Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1884-06-13
MISCELLANEOUS.
QUICK WORK.

GUkOh WYNN.
A cobbler takes half day to sole and
heel "A pair of shoes In Crow Hill
penitentiary 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 Il
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 u time and one machine to each
part. For instance, the first machine
cuts the soles out of the leather. II is
nothing but punch fitted with knife
the shape of shoe sole Different sized
knives cut out anything, from baby's
to a plantation darky's size. Cutting
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, 80 that it looks as if thin sheet
had been pasted On to the sole, leaving
the edges unpasted. Under this loose
edge machine presses little gutter or
channel in which the mailing or sewing
is done, and afterward hidden by FASTING
the loose edge over 1t when tho 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 are sewed
to the uppers, and the button holes are
put through both leather and lining by
machinery. The button.holes are stitch
cd by automatic machines, consisting of
sewing machine having under the
needle little plate which turns exactly
in accordance with the outlines of the
button-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 aud uppcrs come
into the hands Of one set of con-
yicts, the lasters and tackers on, who
put the two together with very few
small tacks These people all work like
lightning, but arc slow beside the ma
chinery.
| The soles and uppcrs are firmly joined
in several ways. One machine puts in
brass screws and bites them of exactly
at the right distance between the upper
and the under surface of the leather !;
another drives in an iron screw with the
same nicely another sews the parts to.
gether with wax thread, tho thread pass
ing through heated metal horn, which
keeps il soft and warm; yet another
initiates hand sewing with yellow threat,
leaving an extended sole, which is after
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 a good price. This does its work
| 10 eleven seconds.
The heels are made separately, and
when finished have all the nails project
ing half an inch below the bottom Of the
lower sheet Of leather. A convict puts
one Of these heels into metal cup IN u
press Of great power, and over that he
rests shoe in the right position. Then
down comes great bar aud squeezes the
hoel and shoe together, driving every
other nail all the way in and leaving
every other nail sticking little way
out He takos the shoe out, puts d
pretty heel tap in, puts the shoe back
submits it TO the pressure, and thel
withdraws it, and finds the tap frmly
nailed, with the nails not quite througl
the tap, which presents smooth, un
broken under surface. Tho heel-shav
! ing machines present to the heel 80
of rapidly revolving knives, shaped u
make a straight heel or guttcred on
or even u lady's French heel Anothc
machine cuts the front Of the heol square
. and another trims and smooths the odg
, Of the sole. The edge Of the sele an'
,, the aides Of tho heel are blackencd AM
+. tho edge is put under hot iron abou
5 tho size Of fat chestnut. This irol
: moves to and fro with incredible ra
1 pidity, in imitation Of the motions 0
! tho cobblers who used 10 do the work b
hand. A large iron, also heated by
gas jet, does the same thing for tho heel
and does it under such pressure tina
4 cracks and unevenness in the heel ar
9 smoothed over, filled up, and concealed
Some shoe uppers have eyelet hole
instead Of button-holes. There Is ma
= chine in the prison for doing this work
y II has two steel rods close 10 one another
aud while one punches the holes tn
other inserts the oyelets, which run dow
9 a little gutter, right side up, exactly int
( place TO fix into the puncturcs in tn
y leather, and TO have their edges squeesc'
!. over by the ether rod and the piece thu
!. fits upon it. Twenty years ago shoe
! making machinery performed only one
half this work and did that roughly
: Now the shoes made in Grow Hill priso
are SUCH as most people wear, and ar
J in all respects shapely, prosentable, an
y well-fnifbed. Some Of them retail 70
r IL ~.