El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1918-07-27

. the shoe has its own price. and the
Quartermas-er general buys parts f0l
the army shoes 4 have a list oi
awards made not long ago To- certain
leather companies which make parts
Among them are 100000 half soles
over 100000 marching Ioulifts and
hundreds Of thousands Of other parts
each costing from to- 65 cents, ac-
cordinE to the part Of the shoe for
which it is used
soldiers shoes Are Seyved.
The shoes for the soldiers are seWed
shoes. They are the type known as
the Goodyear welt. the parts being
sewed by The Goodyear welt sewing
machine Three different Soles are
sewed together and the uppers are
pulled over and seWed 20 the s0les by
a complicated machine that works as
though DC had human fingers and, you
might almost say. human brain.
Machines here do all the work that
the cobbIers of the past did by hand.
The leather IS rolled by machinery
and shaved to- the right thickness be-
fore the dies are used. This rolling
takes the place Of the lap stone OF the
cObbler. The shoes are lasted by ma
chiuery, and the heels. after they are
nailed on in the rough. are trimmed
into shape and finished by revolving
knives which VIII trim 1900 pairs or
heels in a day. BY the welt machine
one man can sew GOO pairs of shoes
in @ day. The old cobbler could not
do IS pairs in that time saw
soles a half inch thick sewed together
in IS seconds
I was interested i'm watching them
put the nails into the heels They all
80 in at one time. being pressed and
clinched by the machine, and that
with single movement OF the hand
Of the operator. The old cObbler had
to drive each nail separately and he
cliuched it by pounding 10 against
a tool Of tough steel Very often the
clinchinE was not properly done and
the nail prodded the flesh Of the
wearer-
The Keeling Machine.
With the modern heeling machine
one man can put fin over 1000 pairs Of
heels in one day. The nails are fed in
from a hopper and they drop into
holes I'm a plate which correspond
soughly TO the shape of the heel The
operator pulls the plate forward and
then places the heel in the machine
and the shoe is on top Of the heel
He then moves lever and the ten
nails are driven tightly in place After
the heel is trimmed another machine
sc0urs It with sand paper and knife
descends and chops off the front,
leaving the heel curved or straight, as
leSlEe0- glAeE machines perform All
the delicate operations relating 10
parts of the uppers, the putting in OF
the eyelets and finishing the shoes in
the complete form which the army
specifications require.
The government is very rigid In its
requirements that the shoes be made
just right, and that they conform
exactly to the rules laid down by
the government. The specifications
for the new PershinE shoes are so
many that they would fiji three or
four columns OF this newspaper; and
the government has had its inspectors
in every factory TO see that every bit
Of the shoe is properly made. The
shoes are watched as they go through
the machines. and inspected before
they are packed. At present very
lew are rejected. The machines do
The work exactly, and the factories
are so efficient IN their operation, in
,luding the labor. that the percentage
IF poor work is exceedingly small
In a recent order for 100000 pairs Of
shoes made by the lIcElwain com
lauy only IS were rejected. In other
words. there was only one pair of
hoes in every $4,000 that did not come
I'D 10 the specifications in every re- I
ipect.