The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1878-04-19
Notes on Shoemaking.

Twenty-Five years ago, in New England,
all shoes were made by hand, and man
seldom sat at the bench all day, but usu-
ally piled some other trade till nightfall
and then went to his lasts. To-day
thousands of men and women are ems
ployed daily In Perfecting q piece of the
shoe by machinery whilst they are unable
to do anything on the shoe by hand.
Forty-fve millions of pairs of sewed
shoes and So 600, 600 pairs ot pegged shoes
were made and sold by the manufacturers
OF the United States in 1877, and eighty
five per cent. of the work done on these
shoes was done by machinery. The
uppers are cut out by hand, simply
because of the invariableness of the quail
ity Of the leather in the same skin. The
soles are cut out by machinery, and the
binding, FASTING, closing, crimping
stitching heeling and polishing are all
done by machinery without the aid of
human hand.
The strongest sewed shoes are stitched
with q wire screw thread each stitch
being actually screwed in and the screw
cut of by an automatic machine, the ex-
act thickness of the sole, whether it be
thin, as in the shank. or thick or under the
ball OF the foot, or still thicker, as
through the heel.
Nine hundred pegs are driven in a
shoe in a minute. Four hundred and
fifty thousand bushels of pegs were used
last year, and all made by machinery.
The pegs in four pairs of mems shoes
cost one cent.
The cost of shoes is no less now than
when made by hand, because leather is
deaTer. In 1855 it cost 81. 25 TO make
q pair of ladies' CATERS of the finest
quality. Now the same shoe can be
made for $3.50 The females did most OF
the binding and stitching at 80 cents pei
day ; now they get $1.3O per day for at.
tending the machinery. Then, men who
lasted and did the sewing got 81 pei
day; now they get $3.50. The stock in
such shoes is now worth 80 per cent
more than it was in 1855. Then. q man
by hand made six pairs woman's shoes in
a day now one man and boy or woman
will by machinery make twenty times as
much.
30 periectlyis everything made for thi-
/ kind of manufacture that neither time
nor scrap of material Is lost. Last fall a
/ shoe manufacturer was burned out il
/ Lynn on Wednesday. Thursday he re.
/ ceived his insurance and rented another
/ house; Friday, ordered his new machin-
cry from Boston, only nine miles off; re-
/ ceived it on Saturday; put 1t up on
/ Monday, and on Tuesday had all his force
at work turning out 80 many pairs Of
shoes as he had done before the fire
/ "a 600 pairs every day. There Is 81 roy
/ atty of two cents on every pair of pegged,
/ and of three and a quarter cents on
every pair Of swed shoes made by ma
chinery.
There were over $4,000, 900 worth o
leather exported in 1877, and yet a heavy
duty is levied upon leather.
There were 10000 lasts made in'thC
Uuited States in 1877, all turned by ma
chiRery.
In the manufacture of cotton and
woollen goods ninety hands now in sixty
hours do the work that 256 hands did il
seveuty-six and half hours fifteen year,
ago, and though their wages have in
creased forty per cent. the cost of manu-
featured articles has been greatly re
duced. 1t costs three and a half cent:
per yard to make calico, and Wamsutts
goods are now sold in the London market
but yet the policy of our government
thinks it proper to impose q duty of from
thirty to fifty per cent. upon all classes o
cotton and woollen goods Charleston
/ News and Courier.