, 1884-08-19
.MACHINE-MADE SHOES.
How They Are Manufactured in
Grow Hill Penitentiary.
Conviet Labor and Automatic Ma
ehinrry Combined TO Produce Big
ReHuIts In Leather The
modus 0perandI.

New York Sum-
In Crow Hill pcnitentiary d few huu-
dreds Of men and women start with the
raw material and turn out $500 pairs Of
shoes in ten hours. or more han six pairs
of shoes a minute. The men and women
have little to do with il. Machines do the
work and need only to be fed, started and
stopped; oil the fine and ingenious work Of
building q beautiful shoe they do, one part
at a time and one machine to each part.
For instance. the first machine cuts the
sole out Of The leather. It is nothl
ing but "a punch fitted with a knife
the shape Of II shoe sole. Different
sized knives IA out anything from a
baby's to q plantation darkey's size. Cut
ting out the soles leaves the sheets of
leather In tattcrs. The biggest taiters are
used for heels; the smallest make fuel.
Leather scraps make as good a furnace
fire as coal does. The mex machine splits
q thin slice OF the upper surface of the
sole a little way from the edge all around,
so that II looks as If a thin sheet had been
pasted on to the sole. leaving the edges IN
pasted Under this loose edge q machine
passes a little gutter or channel, in which
the mailing or sewing is done and after.
ward hidden by FASTING the loose edge
over it when the upper is attached
At the same moment other convicts are
cutting uppers out of sheets of dressed
calfskin. They lay patterns on the skins,
and thus cut the needed sizes. This Is
done by hand, but the Innings arc sewed to
the uppers. md the bottom holes are put
through both leather and lining by machin-
cry. The button holes are stitched by
automatic machines. consisting Of a sew
ing machine having under the needle q
little plate which turns exactly in accord
ance with the outlines Of the bottom hole
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. After 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 a very few
small tacks. These people all work like
lightning. but are slow beside the ma
cninery.
The soles and uppers arc firmly Join
ed in several ways. One machine puts
in brass screws and bites them of ex-
actly at the right distance between the up
per aud the under surface of the leather;
another drives in an iron screw with the
same nicely; another sews the parts to-
gether with waxed thread, the thread pass.
ing through a heated metal horn, which
keeps It soft and warm; yet another imi-
tates hand sewing with yellow thread,
/ lt1NllR uu GAlEuQtu AOlGt NulCu u AlleI-
ward beveled To look pretty, The merit
Of this machine is that the shoes it sews are
pliable and easy to the foot and bring q
good price. This does the work in eleven
seconds.
The heels are made separately, and
when finished have all the nails projecting
half an inch below the bottom Of the lower
sheet of leather, A convict puts one Of
these heels into a metal cup in a press Of
great power, and over that he rests a shoe
In the right position. Then down comes
a great bar and squeezes the heel and shoe
together. driving every other nail all the
way in and leaving every, other nail stick
ing a little way out. He takes the shoe
out, puts a pretty heel tap in, puts the
shoe back, submits it to the pressure and
then withdraws II and finds the
tap firmly nailed, with the nails
not quite through the tap, which
presents a smooth. unbroken under sur
face. The heel shaving machines present
10 the heel a set of rapidly revolving
knives, shaped to make u straight
heel or a guttered one, or even a lady's
French heel. Another machine cuts tho
front of the heel square and another trims
and smooths the edge Of the sole. The
edge OF the sole and sides Of the heel are
blackened and the edge is put under a hot
iron about the size of n fat chestnut. This
iron moves too 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 a gas
jet, does the same thing for the heel, and
does 1t under such pressure that cracks
and unevennesses in the heel are smoothed
over, filed up and concealed.
Some shoe uppers have eyelet holes in
stead Of button-holes. There is a machine
In the prison for doing this work. 1t has
two steel rods close to one another and
while one punches the holes the other in
serts the eyelets. which run down n little
gutter, right side up. exactly into place to
fix into the punctures in the leather. and
TO nave their edges squeezed over by the
other rod and the piece that fits upon it.
Twenty years & shoemaking machinery
performed only one-haif this work, and
did that roughly. Now the shoes made
In Grow Hill prison are such as most per-
sons wear and are in all respects shapely.
presentable and well finished. Some Of
them retail for 81 or So a pair.