The Portland daily press., 1869-04-13
Our nIanu6ac,er;...

we nave TAKEN the opportunity on several
occasions to say word in regard to our differ
emit manufactures, an account of which is
often matter of interest to the public Yes
terday morning we paid visit to the large
factory of Messrs. jackson, Wengren & Co.,
on Union street. These gentlemen are the
proprietors of the only establishment in the
city where pegged shoes and boots for women
are made wholly by machinery. There are
several where they are made by hand, and also
factories for the construction of sewed work.
In order to give our readers slight idea of
the several operations through which the
leather passes before it becomes finished boot
or shoe we will pass quickly through the va
rious rooms and attempt description of the
same. Entering large room in the second
story we find a great number of sides of leath-
err. These sides vary in thickness. One of
them is taken by workman and placed in q
cutting machine SO arranged that the leather
may be cut into the length required for boot
or shoe, from that of child up to a mans
size. This machine is capable of cutting 200
sides of leather day. After the leather is cut
into the required lengths these lengths are
placed in a large vat of water where thew re-
main until tempered. Each length is then
taken out and placed in machine where pass
ing between two heavy rollers it is pared to
the requisite thickness for soles. 1t then pass
es into another machine, called the rolling
machine, where the leather is subjected to a
pressure which causes it to emerge in the
same condition that it used to assume under
the old-fashioned pounding process, or such as
is seen nowadays in shoe-making shops
where the cobbler pounds it with hammer.
After this operation is finished the leather is
placed in a machine where it is cut into outer
and inner soles and taps, at the rate of eight
per minute. The cutting knife is then taken
off of the machine and the moulder and heel
press substituted in its place, when the sole is
moulded into the shape it assumes in the fin
ished shoe. These inner soles are then carried
to the feather. edging machine which gives
them an edge of uniform thickness, and edges
the counters, or pieces of leather which are
placed in the heel of the shoe to give the nee
essary stiffness. The inner soles by this pro
cess are all prepared so that the upper
will go over one part as far as it does
| over another part and they are then
0A ACauJ AoL tho hdct. DJ tAAS ludCutuc
one man can do the work of SIX We
must not omit here to mention q neat little
machine which takes what otherwise would Be
waste pieces of leather and cuts them into
slips for shank pieces. Also a machine for
cutting out heels, new patent, great i'm
provement over the old method. Formerly
each piece of leather, Ia number of which
of the same shape and thickness are put to-
gether to make up the heeD was cut out sepa-
rately to make the thickness for the heel, and
were rarely entirely uniform in size, but by
this arrangement a hollow piece of iron the
thickness of the whole heel is used and the
different pieces of leather cut upon it SO that
when it is full you have each piece of uniform
size Leather is saved by this patent and
heels are made faster.
In another room the uppers for the boots
are cut out from a pattern, the Innings and
facings stitched in, and eyelet holes made fol
the lacing. Then the uppers and the soles are
carried to another room where the last is put
in the uppers and also the inner soles. Thus
fixed the uppers are placed in the lasting ma
chine where the outer sole is tackled on. The
boot is then taken to the pegging machine
which is fed by coil of wood, in the same
manner that sewing machine is fed, and
which makes $50 revolutions minute, driving
peg into the boot at each revolution. The
workman who operates this machine can peg
boot in II seconds. From the pegging ma
chine the boot is turned over to the trimmers
who withdraw the last, finish the edge of the
boots by hand and tie them together in pairs.
Then the workman who puts on the heels
takes them, and by his machine can heel 40C
pairs day They are then FURNISHED on the
heel furnishing machine and then the soles
are smocthed on the sand papering machine.
They are then passed down stairs to the pack
ing room where the lacings are put in them
and they are packed in eases all ready for
sale.
From 800 to 600 pairs of boots can be made
in this establishment daily. Thirty-seven
hands are already employed, although if the
factory was pressed to its utmost capacity the
force of hands would have to be considerably
increased.
l.e>..l4
gether. The firm would no doubt be happy to
show any person, who woul be interested, all
over the establishment. We were very much
interested ourselves in the various processes
and in seeing how much can be accomplished
when reduced to system.
FREs.-An alarm of fire was sounded from