history book by Ross Thompson on mechanization
The University of North Carolina Press
ISBN-13: 9780807818671
ISBN-10: 0807818674
Notes
- machine versus tool:
- “internally controlled motion”
- worker not involved in designing and choosing how to make
- guild system:
- quality, virtuosity of craftsman
- hierarchy valued in itself for moral, family, aesthetic, moral, technical reasons
- Karl Marx
- Paul Mantoux
- machines spread fast when they could be used in the putting-out system
Part I
2
- fundamentally restructured in first half of 19th century
- from small shops to putt-out system and wholesale markets
- American Shoemakers, 1648-1895
- The Organization of the Boot and Shoe Industry in Massachusetts Before 1875
- wholesale markets: Philadelphia in 1790s, in Massachusetts earlier, Lynn leading
- shoemakers were used to innovation
- man western frontier areas neve had custom shoe production, skipped right to wholesale
- small-town Massachusetts shoemakers sold in auctions, consigned to country stores, set up own retail shops
3
- binding done in home, because could transport finished uppers without damage
- bottoming in ten footers
- couldn’t transport lasted shoes on lasts easily
- central shop sent out materials, inspected work, did some cutting and finishing
- before 1815 “making” meant making shoes as a whole, after 1815 restricted to bottoming
- “cabbage”: leftover leather from material sent out from central shop
- 1820: central shops start cutting sole leather
- less waste
- they get to keep the scrap
- birth of scrap-leather market
- finishing sometimes divided into sandpapering and polishing
- gangs in ten footers
- formal apprenticeship ceased in Massachusetts in the 1830s, was never strong there
-
Henry Wilson
- traded shoemaking training for five months of work
- a few weeks later, bought back the time, started producing for himself
-
Training was merely the imparting of technique.
- trained craftsman organized the bottoming gang, often the only trained shoemaker among them
- women’s daily wages were a quarter to half of men’s
- Massachusetts beat other states on price
- Massachusetts overwhelmingly on putting-out system
- decline of agriculture left labor for shoemaking
- throughout 18th century, much leather provided locally
- 1825: international trade in hides, national markets for sole and upper leather
- sole leather concentrated in New York, less so Pennsylvania
- upper leather in North Shore Massachusetts: Lynn, Peabody, Salem
- tools and forms mostly from Massachusetts
4
Pegging
- dominated by mid-century
- originated around 1810
- introduced almost simultaneously in several towns
- spread fast in 1840s and 50s
- replace stitching with simpler hole punching and hammering
- a pegger could do the work of 2–3 stitchers
- more ridig, less comfortable
- lower price
- took over cheap and medium-price shoes
- left sewing to bespoke
Standardized Lasts
- second quarter of 19th century
- first lengths, later also widths
- for shoes sold by sample
- wet tissue paper to take last forms
- each last a standard, and also a tool for building to standard
- before division of labor, maker cut uppers on the last
- wholesale shoes had been sold by size since second half of 18th century, but sizes weren’t uniform
- standard lasts made in Lynn and Brockton at least as early as 1830s
- 1832: first complete set of diagram patterns for upper cutting, in Boston
- 1840s: tin sole patterns begin to be used
- replaced “rounding on”
Tools
- 1800: still importing from England
- 1830s: Massachusetts had closed gap
- South Shore iron center of North Bridgewater (later Brockton)
- new tools for pegging
- Herrick Aiken of Dracut, Mass. invented pegging awl haft
- pegging jacks
- tools to cut and rasp pegs
- lasting pincer designs
- channel cutting tools
- most patents by type for crimping devices
Process
- movement of workers had driven acquisition of English tools
- same way textiles, firearms tools came in
- new tools often invented by shoemakers
- Rufus Chapin
- Josiah Green
- 1850: Lynn, Brockton, Haverhill, Braintree had own toolmakers and lastmakers
- Massachusetts and New Hampshire pegs traded, exported
- standard last made by lastmakers, not shoemakers
- Paul Pillsbury
- shoemaker approached him to make heel peg machine
- generalized from heel attaching to bottoming
- making pegs
- “plow”, then “cross-plow” to make points
- split into combs
- split combs into pegs
- focused on making pegs, not shoes
- “Peg Pillsbury”
- built own machine tools and machine shop
- opened peg mill in 1815
- standard last from lathe
- minor adaptation of Blanchard Lathe from gunsmithing
- milling machine another gun tool generalized
- “simply the pattern lathe applied to last making”
- also axe handles, wheel spokes, oars, hat blocks, sculptures
- 90 seconds per last
- model making and finishing still done by hand
- new peg making machines caused huge price drop
- 1848 George Parrot applied “pantograph principle” to last grading
- turning rights and lefts from one model made possible to make symmetrical last pairs
- overall: reduced bottoming time
- 2-3 sewers to keep a gang busy, but just one pegger
- pegging done more and more by children and less skilled men
- peggers got lower wages
- lower shoe prices, more shoe consumption
- sales by sample by the time of the Civil War
Part II
5
- 1850s were the “transitional decade”
- earlier 1809 leather splitting machine
- sole leather machines
- leather rolling machines
- sole-splitting machines
- first: 1840s stripping machine
- sewing machine
- John Wooldredge introduced a Singer for binding
- light machines with dry thread for light uppers
- heavier machines with waxed thread for heavier
- 1,8000 in use by 1856
- pegging
