The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1896-12-10
How Shoes are Made,

all our "shoe Cities" stands the mas
sive framework, glittering with myriad
windows, of the w. l.. Douglass Shoe
Cos factory, where bales of leather
change with marvellous apidity into
famous shoes. The shoemaker's bench
of "ye olden time" has disappeared,
and in its place ponderous machines
stamp and clank and growl and toss
punches of leather from one to an
other like 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, a rack for its car
riage. polished and shapely shoe.
Probably no place in the world
offers such splendid object lesson in
shoe making as does the Douglas fac
tory, where everything has been sys-
tematized down to the minutest detail,
and SO carefully arranged that a walk
through the streets Of this busy little
world OF factory illustrates clearly
the development of the shoe.
First comes the cutting room. Here
is little machinery, but leather is every
where, from the scraps that litter the
floor and fill the bins, to the neatly
piled "yamps" and "topsn arranged
on racks, each pile labelled with the
name Of the cutter. The most mar
yellous thing in connection with this
part Of the work is the ingenious sys-
TEN 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 of certain size. The
cutters, each one doing but a single
thing, such as cutting ''vamp," gets
his leather and goes to work, trimming
the leather with a curved knife, ac-
cording to metal pattern. His work
passes under the experienced eye of
aiA 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 a relentless
check list, watchful to detect the
slightest deviation from the right road.
In this room is a wilderness of ma
chimes, many of which are run by
women. Up at one end of the room
the cut leather starts on a rapid jour
ney. One machine seizes it and bites
it few times and seems to toss it
away spitefully. Immediately it is
thrust into the claws of another ma
chine that stitches it in another place
until 1t comes out at the other end OF
the room in the shape of shoe top.
Then the lasters seize upon it, to
fit the top to the inner sole. Some of
the shoes are blasted" by hand, others
by peculiarly vicious looking ma
chine that spits out tiny nails, and
pounds the unfortunate shoes with all
the energy OF chairman calling to
order a caucus. The Douglas people
never hesitate to buy the most i'm
proved machinery, and all the latest
methods way be seen in this room.
Down this room, too, the half fin
ished 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
swallowed voraciously. With single
stamp the heel goes on, the rough
edges being shaved off by a whirlng
knife. The channel made along the
sole by the stitching machine is filled
with cement, and under the angry
stamp OF a metal boot the channel is
made flat again.
Now we have the completed shoe
IN the rough. But there are dozen
more machines, and a dozen more
processes to be applied in the way of
finishing touches. Finally, the shoe,
resplendent in polish, neatly shaped
and finished to the last detail, is
wheeled on rack before the eagle
eye of the final inspector. If he
passes it, the shoe is finished, and hav-
ing followed the leather through the
hands Of five hundred and sixty work
men, the check list triumphantly re-
ceives its final endorsement, and we
have perfect shoe. Fifteen minutes
| is all the time theu mant To rnnka q