singer had seen a rotary sewing machine being repaired in a boston shop. as an engineer, he thought it was clumsy and decided to design a better one. the machine he devised used a falling shuttle instead of a rotary one; the needle was mounted vertically and included a presser foot to hold the cloth in place. it had a fixed arm to hold the needle and included a basic tension system. this machine combined elements of thimonnier, hunt and howe's machines. singer was granted an american patent in 1851, and it was suggested["] he patent the foot pedal or treadle, used to power some of his machines; unfortunately, the foot pedal had been in use too long for a patent to be issued. when howe learned of singer's machine he took him to court, where howe won and singer was forced to pay a lump sum for all machines already produced. singer then took out a license under howe's patent and paid him $1.15 per machine before entering into a joint partnership with a lawyer named edward clark. they created the first hire-purchase arrangement to allow people to buy their machines through payments over time.