Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1882-10-17

The Only Place In the World where they
are Made.

The Only Place In the World where they
are Made.
The shoes of people who are not fiat-footed
curve between the ball and the heel This
curve in the shoemakers' parlance is known
as the shank. Unless there was something
IN the shoe to support the shoe sole in this
curve, it would fatten. Hence .ssteel
shanks." Steel costs much money. Hence
substitute. AS that substitute, leatherboard
and, lastly, wood has been used. About
| seven years ago an ingenious man discovered
process of making a wooden shank that
| should serve all the purposes in shoe for
which steel was used. The owners of the
patent are now reaping big harvest. The
only wooden shank factory in the world is at
North Arson in this State. 1t is owned by
Messrs. Potter & Watson of Boston. Here
the butts OF birch trees are sliced and sawed
and boiled and peeled and split and dried
and squeezed till they are shank form
The factory is on the Mill stream. The
firm formerly did business in West Water
vile, but were burned out there last winter
They purchased the power at North Arson
and in order to secure the perfect control of
the reservoir purchased for SO 800 Embden
Pond and the old saw mill at that town They
started this factory last June. The materials
used are white and silver birch and white
maple. Poplar has been tried and proven a
failure. The lumber is purchased from farm
ers for Sc per cord, in pieces four feet long
and six inches in diameter The contracts
also provide that the lumber shall be free
from knots. The butts of the trees are want
ed. The lumber Is kept in the stream till its
turn comes. 1t is then sawed into blocks
\ 4. q
at once plunged into watts, " here they are boiled
in water hot water can be made. They
remain in this boiling bath about four hours
The object is to soften them and prepare
them for the next ordeal. They 20 from the
watts to the ritter.
The ritter is formidable machine. II
consists OF series of dies upon heavy iron
wheel revolving with immense force. A man
feeds the soaked blocks to this wheel. The
dies shape and split of the shanks in the
rough. They fall under the machine like so
many chips. Indeed they are SO many chips !;
and the shanks have to be culled from the big
heap of shapeless slivers which fly from the
sharp knives. Every shank, although not
| more than an eighth of an inch thick in the
| middle and tapering to nothing at each end,
! is, itself, split three CT four times for almost
| its entire breadth and length. But for this
| spllttlHg WOuiu tHt subsequent
processes. The object of the ritter seems to
be to knive and maltreat the wooden blocks
| to the very verge of humiliation and still
| fashion them into shanks.
The shanks have been through steam and
steel and are ready for fire. They are
| placed on rocks in dry closets, where hot air
| is forced among them by fan and pipes.
After driving four to "a hours they are pressed
| and nodded. The presses are a row of cum
brous iron machines. Girls sit in high backed
stools and feed the shanks to them. Down
comes the mold with weight of three tons
on it, and finish is given the shank. 1t II
hadn't been so thoroughly boiled, knived and
severely suDdued, the shank would resent the
treatment by swapping in two. But it pre-
serves exactly the finishing touch given it by
the press and is elastic. The girls SIT in one
position, and keep up one motion all day. 1t
is no wonder that they become sleepy and
that one of the operatives fed finger to the
three-ton squeeZer the other day.
But there's nothing sleepy about the girls
who tie the shanks into packages They
make their arms and fingers fly as if it were
a matter of life and death Twenty-four pairs
of shanks are tied in each package. Superin-
tendent Fairbrother says: 1--WE used to hire
the girls by the day. Tying up 40 gross was
considered good days work. Now we pay
the girls by the piece. One of them tied up
l54 gross yesterday. You see those two girls
there. They're rivals. They don't speak to
each other. Each tries 10 Guido the other,
and they work like mad
For everv size and width of shoe there is a
corresponding size and width of shank, and
the shop has dies for all of these. A steel
backbone is tackled on some of them
The shop has three stories and a basement
and "a hand are employed Mr.. r. Fair