- Canton Boot and Shoe Machine Company offered widest range of machines
- steam engines, water power
- hand binding became a lost art
- neater, exact stitching better than old hand binding
- employment of women fell, employment of men grew
- out-of-work rural shoemakers often moved to towns
- lots of subcontracting
- sole-preparing and sole-cutting machines started in central shops
- some sewing machines bought and used at home
- 1860s: most fitting in central shop or factories
- pegging machine brought bottoming into the factories
- pegging created more uniform products
- could introduce machines one at a time
6
- sewing was about 25% of the time in craft shoemaking
- homes were primary market for dry-thread sewing machines after Civil War
- heavier leathers required separate awls
- problem with dies: veer to one side under pressure
- waxed threads clogged sewing machine needles
- machinists very much like a craft
- craft that eliminates other crafts
- most new machines marketed by new first
- some machines made to be used by inventor
- relatively little investment required to make new machines
- machines light enough to make in general machine shops
- individuals had enough funds to finance development
- men’s clothing more centered in cities than shoemaking
- “break-in problems”
7
- sewing machine developed to make clothing
-
Elias Howe
- financier of knitting machine sought his advice
- suggested sewing machine more profitable
- tried to reproduce hand stitch
- two-point needle with eye in middle
- rejected
- two sets of pincers to push needles through and hold it
- eye-point needle
- shuttle
- worse for hand use, better for mechanization
- likely adapted shuttle from loom
- machines almost entirely of metal
- raced five Boston seamstresses in demo
- didn’t have the money to build his machine
- partnered with George Fisher, rich friend
- stitch had been used in embroidery
- sold English patent rights for 250 pounds
- left for England
- impractical for sewing
- bad holding and feeding
- could only stitch the length of its baster plate
- Figure 7.3, Page 85: lines of influence of sewing machine patents
- developments
- vertical reciprocating needle
- horizontal work table
- Singer’s vertical presser foot
- More and Johnson single-thread chainstitch
- Grover and Baker reinvented double-thread chainstitch
- Robinson hand-stitch machine
- Thimonnier not in right time and place
- Allen Wilson two-motion feed
- hobbyist
- built own workshop
- also invented a rotary steam engine
- could afford only one patent, chose the sewing machine
- patented through Scientific American Patent Agency
- inventors collaborated, formed partnerships, used contractors to build
8
- key providers
- Singer
- Grover and Baker
- Wheeler and Wilson
- all licensed out rights to sell in distant areas, but not to produce machines
- 1852–1855: most sewing machine patents to new inventors
- Singer introduced treadle to allow guiding fabric with two hands
- Wilson: rotary hook, stationary bobbin
- buttonhole, zigzag, embroidery machines
- attachments to bind, hem, gather
- Singer led creating network of commission agents, then company agencies
- similar to Cyrus McCormick’s network for reapers
- eventually became branch sales and service offices
- patent pool
- Howe returned from England in 1849
- patents still valid until 1854
- Howe joined with Massachusetts manufacturer George Bliss
- 1855 second round of lawsuits
-
Sewing Machine Trust
- $15 per machine
- $5 on machines sold in US, $1 on each export
- divided evenly among Howe and three leading companies
- Singer bought back territorial rights
9
- shoe machines developed differently from sewing machines
- sewing machines
- between sewing machines and cotton textile machines, locomotives, machine tools, steam engines
-
Jim Nichols leather sewing machine
- learned cutting from cousin in Lynn
- adapted machine to sew pantaloons
- smaller needle, new thread
- Singer sold exclusive territory, so wouldn’t equip subcontracting show where Nichols could sew uppers
- went to work for Grover and Baker
- formed company with Elias Howe, George Bliss
- few clothing producers cared about shoes
- dry-thread sewing machine firms weren’t important in waxed-thread for shoes
- William Wickersham solved wax clogging eyes with chain stitch using barbed needle, like Thimonnier’s
- David Haskell patented post-arm
- dry sewing machine companies didn’t control early waxed thread patents
-
Richard Richards’ 1844 sole-cutting machine
- Lynn lastmaker
- one of first to use lathe to copy
- simpler “hand pegging machines” copied hand operations
- 1860: practical pegging machine
- “product of many”
- most important Benjamin Sturtevant, a shoe pegger
- continuous peg strip
- compress the strip
- invented wood-veneer lathe
- still used for wood veneers in furniture
- Elmer Townsend, biggest waxed thread sewing machine manufacturer, became biggest pegging machine manufacturer
Part III
10
- dry-thread sewing machine remained most adopted in shoemaking
- automatic turret lathe developed to make bobbins for Weed sewing machine
- Albert Eames introduced molding press to make Wheeler and Wilson parts
- Joseph Brown introduced grinding machines to make Wilcox and Gibbons part
- Joseph Billings developed board drop for drop forging
- efficiency improvements
- speed: shuttle design
- cranks and eccentrics replaced springs and cams
- parallel seam sewing machines
- bobbin winding
- automatic tension adjustments
- take-up, shuttle, and tensioning against thread breakage
- cylinder-arm introduced for pant legs
- many attachments
- by 1890 Singer sold machines to shoe companies than anyone else
- buttonhole machines
- eyeletting machines
11
McKay
- changed the product
- claim: wouldn’t have arisen within craft setting [???]
