The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1870-12-17
Pioneer Boot and shoe Manufactory.


Yesterday, Messrs. Protzman, Corson
and Gillian formally opened their Boot
and Shoe AIanufactory at the corner of
Taylor and Front streets, the ceremonies
of the occasion being christening, cham
payne lunch, toasts, responses, and gen
eral frlictation of the proprietors by
numerous friends who dropped in to par
tici;ate 10 the festivities or to take i look
through the establishment.
This is an enterprise of much greater
magnitude than most persons would be
led to believe by the bare announcement
above, and as it certainly is ono of great
Importance to the State, it deserves more
than brief, passing note. At present.
the machinery which it is intended to
employ has not all arrived and, conse-
quently, the force of laborers is not near
so large as it will be within the month
There are new tweuty two workmen en-
ployed, but within the next two weeks
and Immediately upon the receipt of the
balance of the machinery, the force will
be Increased to fifty men, women aud
boys, which will be the average, as now
contemplated, for the first year. A very
large proportion of all the work. when
the factory shall finally be in complete
running order. will be performed with
machinery. The company have, or will
soon have, all the modern appliances
used in the most successful manufacto-
ries at the east, so that fifty workmen will
be able to turn out an amount of work in
any given time which would require the
labor OF several hundred, working by
hand The work of making pair of
boots or shoes is performed by consid>
cradle number of persons, each having
his or her especial part to do. Briefly,
the hands which a pair of boots, for in
stance, goes through, may be described
as iolows: 4. The cutter who has a
given size given, cuts from pattern, the
yamps, backs, etc. 2. The vamps or
fronts are then passed to the crimper "a no
passes them through a machine, thence to
crimping boards to bring them to their
bent shape. 3. Back to the cutter who
trims and shapes them 4. The first
stitcher then takes the parts aud puts in
the fine or fancy stitching, Singer, or
Howe machine being used. 5. The
paster then takes them and pastes the
parts together and adds the stays when
any are required. 6. Another sewes on
the straps and counters, etc. T. The
siding up then follows work being
done with a New England Wax Thread
machine as rapidly almost as ordinary
cloth sewing. s. The next process is
rubbing down the seams and turning the
legs-the latter by machinery. @. The
uppcrs next go to the bottomers who
work in teams or gangs of four. The
frsts taeks on the sole in pe.ged work,
IL. 4 j. 4
the heel the third is the trimmer whu
pares the soIes and heels to sllrpe and
fourth. the finisher who blacks and pol
ishes the soles. 10. The boots being
made, pass to the treer who stretches and
puts them in shape for packing In
sewed work the process varies only in the
work done by the teams-ihe soies being
tacked on by one man the sewing being
done by hand by another. Shoes are
made by nearly similar processes. AT
the close, instead of being treed, they are
"dressed" or ''gummed.
An expert, with the New England
Wax Thread Stitcher. will seam up frou
16 to Is dozen pairs per day. The aver
age earnings III factory like this, are
about $50 per week to each Fifty, makiu.
Il total OF ,00e per week. Each four
men will average fourteen pairs of boots
daily. OF one hundred aud seventy five
pairs for the whole force-the value of
which is about 1927. In shop of City
operatives, about ten men. women and
children, will work at womens and chill
dren's shoes, making an average of i've
dozen pairs per day, valued at S24 per
dozen. The cost of stock is about equal
to the cost of labor with one third added,
where, as in this factory, the material is
all French brands, aud mostly of the very
finest aud best quality. The invest mcnt,
then, here, is not less than about Sl35,-
O00 per year in material and labor, tn
say nothing of incidental outliys. The
payment of the factory for a year will
reach about 100000 The firm will un-
dcrtake at present only the manufacture
of the superior grades Of work, the stock
used beink from the quality of French
kip up to the very finest and most costly
fancy French material, and the make to
correspond.
And, now having as briefly as We well
could do it. noticed the general processes
in this factory, and the purposes of its
conductors, We take pleasure in commend
ing this enterprising firm to the trade and
the pubiic, partly because they are genial
and worthy young men but chiefly be
cause the enterprise in which they have
engaged is one of that class of which our
young State stands greatly in need-a
home manufaetory tor home consumption.
This manufactory will not only furnish
employment at remunerative prices for
fifty worknien, but its bearing upon the
prosperity Of the city and State may be
traced very much further than that one
fact. The enterprise being new the num-
ber of workmen, with the families belong
ing to their care, is practically that many
added to our population. They aid all
classes of dealers and producers, by be
coming new consumers. Their employ
ment enables another man, or number
of men in the State to carry on the bus
mess of making leather, which also
-wldens the field in which labor seeks its
q.