Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1900-01-05
THE sHoE-LAsrINe MAcHINE.
a Wonderful Invention Brought Out By
Young Negro

a Wonderful Invention Brought Out By
a Young Negro
The opposition to machineryupon
The part Of labor, which has been so
bitter among the shoemakers of New
England and especially of Lynn, has
entirely ceased, The labor organiza-
lions which strove so hard to prevent
its introduction having Yielded to The
inevitable, so that now amicable re-
lations exist between the machinery
makers and the labor unions. Nearly
every factory in Lynn is introducing
the hand-method lasting machines
or "niggerheads" and dropping hand
lasting or the tack-driving machines,
which we're merely aids to the hand
laster
The "niggerhead" machine is the
invention Of a negro, Jan Ernest Mat
zeliger, who was born in Brazil. He
was the son Of Holland engineer
sent to Brazil to look after the inter-
ests of his country there, and ma
tive woman whom his father married
shortly after arriving in Brazil. When
a boy he went to work in machine
shop, aud as a young man came to
Philadelphia, drifting from there to
Lynn He could hardly talk English
when be came to this city, in 1878,
but soon became good English schol-
ar. Labor organizations in Lynn
were then at the height of their pow
er, and conflicts with the manufactur-
ers were frequent. Matzeliger knew
nothing about lasting, and was work.
ing Mckay stitcher and running
heel-burnishing machine. Irritated
by the frequent strikes of the lasters
in his factory, continually laying the
factory idle until their demands were
satisfied, he expostulated with them
and warned them that they could not
always carry matters with such a high
hand. They told him that no machine
could ever be invented which could
do their work, and while other
branches Of the business might suffer,
they could do what they pleased. The
next time there was a strike they
bantercd him, and he declared that
he would put an end to their tyranny
by making machine which would
last shoes
In September, 1880, he completed
the first wooden model Of a machine
which, when perfected, would make
good his threat. Melville S. Nichols
and G. II. Delano, two Lynn men.
were taken into his confidence and
became interested in the invention.
AS the inventor had no practical
knowledge of lasting, there were many
mistakes in the first machine, and Il
took two years to make a machine
that would do satisfactory work.
When the drawings for the patents
were sent to Washington the experts
declared themselves unable to under
stand them, and one of them had to
come to Lynn to study the machine.
1t was almost impossible to obtain the
capital necessary to develop it, but
tho young colored man and his back
erS persisted, making changes and i'm
provements as defects were noticed.
Finally, when the success was as
Sured, six years after he had started
nhis invention, MatSeliger died, aged
SO years.
There is school for teaching OPP
orators how to run this machine, in
Lynn, and shoe men from all over
the world take a course at running it.
1t is almost human in its work, and
although greatly improved, still re-
tains all the vital points of the young
colcred mans invention. Boston
Transcript.
A Novel Letter Delivery