side of the ankle.
RAG SOLE. A sole stiffening cut out of a sheet of rag stock, which covers
the whole bottom. The edges are skived to make a perfect edge.
TOE FILLER. A rag-stock filling sole to fill up the hollow on the bottom
caused by attaching the lining to the inner sole.
[Illustration: Parts of a Rubber Boot.]
TOE LINING. The lining for the vamp, of the same material as the leg
lining.
VAMP. A piece cut out of sheeted gum.
VAMP FORM. A piece of frictioned sheeting cut to the shape of the vamp,
and put on over the toe lining.
WEB STRAPS. Straps put on with the joined ends between the leg lining and
the leg cover, and forming a loop on the inside of the boot to pull it on
with.
CHAPTER TWELVE
HISTORY OF FOOTWEAR
We find that primitive footwear, in common with all other beginnings,
was of the crudest nature and took the form of the simple sandal. It is
probable that man first protected his foot from the rough way by simple
pieces of hide, which were bound to the bottom of the foot. The sandal,
among the most primitive, is the type of footwear worn to-day. The sandal
was simply bound to the foot by thongs of hides, which were brought
between the toes and tied around the ankle.
At about the Elizabethan period, shoemaking had really become a very
fine art. Some foot creations were made by the Court shoemakers that
reflected the individual taste of the monarch, and so great was the
competition to produce something novel that very often the styles
assumed a grotesque aspect. The toes were elongated so that sometimes
they were carried up and fastened by cords and tassels to the tops of the
shoes, and it finally became necessary to enact a law to prevent such
outrageous types of footwear. The slippers of this period were of the
extremely high-heeled variety, and small fortunes were often spent on
their ornamentation. They were mostly of the turn-shoe type, and samples
which are preserved show the excellent workmanship that was in vogue at
that time.
We now come to the first shoemaker in America. When the _Mayflower_
made the second trip to America, she carried among others a shoemaker
named Thomas Beard, who brought with him a supply of hides. Seven
years afterwards there arrived one Phillip Kertland, a native of
Buckinghamshire, who settled in Lynn in 1636.
Kertland was the pioneer shoemaker of Lynn and for years he successfully
worked at his craft, teaching others his methods and ways, so that
fifteen years after his arrival, Lynn was not only supplying the
requirements of its inhabitants, but was also sending a part of its
products to the port of Boston. As early as 1648 we find tanning and
shoemaking mentioned as an industry of the colony of Virginia, special
mention being made of the fact that a planter named Matthews employed
eight shoemakers on his premises. Legal restraint was placed on the
cordwainer in Connecticut in 1656, and in Rhode Island in 1706, while
in New York the business of tanning and shoemaking is known to have
been firmly established previous to the capitulation of the Province
to England in 1664. In 1698 the industry was carried on profitably in
Philadelphia, and in 1721 the Colonial Legislature of Pennsylvania passed
an act regulating the material and the prices of the boot and shoe
industry.
Prior to 1815 most of the shoes were hand sewed, a few having been copper
nailed. The heavier shoes were welted and the lighter ones turned. This
method of manufacture was changed, about the year 1815, by the adoption
of the wooden shoe peg, which was invented in 1811 and soon came into
general use. Up to this time little or no progress had been made in
the methods of manufacture. The shoemaker sat on his bench, and with
scarcely any other instrument than a hammer, knife, and wooden shoulder
stick, cut, stitched, hammered, and sewed until the shoe was completed.
Previous to the year 1845, which marked the first successful application
of machinery to American shoemaking, this industry was in the strictest
sense a hand process, and the young man who chose it for his vocation
was apprenticed for seven years, during which time he was taught every
detail of the art. He was instructed in the preparation of the insole
and outsole, depending almost entirely upon his eye for the proper
proportions; taught to prepare pegs and drive them, for the pegged shoe
was the common type of footwear in the first half of the last century;
and familiarized himself with the making of turned and welt shoes, which
have always been considered the highest types of shoemaking, as they
require exceptional skill of the artisan in channeling the insole and
outsole by hand, rounding the sole, sewing the welt, and stitching the
outsole. After having served his apprenticeship, it was the custom for
the full-fledged shoemaker to start on what was known as “whipping the
cat,” which meant traveling from town to town, living with a family while
making a year’s supply of shoes for each member, then moving on to fill
engagements previously made.
The change from which has been evolved our present factory system began
in the latter part of the 18th century, when a system of sizes had been
drafted, and shoemakers more enterprising than their fellows gathered
about them groups of workmen, and took upon themselves the dignity of
manufacturers.
