Connecticut western news., 1884-05-21
THE STEEL COBBLER.
OVER SIX PAIRS OF SHOES A MINUTE.
Machines Turn Them Out ms if they were
 Barrel SInves or TOnIRIo Cans.
From the New York SunJ

itentiary few hundreds of men and women start with the raw material, and turn out $500 pairs of shoes in ten hours, or more than six pairs of shoes a minute. The men and women have lit- tie to do with it. Machines do the work, and need only to be fed, started, and stopped; all the fine and ingenious work of building beautiful shoe they do, one part at time and one machine to each part. For ins tance, the first machine cuts the soles out of the leather. It is nothing but punch fitted with knife the shape of a shoe sole. Different sized knives cut out anything from a baby's to plantation darkys size. Cut ting out the sole leaves the sheets of leather in tatters. The biggest tatters are used for heels; the smallest make fuel. Leather scraps make as good furnace fire as coal does. The next machine splits thin slice of the upper surface of the sole little way from the edge all around, so that it looks as if a thin sheet had been pasted on to the sole, leaving the edges unpasted. Under this loose edge a machine presses little gutter or channel in which the mailing or sewing is done, and afterward hidden by pasting the loose edge over it when tue upper is attached.
 At the same moment convicts are cut ting uppers out of dressed calfskin. They lay patterns on the skins and thus cut the needed sizes. This is done by hand, but the Innings are sewed to the uppers, and the buttonholes are put through both leather and lining by ma chinery. The buttonoholes are stitched by automatic machines, consisting of a sewing machine having under the needle little plate which turns exactly in accordance with the outlines of the buttonhole, and stops when the button hole is finished. One man feeds several machines, starts them, and does not touch them while they are at work. Af- ter this the soles and uppers come into the hands of one set of convicts, the lasters and tackers on, who put the two together with very few small tacks. These people all work like lightning, but are slow beside the machinery.
 The soles and uppers are firmly joined ill several ways. One machine puts in brass screws and bites them off exactly at the right distance between the upper and the under surface of the leather; an- other drives ill an iron screw with a nicety; another sews the parts together with wax thread, the thread passing through a heated metal horn, which keeps it soft and warm; yet another im- itates hand sewing with yellow thread, leaving an extended sole, which is after. ward bevelled to look pretty. The merit of this machine is that the shoes it sews are pliable and easy to the foot, and bring a good price. This does its work in eleven seconds.
 The heels are made separately, and when finished have all the nails project. ing half an inch from the bottom of the lower sheet of leather. A convict puts one of these heels into a metal cup in 6 press of great power, and over that he rests shoe in the right position. Then down comes a great bar and squeeze the heel and shoe together, driving every other nail all the way in and leaving every other nail sticking a little way out. He takes the shoe out, puts ( pretty heel tap on, puts the shoe back submits it to the pressure, and then with, draws it, and finds the tap firmly nailed with the nails not quite through the tap which presents a smooth, unbroken un der service. The heel-shaving machines present to the heel set of rapidly re. volving knives, shaped to make 2 straight heel or a guttered one, or even ladys French heel. Another machine cuts the front of the heel square, and another trims and smooths the edge oi the sole. The edge of the sole and the sides of the heel are blackened and tho edge Is put under hot iron about tho size of fat chestnut. This iron moves to and fro with incredible rapidity, in imitation of the motions of the cobblers who used to do the work by hand. A large iron, also heated by gas jet, does the same thing for the heel, and does il under such pressure that cracks and un- evennesses in the heel are smoothed over, filled up, and concealed.
 Some shoe uppers have eyelet holes in- stead of buttonholes. There Is a ma chine in the prison for doing this work. ! It has two steel rods close to one another, and while one punches the holes the other inserts the eylets, which run down little gutter, right side up, exactly into place to fix into the punctures in the leather, and to have their edges squeezed over by the rod and the piece that fits upon it. Twenty years ago shoemak- ing machinery performed only half of this work and did that roughly. Now the shoes made in Crow Hill prison are such as most persons wear, and are in all respects shapely, presentable, and well finished. Some of them retail for S4 or $5 pair.
 Iu this prison, side by side with the scum of humanity, reputable men and girls are employed. There are probably two hundred girls in the female prison, who live in Brooklyn, come every morn- ing, and are free to go home whenever they present a certain ticket at the prison door. The Warden, who is, in all probability, not consulted, since these persons work for the contractors, was asked what he thought of the effect of such surroundings upon the youths of good morals. He replied that there used to be general feeling that the ar engagement was improper and dangerous, I,ut # hoe ,,rovad not So OufSi1a fraa