The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-08-31
SURE THE SHOE WOULD NEVER DO
So Practical Men Told the Inventor
of Sewing Machine.

From the Shoe and Lea ther Reporter.
Gordon Mckay, with whom shoe manu-
facturers were once better acquainted than
now, was recently honored with the de-
gree of Master of Arts by Harvard Col
lege.
When Mr.. Mckay sought to bring his
sewing machine into use, he was told bv
all practical shoemakers. that the Thread
must I'LL the hole" This was at once seen
to be impossible, for in this machine the
needle must draw the thread through the
hole, and when the needle was no Longer
in the hole, of course, the thread could
not NIL 1t. 1t was then that Mr.. Mckay
said: If 1t is true the thread must FIJI
then the machine (Which was then a fin
lshed nventiom, is so much scrap"
1t was here that r. H Mathies again
showed that wonderful quickness. of ner-
ception which had played so important a
part in the improvements that finally made
the machine practical success. Needing
not the fact that experts We're against him
he said: "One experiment is better than
thousand expert opinions. Try it, So a
pair of shoes was made, each ssewed with
the same thread, one with a smallest nee
die possible and the other with a needle
ridiculosuly large-and being worn nv Mr.
with the small needle ripped. while the
other stood we'll till the sole was worn
through and then served as a welt to sew
on tap which was worn out and renew
ed. The sewing never failed. 1t is on this
discovery that the whole business of Nc
Kay machine-sewed shoes rests TO-DAY.
and there are probably 100000 900 pairs of
them made every year.
An amusing anecdote relating to this fea
lure in T6A shoe he -
When these shoes had been allowed to he
taken a S equal to hand-sewed shoes in the
army, by order of Gen. Meigs. some cases
were sent to the arsenal at PhiladeInhia
on contract. Col. Crossman gave them
to an inspector who had been long in the
shoe department making army shoes. He
examined them and soon discovered +ba
thread did not fill the holes and reported
that they were worthless. Nevertheless
under orders from Gen Meigs. they were
accepted and given out to the armv In
few months Col. Crossman Informed
Mr.. Mckay that he heard the shoes were
failing in the army and that he had sent
his inspector to look into it, The inspec-
tor returned with the report that the shoes
that failed were hand made"
Col Crossman then, to make an end of
the doubt cast on machine shoes. sent the
same inspector-who, by the wav was the
same one who first reported against tba
shoes because the thread did not fin the
hole-to go through all the hospitals and
see every man, and get a report from All
who had worn the machine shoe. The re-
port was made, covering one ream Of fools
cap. Each mans name, regiment. etc
was given, and the words he used. as far
as possible. There were over 2 900 soldiers,
statements IN the report, and the insnac-
tor concluded his report by saving. "r
have executed the work given me. and 7
must say have not heard of a machine
shoe that has ripped. Nevertheless. I
know a machine shoe cannot be good he
cause the thread does not nh the hole ;"
il Is probable that nine in ten OF the shoe
manufacturers who will read this article
are OF the same opinion OF the inspector.
,,,e.y,o,.t.i stst, -, go 49,,