It was soon found that the master workman could largely increase his
income by employing other men to do the work while he directed their
efforts, and this gradually led to a division of the labor: the shoe
uppers, which had prior to this time been sewed by men using waxed thread
with bristles, now were done by women, who often took the work home.
One workman cut the leather, others sewed the uppers, and still others
fastened uppers to soles, each workman handling only one part in the
process of manufacture.
We find that in the year 1795 the evolution of the factory system had
reached a stage where in Lynn alone there were two hundred master
workmen, employing six hundred journeymen and turning out three hundred
thousand pairs of shoes per year. The entire shoe was then made under one
roof, and generally from leather that was tanned on the premises.
Factory buildings were not at this time of a very pretentious nature
and did not by any means represent the amount of work undertaken by the
proprietor; for the small ten by ten factories, which are even to-day in
existence in some of the backyards of Lynn homes, came into existence
at this time. Many farmers found that shoemaking was a remunerative
occupation in the winter, and they, and perhaps their neighbors, gathered
in these shops and took from the different factories shoes on which to
fasten the soles, or uppers to bind, which, after completion of the work,
were returned to the factory, where they were finished and sent to market
packed in wooden boxes. It was in this way that the industry prospered
and developed up to the period of the introduction of machines, which
happened but a little over half a century ago.
Up to the year 1811 absolutely no machinery was used in the making of
shoes. This year shoe pegs were invented and a machine for making them.
The pegged shoe became very widely worn, but it was not until 1835 that
any machine for driving pegs was made, and even at this time the machine
was but an indifferent success. It was a hand machine and its work was by
no means of a reliable nature.
The first machine to be widely accepted by the trade was the “rolling
machine.” This was used for rolling the sole leather under pressure, and
it is said that a man could perform in a minute with this machine the
same office that he would have required half an hour to have performed
with the old-fashioned lapstone and hammer. This was followed in 1848 by
the most important invention, the “sewing machine,” which was perfected
by Elias Howe, and was soon followed by a machine which sewed with waxed
thread and made it possible to sew the uppers of shoes in a much more
rapid, reliable, and satisfactory manner than had ever been done by hand.
This, too, was soon followed by a machine which split the sole leather
and by another for buffing or removing the grain.
In 1855 William F. Trowbridge, who was a partner in the firm of F.
Brigham & Company, of Feltonville, Massachusetts, then a part of
Marlboro, conceived the idea of driving by horse power the machines then
in use. The introduction of power became very general, so that in the
year 1860 there were scarcely any factories which were not driven by
either steam or water power.
The year 1858 was marked by the invention by Lyman R. Blake of the
McKay sewing machine, which probably more than any other has exerted a
revolutionary effect on the industry.
The McKay machine did not at this time sew the toe or heel; the sewing
was started at the shank and carried forward to a point near the toe
on one side, and the same operation repeated on the other side; but
it seemed to possess great possibilities and created a great deal of
interest throughout the trade. It was, of course, a very crude machine
and very different from the McKay machine of to-day. It was set on a
bench and the shoe to be sewed was placed over a horn, and the sewing was
done from the channel in the outsole through the sole and insole. Colonel
McKay immediately started to improve the machine. He employed skilled
mechanics to work on it and attempted to introduce it in different
factories, but encountered a great deal of opposition and criticism
in regard to its future. It is said that he offered to dispose of the
machine to the shoemakers of Lynn and allow them its exclusive use if
they would pay him three hundred thousand dollars, an offer which was not
accepted.
The machine left a loop stitch and a ridge of thread on the inside of the
shoe, but it filled the great demand that existed for sewed shoes, and
many hundreds of millions of pairs have been made by its use.
While Colonel McKay had met rebuff and discouragement in attempting to
introduce his machine, the public necessity was such that manufacturers
were obliged to take it up immediately; but Colonel McKay was still
embarrassed by lack of capital to carry on his rapidly increasing
business. It was at this time that a system of placing machines in
factories, which system has proven to be the most potent factor in the
upbuilding of the shoe industry, was started. This was a royalty system,
whereby the machine or machine owner participated in the profits accruing
from the use of the machine.
It hardly seems that there can be any question as to the principle of
royalty being one of the greatest forces in building up the successful
industry which we have to-day; it afforded an easy means whereby machines
could be introduced without entailing hardships on the manufacturers,
who, had they been obliged to pay the actual worth of the machines,
would have been entirely unable to adopt them. Instances are known where
hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on machines, which machines
were abandoned without having made a single shoe.
