Originally Posted by
irishrose
It wouldn't be a clone if it predates the 15 and clones are copycats that are fashioned after Singers, not Singers, but it sure is a gorgeous machine. You were fortunate to find her.
I don't think it predates the 15 - ISMACS lists it being produced from 1912 which postdates the 15's introduction by a quite a bit. I was kind of joking about the clone part but in some ways it fully qualifies. I imagine they used the 15 as the base for the 115 since it was already a vertical bobbin so all they needed was to change the the hook driver/setup.
Miriam, here are some pictures of the bobbin area sans bobbin case on both the 115 and 15. Note that I don't yet know if the 115 is complete in this area! The 115 is the first shot, a 15-91 is the second.