Who Invented The Lasting Machine

Jan Matzeliger was an inventor of Surinamese and Dutch descent best known for patenting the shoe lasting machine, which fabricated footwear more affordable.

Who Was January Matzeliger?

Jan Matzeliger settled in the United States in 1873 and trained as a shoemaker. In 1883, he patented a shoe lasting machine that increased the availability of shoes and decreased the price of footwear. He died of tuberculosis on August 24, 1889.

Early on Life

Jan Ernst Matzeliger was born on September 15, 1852, in Paramaribo, Suriname —known at the time as Dutch Guiana. Matzeliger's father was a Dutch engineer, and his female parent was Surinamese. Showing mechanical aptitude at a young age, Matzeliger began working in motorcar shops supervised by his father at the age of x. At 19, he left Suriname to see the earth as a sailor on an East Indian merchant send. In 1873, he settled in Philadelphia.

Invention of the Lasting Machine

Subsequently settling in the The states, Matzeliger worked for several years to learn English. Equally a night-skinned human being, his professional options were limited, and he struggled to brand a living in Philadelphia. In 1877, Matzeliger moved to Lynn, Massachusetts, to seek work in the town'southward rapidly growing shoe industry. He found a position as an apprentice in a shoe factory. Matzeliger learned the cordwaining trade, which involved crafting shoes almost entirely by paw.

Cordwainers made molds of customers' feet, called "lasts," with wood or stone. The shoes were then sized and shaped according to the molds. The procedure of shaping and attaching the trunk of the shoe to its sole was done entirely by hand with "hand lasters." This was considered the well-nigh hard and fourth dimension-consuming stage of assembly. Since the final step in the process was mechanized, the lack of mechanization of the penultimate stage, the lasting, created a significant clogging.

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Matzeliger set out to find a solution to the problems he discerned in the shoemaking process. He thought there had to be a way to develop an automated method for lasting shoes. He began coming up with designs for machines that could practice the job. After experimenting with several models, he applied for a patent on a "lasting motorcar."

On March 20, 1883, Matzeliger received patent number 274,207 for his motorcar. The machinery held a shoe on a concluding, pulled the leather down around the heel, ready and collection in the nails, and then discharged the completed shoe. Information technology had the capacity to produce 700 pairs of shoes a 24-hour interval—more than 10 times the amount typically produced by man easily.

Matzeliger's lasting machine was an firsthand success. In 1889, the Consolidated Lasting Machine Company was formed to manufacture the devices, with Matzelinger receiving a large amount of stock in the organization. After Matzeliger'south decease, the United Shoe Mechanism Company acquired his patent.

Death and Legacy

Matzeliger's shoe lasting machine increased shoe production tremendously. The result was the employment of more unskilled workers and the proliferation of depression-toll, high-quality footwear for people effectually the earth. Unfortunately, Matzeliger was able to enjoy his success for only a short time. He contracted tuberculosis in 1886 and died on Baronial 24, 1889, at the age of 37, in Lynn. In 1991, the United States regime issued a "Black Heritage" postage stamp postage in Matzeliger's honor.