CLOTHING THE EXTREMITIES 



improvement up to the present time, and is now in 

 use wherever shoes of a high class are made. 



"At the time the first standard -screw machine was 

 attracting attention, the heel-trimming and fore-part 

 trimming machines were brought about. This part 

 of the work had previously been done by the hand- 

 workman, using a shave or knife for trimming, and as 

 he was entirely dependent upon the eye for the proper 

 proportions of the finished sole, the work was not often 

 of a very uniform nature. The heel and forepart- 

 trimming machines greatly reduced this part of the 

 labor, and their adoption was very rapid. 



"In the early 'yo's came a change in a department 

 of shoemaking which, prior to that time, had been 

 regarded as a confirmed hand-process. This was the 

 important part of the work known as lasting; and a 

 machine was introduced at that time fordoing this work. 

 This machine, as well as those which followed after- 

 ward for a period of twenty years, was known as the 

 bed type of machine, in which the shoe-upper was drawn 

 over the last by either friction or pincers, and then 

 tacked by the use of a hand-tool. At a compara- 

 tively recent period another machine which revolu- 

 tionized all previous ideas in lasting was introduced. 

 This machine is generally in use at the present time 

 and is known as the 'consolidated hand-method last- 

 ing-machine.' It was fitted with pincers which auto- 

 matically drew the leather round the last, at the same 

 time driving a tack which held it in place. This ma- 

 chine has been so developed that it is now used for 

 the lasting of shoes of every type, from the lowest and 



[us! 