At the time of the introduction of the McKay machine, inventors were
busy in other directions, and as a result, came the introduction of the
“cable nailing machine.” This was provided with a cable of nails, the
head of one being joined to the point of another; these the machines cut
into separate nails and drove automatically. At about this time also
was introduced the “screw machine,” which formed a screw from brass
wire, forcing it into the leather and cutting it off automatically.
This was the prototype of the “rapid standard screw machine,” which
is a comparatively recent invention, and is very widely used at the
present time as a sole fastener on the heavier class of boots and shoes.
Very soon thereafter the attention of the trade was attracted to the
invention of a New York mechanic for the sewing of soles. The device was
particularly intended for the making of turn shoes and afterwards became
famous as the “Goodyear turn shoe machine.”
Closely following the Goodyear invention came the introduction of
the first machine used in connection with heeling,--a machine which
compressed the heel and pricked holes for the nails; this was soon
followed by a machine which automatically drove the nails, the
heel having previously been put in place and held by the guides on
the machine. Other improvements in heeling machines followed with
considerable rapidity, and a machine came into use shortly afterwards
which not only nailed the heel, but which was also provided with a hand
trimmer, which the operator swung round the heel, after nailing. From
these have been evolved the heeling machines in use at the present time.
One of the early uses to which the sewing machine was put was the sewing
together of the pieces of soft and pliable leather which make the upper
of a shoe--a simple thing, involving only a slight adjustment of the
original machine. It is a far more complicated operation to sew the upper
to the thick and heavy sole, and years passed by before the secret was
discovered, and the McKay machine appeared. In the shoe sewed on the
McKay machine, the thread ran through into the inside of the inner sole,
leaving a rasping ridge on which the stocking of the wearer rubbed.
The McKay shoe displaced only the coarser grades. The hand-sewed shoe
remained the favorite of wealth and fashion, and was worn exclusively
by those who cared for comfort and could afford the price. In sewing
a shoe by hand, a thin and narrow strip of leather, called a welt, is
first sewed to the insole and upper, and the heavy outsole is sewed to
this welt, so that the stitches come outside and do not touch the foot,
the insole being left entirely smooth. It is a delicate operation by
hand, and many years elapsed before a machine was contrived by which it
could be done. At last the problem was solved. The “Goodyear welting and
stitching machines” appeared--so named for Charles Goodyear, who financed
and perfected them, a son of the man who taught the world the use of
rubber. These two machines are the nucleus of the Goodyear welt system,
to which must be attributed the revolution of an industry. Although they
are entirely distinct machines, they are inseparable, for neither can be
used effectively without the other in making the modern Goodyear welt
shoe.
[Illustration: Insole for Hand Sewed Shoe.]
[Illustration: Hand Sewed Shoe.]
Much of the style of a shoe depends upon the wooden last over which the
upper is shaped before being attached to the sole. To find a substitute
for the human hand in fitting the shoe to the last and pulling the
leather over its delicate lines and curves seemed for a long time
impossible.
This took place in the early seventies, when a machine was invented for
doing this work. It created a great change in a department of shoemaking
which, prior to this time, had been regarded as a confirmed hand process.
This machine, as well as those which followed afterwards for a period of
twenty years, was known as the best type of machine, by which the shoe
upper was drawn over the last by either friction or pincers, and then
tacked by use of a hand tool.
At a comparatively recent period another machine which revolutionized all
previous ideas in lasting was introduced. This machine is generally in
use at the present time, and is known as the “consolidated hand method
lasting machine.” It was fitted with pincers, which automatically drew
the leather round the last, at the same time driving a tack which held
it in place. This machine has been so developed that it is now used for
the lasting of shoes of every type, from the lowest and cheapest to
the highest grade, and it is a machine that shows wonderful mechanical
ingenuity.
The perfection of the lasting machine has been followed recently by
the introduction of a machine which performs in a satisfactory way the
difficult process known as “pulling over,” which consists of accurately
centering the shoe upper on the last and securing it temporarily in
position for the work of lasting. The new machine, which is known as the
“hand-method pulling over machine,” is provided with pincers, which close
automatically, gripping the shoe upper at sides and toe. It is fitted
with adjustments by which the operator is enabled to quickly center the
shoe upper on the last, and, on pressure of a foot lever, the machine
automatically draws the upper closely to the last and secures it in
position by tacks, which are also driven by the machine. The introduction
of this machine marked a radical change in the one important shoemaking
process that had up to this time successfully withstood all attempts at
mechanical improvement.
