Industrial Research 



G9 



tilaiiiiun pigments, but restrictions imposed by tlie 

 Government upon the use of power during the First 

 World War delayed the commercial production of 

 titanium pigments until 1918. After experiencing a 

 rapid expansion, the Titanium Pigment Company was 

 dissolved in 1936, and the manufacturing interests, 

 property, and stocks were taken over by the National 

 Lead Company — Titaniimi Division. 



Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company 



Since its incorporation in 1883 the Pittsburgh Plate 

 Glass Company has maintaned research departments 

 in its tliree divisions: glass, paint and varnish, and alkali 

 chemical. Most of the company's research has been 

 an outgrowth of plant problems and commercial require- 

 ments, although occasionally the solution of problems 

 quite remote from its operations and regular line of 

 products has been undertaken. 



Research in the glass division has residted in such 

 developments as a continuous process for manufacturing 

 plate glass from a large tank instead of intermittent 

 small pots; a continuous method of giinding and polish- 

 ing plate glass, which replaced the individual plate 

 polishers; improved finishes of glass; glasses of many 

 different compositions for the purpose of meeting specific 

 requirements; improved refractories for fm-naces; new 

 and improved methods of laminating glass; new plastics 

 for laminating glass; new safety glass cements; double 

 glazed windows; glass building blocks; colored enameled 

 glasses; and opaque construction glasses. 



The laboratory has recently cooperated with the 

 laboratory of the Carbide and Carbon Chemicals Cor- 

 poration in the development of vinyl plastic, a new plastic 

 used in the manufacture of laminated safety glass. 



United Shoe Machinery Company 



It was in 1846 that Elias Howe, Jr., inventor of the 

 sewing machine, revolutionized mechanical scwnng by 

 putting the eye of the needle in the point. In 1851, 

 John Brooks Nichols, a shoemaker, of L5'nn, taking 

 Howe's machine as a model, made a similar machine 

 whichsewcdthe uppers of shoes. ThcNichols invention, 

 which may be considered the beginning of what today is 

 research in the shoe industry, was the first important 

 application of machinery to shoemaking. 



In 1858, Lyman R. Blake took the second step in the 

 application of mechanical sewing to shoemaking by 

 inventing a machine which sewed the soles of shoes to 

 the uppers. From the time of Nichols and Blake to the 

 present day — a period of 90 years — shoemaking has 

 changed from handcraft to a higldy mechanized indus- 

 try. Of this period, the last four decades have recorded 

 a very large proportion of the major developments in 

 invention and technical progress. 



With the founding of the United Shoe Machinery 



Company in 1899 came the first systematic application 

 of scientific methods to the shoe industry. Conditions, 

 prior to that time, insofar as the development of shoe 

 machinery was concerned, were notably chaotic and 

 unsatisfactory not only for inventors and manufacturers 

 of machinery, but also for their prospective customers — 

 those engaged in the manufacture of shoes. 



During the latter part of the century, an increasing 

 number of men had acquired knowledge and skill in 

 the develoi)ment of machines designed to replace hand 

 work, but there was an almost complete lack of coordi- 

 nation among these inventors. The need for system- 

 atic organization and mobilization of effort was one 

 of the fundanu'ntal reasons for the founding of the 

 United Slioe Machinery Company. 



Over the past 40 years the company's experimental 

 and research activities have led to the development of 

 new production techniques, of improved products, and 

 of more efficient service for the shoe industry. In the 

 field of machine development, the company has con- 

 tributed essentially and broadly to a rise in labor pro- 

 ductivity, to a reduction in production costs, and to a 

 mechanization of hundreds of operations formerly dore 

 by hniid. 



During the last decade, the increase both in the 

 numb(>r of research problems in the shoe industry and in 

 their complexity has made it imperative for the research 

 division to develop a program of coordinated effort. 

 In the field of machinery development, for example, it is 

 seldom practical for independent inventors to attempt 

 the mastery of all the knowledge necessary for effective 

 procedure. No matter how resourceful the individual 

 may be, he must have the correlated assistance of the 

 chemist, physicist, metallurgist, test-room specialist, 

 and practical shoemaker. 



Every year the suggestion department of the com- 

 pany's research division receives more than 3,000 

 separate items covering a wide range of subjects per- 

 taining to shoe machinery, manufacturing processes, 

 and allied problems. Before these suggestions become 

 the bases for research projects, the commercial, eco- 

 nomic, and patent features of each are carefully ana- 

 lyzed. The division's large volume of data relating to 

 the technological developments of the past furnishes 

 invaluable information which influences the recommen- 

 dations of research management to executive man- 

 agement. 



The United Shoe Machinery Corporation embraces 

 a number of affiliate companies engaged in manu- 

 facturmg lasts, wood heels, eyelets, tacks and nails, 

 shoe cartons, shoelaces, tanning machinery, chemicals 

 used in the shoe industry, and hand tools. Research 

 for all of these subsidiaries is sponsored by the research 

 division, and the direction of new developments is 

 systematically divided among competent specialists. 



