That’s a very nice-looking Singer 319W that you have there!
Yes, I have both an electric and a treadle Singer 319W. The treadle one was an electric until I converted it to treadle operation. They’re both green, so I’m keeping my eye out for a black one and a tan one. I haven’t ever plugged the electric one in. It came with a large group of machines that I bought, and I just squirreled it away. I use the 319W treadle regularly, or at least, as regular as a lazy old guy like me uses sewing machines. I mend jeans on it, and use 206x13 (2029) needles in it exclusively. I even have a couple of twin-needles (306x1-3) that I think will work in it (made for the previous 306 model), but I haven’t ever tried one of them.
I believe that the “W” simply means that it was built in the former Wheeler & Wilson factory at Bridgeport, CT, USA. Singer was building them in Scotland (“K” models) and Italy (“M” models) at the same time. During the mid-50s, Singer got serious about including the factory “letter code” on the model tags of their machines. They were getting many factories around the world, and not all factories built some models exactly like other factories, so it was probably an effort to keep down the confusion when parts were ordered. The letter code actually was begun around 1900, but not all factories used them on the physical model plates for the first 50 years.
As far as I know, the 319 was only made between 1957 and 1959. The 401A, that eventually replaced the 319, was being made at the same time (1956-1961) in the Anderson SC factory, and I would suspect that the 401A quickly became favored over the 319, and the 319 was discontinued. The internal motor of the 401A was probably what did the 319 in, as can be seen with the treadle-capable 401G made in Germany where treadle operation was still more prevalent than in the USA at the time. The 401G could leave the factory either as an internal motor electric machine, or a treadle-operated machine.
I originally nicknamed my treadle 319W as “Paddy” (green - St Patrick’s Day) but it didn’t stick, and I soon renamed it “Whiplash”, a play on the word “backlash” that I soon learned would stop everything when I let my treadle turn backwards even a little bit. The 319 is very unforgiving to turning the hand wheel the wrong way. It nearly always requires a cut-loose and bobbin case removal to get the tangle out. I didn’t want to call it “backlash” because it doesn’t ever do it except when I get to whipping around thinking that I know how to treadle well......
CD in Oklahoma