca Gun Company. Original and correct Singer pistols are highly desired by collectors. In excellent condition, Singer pistols sell anywhere from $25,000 to $60,000. Current collector value is as high as $80,000 at auction
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