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Jan Ernst Matzeliger

Shoe Technology

• When Jan Matzeliger immigrated to the United States at age 18 he spoke no English. He found work in a shoe factory in Philadelphia.
• Hundreds of inventors and thousands of dollars had been spent in an effort to make a complete shoe by machinery. Machines where able to perform all but the final step, that of shaping the upper leather over the last and attaching this leather to the bottom of the shoe.
• Workers called "Hand-lasters" performed this this final step by hand. Hand lasters where very highly paid, however no matter how fast the other portions of the show were completed, the best hand laster could only complete 50 pairs per day.
• Matzliger heard it said many times that it was impossible to last shoes by machines; the job simply could not be done. In secret he started experimenting, first with a crude wooden machine, then with a model made out of scrap iron. For ten years he worked, steadily and patiently, with no encouragement.
• Finally in 1882, Metzeliger felt he had perfected his machine to solve the impossible problem. When he applied for a patent and sent his diagrams to Washington, patent reviewers could not even understand them. They were so complicated that a man was sent to Massachusetts to see the machine itself. On March 20, 1883, patent number 274,207 was granted to Jan E. Matzeliger. Matzeliger's machine was able to turn out from 150 to 700 pairs of shoes a day versus an expert hand lasters fifty.
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