MANUFACTURE OF BOOTS AND SHOES. 511 



thousand of them, and they have to be changed with every varia- 

 tion in the style. Originally shoe-lasts were whittled out of rough 

 blocks of wood by hand, but in 1815 Thomas Blanchard, well 

 known in his day as an inventor, devised a lathe for turning them 

 out by a less laborious process. A pattern had first to be made, 

 and then this and a block of wood were fixed on the same axis and 

 made to revolve around a common center in a swinging lathe by 

 a pulley and belt on one end of the axis. The cutting wheel turned 

 on a horizontal axis, and to it were attached a number of irregular 

 cutters which acted like gouges when the wheel was set in motion. 

 This wheel was placed opposite the block, while opposite the pat- 

 tern was a friction-wheel of the same size. By the combined 

 movements of this axis and a sliding carriage the irregular sur- 

 face of the pattern caused the axis on which the friction-wheel 

 was to alternately approach and recede, and this motion was in 

 turn communicated to the knife-wheel. The result was that a 

 duplicate of the pattern was produced from the block of wood. 

 The last lathe has been improved since in many ways, but they are 

 all based on the principles introduced by Blanchard. 



It is impossible to more than name some of the other machines 

 which have been introduced and which have done much to hasten 

 the manufacture and reduce the cost of foot-wear. The sole-die ma- 

 chine was introduced about 1851, operated first by foot-power and 

 later by steam. The buffing machine, a sanded cylinder for the 

 purpose of giving a velvety finish or " nap " to the bottom of the 

 sole, followed in 1855, and the eyeleting machine in 1864. Other 

 machines of more recent date are the beating-out machine, between 

 the forms of which the sole of the shoe, after the channel groove 

 has been filled with naphtha cement, is subjected to enormous 

 pressure ; the trimming machine, whose revolving knives remove 

 the rough edges of the sole ; the burnishing machine, and the heel- 

 ing machinery. It can not but be a source of gratification to 

 Americans that the most of these inventions have had their origin 

 on this side of the ocean, and that those that did not so originate 

 have received their greatest development here. The experiments 

 in England with the sewing and nailing machines had not enough 

 success to warrant any serious claim to the invention. The Ameri- 

 can shoe-factory is the triumph of American ingenuity. There is 

 no better word than " ingenuity " to describe it. It stands for the 

 discovery of no new principle in mechanics. It represents the utili- 

 zation of no new force in Nature. But it does contain within it 

 some of the most remarkable adaptations of mechanical principles 

 already known and the most marvelous devices for supplanting 

 the work of the fingers. A modern shoe-factory would make a 

 fitting monument for the Patent Office. 



To realize how the introduction of machinery into the tanning 



