230 THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by Leon H. Abdalian 



CUTTING "UPPERS'' SHOE LEATHER IN A MASSACHUSETTS FACTORY 



The average American wears three pairs of shoes a year. Massachusetts makes nearly half 

 of them. For the pedigree of a shoe see text below. 



ble, but the trip shows to what perfection 

 the Yankee shoemaker has carried the art 

 of quantity production. 



following a shoe through a brockton 

 Factory 



Before going on this pilgrimage, which 

 is in a factory making a specialty of welt 

 shoes, it must be remembered that there 

 are four general types of footwear, ac- 

 cording to the manner in which the soles 

 are attached to the "uppers." The lead- 

 ing type is the welt. It has a small strip 

 of leather sewed fast, first to the upper, 

 and then to the sole, so that upper and 

 sole are not joined directly. Welt soles 

 are used mainly in higher-grade men's 

 and boys' shoes and in women's walking 

 shoes. 



The McKay sewed shoe is the second 

 type. In it the sole is sewed directly to 

 the upper. The cheaper grades of stiff- 

 soled sewed shoes are made by this 

 method. 



The turned shoe is the third type. In 



it the sole is joined to the upper with the 

 whole shoe inside out, then turned. 

 Women's pliable-soled shoes are made in 

 this fashion. 



The nailed, pegged, or screwed-on sole 

 represents the fourth type and goes 

 with cheaper grades of shoes. 



A merchant in Bethesda, Maryland, 

 say, has sent to the factory we are to 

 visit an order for ten dozen pairs of 

 shoes. After the order is entered upon 

 the records four sets of tags are made 

 out. One set goes to the uppers ma- 

 terial department, another to the uppers 

 stitching department, the third to the 

 sole-leather department, and the fourth 

 to the making department. 



A MASTER HIDE-MEASURING MACHINE 



As uppers leather comes into the fac- 

 tory it has the irregular outlines of a hide 

 or skin, as indented as the coast of Maine, 

 and by hand could be measured only by 

 a master of trigonometry, through a long 

 process of calculations, but a machine 



