MANUFACTURE OF BOOTS AND SHOES. 



509 



was largely to that class of work that the McKay machine was 

 turned. 



The close way in which the McKay machine was held tended 

 to check further improvements for a time. The suggestions af- 

 forded by it and its success, however, were open to all, and several 

 inventions were later offered to the public. Most important 

 among these were the Goodyear and McKay machines for welted 

 sewing, the first mechanism for 

 stitching the soles on lasted shoes. 

 In Fig. 5, which represents a sec- 

 tion of a boot, a is the upper, b the 

 in-sole, and c the out-sole, while d 

 is the welt, e the stitching of the 

 sole to the welt, and / the stitch- 

 ing of the upper to the same. Fol- 

 lowing the process of lasting that 

 is, after the upper has been care- 

 fully drawn over the last the welt 

 is put in position around the sides 

 up to the heel. The thin edge of 

 this is then caught together with 

 the upper and inner sole. The out- 

 sole is afterward tacked to the in- 

 sole and, through a narrow chan- 

 nel made around the edges of it, 

 sewed to the welt. The difficulties 

 in the way of getting a machine 

 which would do this, not simply 

 as well as the hand, but do it at 

 all, were many. The method which 

 finally succeeded originated in a 



patent secured in 1862, by August Destory, for a curved-needle 

 machine for sewing out-soles to the welts ; but the machine did 

 not work satisfactorily until it was taken in hand by Charles 

 Goodyear, the son of the inventor of the India-rubber processes. 

 This machine simply transforms the swinging movements of the 

 hand and forearm in sewing into lateral and vertical ones, but 

 the principle in the two operations is identical. There is one dif- 

 ference which in a way may be said to be even a point in favor of 

 the machine sewing. In hand sewing the thread is drawn clear 

 through its full length each time, and thus is weakened by con- 

 stant wear. In the machine, only so much is drawn through as is 

 necessary to form the stitch. These machines have been perfected 

 and multiplied until what is known as the Goodyear system is 

 the result. This system includes machines for sewing the welt 

 on, attaching the sole to the upper, for lasting the upper, for 



Fig. 12. In-sole Channeler. 



