The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1878-07-18
A Visit to the Boot and Shoe Factories
of Lynn.

over manual LABOR To Sucn startling eX-
tent as 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, single thing to be
done but a machine stands ready to do
it, so that in some factories which | have
visited to-day nothing remains for human
hands to do but to put the strings in the
ladies' or misses shoes. Is it a wonder,
then, that Europeans begin to beleve,not
so 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 produce what they call an
American shoe? Only last week II
steamer left Boston with no less than
fifty of these machines, most of which are
manufactured in the State of Massa-
chusetts. To give an idea of the pract-
cal work accomplished by this machinery
| merely need to state the fact that in
1855 there were 10000 more shoemakers
in Massachusetts than there are to-day,
and yet the value of the products of the
various factories is $7l,000,000 greater
per annum to-day than it was then. There
are machines for sewing, siding, lasting,
heeling, pegging, buffing, riveting, crimp-
ing, edge setting, eyelettng, backing
and other minuti9 of the shoemaking
business, and no less than seventeen diff
ferent inventions are now actually re-
quired for any large boot and shoe fac
tory. At some of the industrial exhibit
tons 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 l ,440
pairs of shoes in a single day seems al
most incredible; and yet saw very in
telligent looking 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
little slower, so that might watch the
progress of the little metal rings that
holes, but she smiled and said that 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
twenty-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
notifications 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 a costly machine-gets
royalty of from one to two cents on each
pair of boots, and while in the State #
Massachusetts, alone about ninety million
pairs are made in single year, the in
come from this sewing machine surpasses
anything that has ever preceded il. This
machine has only been in use since 1871.
The most ingenious of all the machines,
however, is the heeling machine, which
takes he heel in its rough state, tastens il
10 the boot aud trims it in less time than
it takes to write these few lines descrip-
tive Of its operation.
While, us have stated, eighty five per
cent. of all the boots and shoes manu-
featured are made by machinery, il must
be added, after more minute investiga-
ton, that ninety seyen 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 Phila-
delphia for 1877, they only show S6016,-
373 for that year, against IS 81 $50 for
1876, but it must be borne in mind that,
owing to a decline in prices, we actually
exported more sides of leather last year
than the previous year. In addition to
this | am informed that since 1915 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 and 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 were
greater than the production, and foreign
prices then ruled the American market.