Wiki Protocols

Purpose of this Wiki
Lemair produced dozens of models of sewing machines between 1959 and 197x but there exists no record of their names or model numbers. The purpose behind this wiki is to fill that gap using the evidence we have and to use this as a base to find out further details about these models.

Scope of this Wiki
To state the obvious, this wiki is about Lemair Helvetia sewing machines. What can we use as firm evidence that a specific sewing machine is a Lemair model? Well, luckily all Lemair machines were released with the distinctive Lemair badge (except possibly the earliest Helvetia built models). So, if it says "Lemair", it's a Lemair!

Primary Source Evidence Used In This Wiki
Because so little is known about the company and it's products, there is a certain amount of guesswork about Lemairs online. The only way we can be confident about what we are putting into this Wiki is if it is primary source information. Wikipedia defines a primary source as..."'an artifact, a document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, a recording, or any other source of information that was created at the time under study. It serves as an original source of information about the topic.'"I have taken the following to be primary sources:
 * A Lemair branded sewing machine (of course!). This can either be a machine in the possession of a contributor to this Wiki, or one that they have examined and verified, or it can be a photograph, for example a machine offered for sale online.
 * Newspaper advertisements. I have focused on the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) from convenience and the fact that the main production for Lemair was done in Sydney.
 * The SMH is available for searching on the SMH website HERE
 * and on Trove HERE. Trove is the online archive of the National Library of Australia, Australia's State and Territory libraries and hundreds of cultural and research institutions around Australia.
 * Google News has the best quality scans of the newspaper. These adverts can have photographs, descriptions and give us date when we know they were offered for sale by Lemair, the earliest and latest dates can give us a rough date range of when they were produced.

How can you identify a Lemair sewing machine?

 * Early models had few identifying marks
 * Some had model information at the base of the pillar
 * Later models had a name or number on the arm
 * They all have a serial number punched into the bottom of the machine
 * they usually have a Ja or JC number punched next to it which is a manufacturer's casting number [Cari at Customstyle]