, 1878-07-18
A Visit to the Boot and Shoe Factories
of Lynn.

over manual labor t. such startling cX.
font ~ in this city of Lynn, To-day the
greatest shoe manufacturing place in the
world. There Is hardly in the entire
range of boot and shoe making, with ITS
numerous details, "A single thing to be
done but machine stands ready To do
it. SO that in some factories which ! have
visited to-day uothingremalns for human
hands to do but to put the strings IN the
ladies or misses shoes. Is 1t a wonder,
then, that Europeans begin to bcIlcv"n't
80 much in American shoes, but IN amer
lean shoe machinery, which they now
purchase as fast AS they hear of the new
inventions, take them to their respective
localities and proluce what they cal an
American shoeI Only last week II
steamer left Boston with no less than
tifty of these machines, most ot which are
manufactured in the State OF Massa'
chusetts. To give an idea of the practi-
cal work accomplished by this machinery
merely need to state the fact that IN
1855 there were 10000 more shocmakcrs
in Massachusetts than there are to-day,
and vet the value Of the products OF the
various factories is s7l 100000 greater
Der annum to-day than twas then. There
are machines for sewing, siding, lasting,
heeling pegging, bufling, rivetiug, crimp'
ing, edge setting, eyeletting, backing
and other minutip of the shoemaking
business, and no less than seventeen diff
fereut inventions are now actually re-
quired for any large boot and shoe fac
tory. At some of the industrial exhibi-
tions your readers may have here and
there noticed one or two of these ma
chimes, but it is only in place like Lynn,
where they are all working at their high
est speed, and where the work of the one
rapidly follows that of another, that a
man stands amazed at Yankee ingenuity.
To think that one woman alone, working
ten hours day, can, with the eyeletting
machine, for instance, put holes In ,44O
pairs of shoes in single day seems al
most incredible; and yet saw a very in.
telligentlooking young woman engaged in
that identical work this morning without
any apparent exertion on her part. |
asked her, while she was running the
uppers of some very fine material through
the machine, whether she could not work
q little slower, so that l might watch the
progress of the little metal rings that
fasten themselves so rapidly into the
holes, but she smiled and said thai the
machine left her no option and drove her
work along. 1t was like the ticking Of
clock, as rapid and as systematic, and
all she had to do was to guide the upper.
When it is remembered that there are
tweuty-six different patents on the eye
letting machine alone, and that this ma
chine is not by any means the most i'm
portant helpmate for the shoemakers, it
will readily be understood that there are
no less than seven hundred different
Of the various articles of
machinery required for we'll organized
American shoe factory.
And in this connection let me call the
attention of your lady readers to the fact
that, while they have contributed no
donbt to enrich the Howes and Singers of
the past for the sewing machines, the
shoe manufacturers of New England are
enriching another man. The Mckay
sewing machine for boot and shoe
makers-itself costly machine-gets
royalty of from one to two cents on each
pair of boots, and while in the State If
Massachusetts, alone about ninety million
pairs are made in single year, the in
come from this sewing machine surpasses
anything that has ever preceded it. This
machine has only been in use since 1871.
The most ingenious of all the machines,
however, is the beeling machine, which
takes The heel iu its rough state, ,fastens it
to the boot and trims it in less time than
it fakes to write these few lines descrip-
tive OF its operation.
While, as have stated, eighty five per
cent. of all the boots and shoes manu-
factured are made by machinery, it must
be added, after more minute investiga-
tion, that ninety-seven per cent. of the
labor on all manufactured leather is done
by machinery, and the result is that the
export OF sole leather especially is largely
on the increase. True, on looking at the
export figures, as obtained at the custom
houses of New York, Boston, and Phia.
delphia for 1877, they only show $6,O16,,
S73 for that year, against $S. 304 $50 for
1876, but it must be borne in mind that,
owing to decline in prices, we actually
exported more sides of leather last year
than the previous year. In addition to
this | am informed that since 1875 the
entire business of exporting leather has
changed in character. During that year
and previously quite number of Ameri-
can houses consigned leather to foreign
countries aud took their chances. To
day positive orders, even by cable, are
continually received from England, and
the business is steadily on the increase.
1t is not many years ago, am told, that
the imports of hides to this country we're
greater than the production, and foreign
prices then ruled the American market.
Now the entire business is reversed and
we export hides to Liverpool, London,
Havre, Antwerp, Genoa and Hamburg,
but only those hides which arc taken
from the heaviest grade OF cattle. The
hides which ar yet being imported are
light, while we export the heavy Quail
ties So far "a tho hi1a and colo lo,,Lo.