At about the time that lasting was first introduced, came the machines
which were used for finishing heel and fore part. These machines were
fitted with a tool, which was heated by gas and which practically
duplicated the hand workman in rubbing the edges with a hot tool for the
purpose of finishing them. From these early machines have been evolved
the “edge-setting machines” which are in use at present.
Thus, one after another, every operation has yielded to invention, until
very recently the only remaining process was subdued when a machine for
cutting uppers was devised. There are machines for shaping, compressing,
and nailing heels; for attaching soles to uppers in heavy shoes by wooden
pegs or copper screws and wires; for rounding, buffing, and polishing the
soles; for trimming and setting the edges of the sole; for performing
innumerable operations, some seemingly trivial, but all essential to
perfection in comfort, durability or style; so that in shoe factories
to-day a greater variety of intricate and expensive machines is used than
in factories of any other kind.
At the present time the genius of the American inventor has provided for
every detail of shoemaking, even the smallest processes being performed
by mechanical devices of some kind. This has naturally made the shoemaker
of to-day a specialist, who very seldom knows anything of shoemaking
apart from the particular process in the performance of shoemaking of
which he is an adept, and from which he earns a livelihood. The American
shoe of to-day is the standard production of the world. It is in demand
wherever shoes are worn.
In the year 1874 there had been perfected not only the machines which
Colonel McKay and Mr. Goodyear had been instrumental in building, but
other inventors had introduced similar machines for doing similar work.
This brought about the most acute business competition, and finally
resulted in many cases where one machine manufacturer alleged that the
other machine infringed his rights of patent, and in many other cases the
fiercest kind of litigation was established. This had a most disastrous
effect upon shoe manufacturers, for in many cases the manufacturer was
made to bear the brunt of the blows which contending shoe machinery
manufacturers aimed at each other.
Machines in use in factories were stopped by means of injunctions;
damage suits were entered, and litigation was very general. During the
year 1899, there was ushered in one of the most important events that
ever transpired in the history of shoemaking. The most important of the
concerns which had been making war upon each other were purchased by one
large company and brought under one harmonious management.
The United Shoe Machinery Company owes its origin to a call for a change
in conditions menacing the industry of making shoes which could not
be ignored. It was created by combining into one the three companies
existing in 1899: the Goodyear Sewing Machine Company, the Consolidated &
McKay Lasting Machine Company, and the McKay Shoe Machinery Company, each
of which respectively made and leased machines adapted to a particular
class of operations. The principal machines which each made did not
interfere with the principal machines of any other. They were dependent
links in an industrial chain. The Goodyear Sewing Machine Company
chiefly made machines for sewing the sole to the upper in welt shoes
and various auxiliary machines which helped to complete the shoe; The
Consolidated & McKay Lasting Machine Company made machines for lasting
a shoe; The McKay Shoe Machinery Company made various machines for
attaching soles and heels by metallic fastenings, and furnished material
for that purpose. A single manufacturer, in order to make Goodyear welt
shoes, would be compelled to patronize all the companies, going to each
of them for that part of his equipment which it exclusively supplied.
Each company had its agents in factories looking after its machines.
The gathering of these three companies into a single organization
wrought an instant change. It resulted immediately in greater economy
of administration; in relieving the manufacturer of the vexation of
sometimes seeing his factory crippled while orders were piling up;
in freeing him from the annoyance and expense of dealing with several
different concerns in order to get his most important machines and keep
them in repair.
The attention which had been paid to royalty machines and which had been
such an important factor in building up the industry in America, was
magnified by the management of the new company. Large forces of men and
expert machinists, as well as expert shoemakers, were maintained in the
different districts where shoes were made, and every effort exerted to
promote the growth of the industry.
While the royalty system proved to be of great advantage to small shoe
manufacturers, the largest manufacturers objected to paying royalty on
machines and desired to purchase them outright. Being unable to do so,
they placed experts at work to invent similar machines. This has resulted
in the United Shoe Machinery Company claiming that these machines are
infringements and causing considerable litigation.
If one reviews the history of the trade during the past ten years, there
will be little question but that one will find it has been a period of
the greatest advancement that the trade has ever known.
Within the time of those who read these words, the way to make a shoe has
been completely changed. Methods which held their own for centuries have
disappeared, to be replaced by processes which only recently would have
been thought impossible, and which have brought within the reach of men
of modest means a luxury once enjoyed exclusively by the well-to-do. The
feet of the million are clad to-day as finely as the feet of yesterday’s
millionaire. Shoes marked by comfort, durability, and style have driven
to historical museums the stiff and clumsy boots and brogans which not so
many years ago were worn by those who could not pay to have shoes sewed
by hand.