Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1896-12-15
SPIRIT OF JEFFERSON.
How Shoes are Made.
From the watchman, Boston. Mass.I

From the w otcnuia0. 6OstOu. AuSe-I
In Brocton, Mass, the queen of all our
'sShoe Cities stands the massive framework,
glittcring with myriad windows, of the W. l..
Douglas Shoe Co.'s factory, where bales of
leather change with marvellous rapidity into
famous shoes. The shocmaker's bench of ''ye
olden time has disappeared, and in its place
ponderous machines stamp and clank aud
growl and toss bunches of leather from one to
another like q pack of dogs worrying some
hapless little animal, till the shapeless leather
that the cutters pOunced upon in the long
room at the top of the building comes riding
into the packing-room, rack for its carriage,
a polished and shspely shoe
Probably no place in the world offers such
splendid object lesson in shoe making as
docs the Douglas factory, where everything
has been systematized down to the minutest
detail, and so carefully arranged that walk
through the streets of this busy little world of
factory illustrates clearly the development
of the shoe.
Firt comes the cutting room. Hero is little
machinery, but leather is everywhere, from
the scraps that litter the floor and fill the bins,
to the neatly piled "vamps" and ''tops" ar
ranged on racks, each pile labeled with the
name of the cutter. The most marvellous
thing in connection with this part of the work
is the ingenious system whereby every bit OF
leather is kept track of. The foreman maps
out the work; that is, he determines there
shall be so many boxes of shoes cut that day
and each box shall have so many pairs o. n
certain size. Tho cutters, each one doing but
q single thing, such cutting a ''vamp," gets
his leather aud goes to work, trimming the
leather with curved knife, according to a
metal pattern. His work passes under the ex-
perienced eye of an inspector. who at single
glance judges the quality of the leather and
sorts it into different grades.
1t seems hopeless confusion; yet every bit of
leather inevitably finds its mate of the proper
grade and size when they all appear in the
sewing room below, pursued by relentless
check list, watchful to detect the slightest
deviation from the right road. In this room is
a wilderness of machines, many of which are
run by women. Up at one end of the room
the cut leather starts on q rapid journey. One
machine seizes it and bites it q few times and
socns to toss it away spiteiully. Immediately
it is thrust into the claws Of another machine
that stitches it in another place until it comes
out at the other end of the room in the shape
of Il shoe top.
Theu the lasters seize upon it, to ct the top
to the inner sole. Some of the shoes are
''lasted" by hand, others by q peculiarly
vicious looking machine, that spits out tiny
nails, and pounds the unfortunate shoes with
all the energy of u chairman calling to order
a caucus. The Douglas people never hesitate
to buy the most improved machinery. and all
the latest methods may be seen in this room.
Down this room, too, the half-fnished
shoes pass rapidly. On goes the outer sole
sometimes by sewing machine, sometimes by
a machine that screws the sole on with little
brass screws, that the iron monster has swal-
lowed voraciously. With single stamp the
heel goes on, the rough edges being shaved
off by whirling knife. The channel made
along the sole by the stitching machine is
filed with cement, and under the angry
stamp of q metal boot the chahnel is made
Hat again.
Now VIC have the completed shoe in the
rough. But there are a dozen more machines.
and dozen more processes to be applied in
the way of fnishieg touches. Finally, the
shoe, resplendent in polish, neatly shaped and
flushed to the last detail is wheeled ON
rack before the eagle eye of the final inspec-
tor II he passes it, the shoe is finished, and
having followed the leather through the hands
of five hundread aud sixty workmen, the check
list triumphant!y receives its final endor'es
me mt and we have perfect shoe. Fifteen
m inutes is all the time they want to make
shoe, when they hurry matters