- “could not readily be performed by hand” [but see inside stitching]
- hard around the toe
- “machine-made in principle”
- Lyman Reed Blake 1858 patent
- barbed needle as awl
- can’t stitch on the last
- chainstitch
- Blake employed by brother in a central shop
- sent to Singer agency to learn sewing machines
- added Elmer Townsend’s wax-thread machines
- expert operator of both
- barbed needle and chain stitch patented by Townsend, had to pay royalties
- had more orders for sewn shoes than could fill, due to lack of skilled workers
- Blake claimed he never observed handsewing, would have stopped him inventing
- pegging was the model
- local wheelwright built prototype, local foundryman produced it, Blake used in own shop
- wanted to sell to others, but couldn’t afford to
- sold patent to McKay for $70k, $8k in cash and the rest out of revenues
- Howe had offered his to Singer for $2k
- Bachelder patent sold for $4k
- two prior deals for McKay patent at $50k fell through
- McKay had experience producing machines, printing press patents, witnessed Edgar Stevens’ pegging machine patent, knew of Stevens’ attempt to buy Blake’s patent
- hired inventors to improve
- rotating horn
- thread-drawing mechanism for different leather thicknesses
- feed
- adequate machine on market by 1862
- Lynn an early center of McKay shoes
- made about 150k for Union army, had another 125k made by others
- Civil War orders helped shoe machinery like firearm machinery
- followed marketing example of sewing machine companies
- full-age ad in Shoe and Leather Reporter
- sold use of the machine, not the machines themselves
- $400 set-up charge, then royalties, at different rates by kind of shoes, men’s costing most
- provided auxiliary machines at nominal cost
- more than half shoes bought by Union Army during Civil War
Goodyear
- returned the hand method to bottoming
- exceeded McKay output by 1909
- “chain stitches and lockstitches were unknown to craft shoemakers, as were the fineness and regularity of stitches”
- evolved out of August Destouy’s turn- and welt-shoe sewing machine, patented in 1862
- Charles Goodyear Jr. bought the patent
- president of American Shoe Tip Company, rubber company
- hired English mechanic Daniel Mills
- needle guard
- independent needle and awl
- second machine to stitch outsole to inner sole and welt
- employed a shoemaker to use new machines
- prospectus for public stock offering
- took another decade to make practical
- lighter leathers: chainstitch loops showed through sole
- changed direction so loops on inside
- thick chain stitch caused problems for outseams, so changed to lockstitch
- stitch had recently been applied to uppers
- curved needle sewed closer to upper
- by 1890, good enough to manufacture shoes
- spent about $250k
- followed McKay marketing model, leasing system
- royalty not defined as for use of active patents, but for use of the machinery
- continued after patents expired
- included auxiliary machines
Overall
- 612 leather-sewing patents issued from 1862–1901
- companies not often listed in commercial directories
- Massachusetts led
- lockstitch preferred since didn’t create ridges
- had been hard to tighten stitches without breaking thread or material
- firms began to use Campbell machine for outseaming in the 1880s, prompted Campbell to work on a welt sewing machine, spurned Goodyear to work on lockstitch
- group of inventors around each firm
- separation of firms by type continued after patents expired
12
- “In an industry with many machine users, self-usage was inferior to learning by selling as a social form for ongoing mechanization.”
13
- two kinds of operations
- leather preparing and some finishing at central shop
- upper fitting at home by women
- bottoming, heeling, some finishing in ten-footer
- 1873 peak of pegged shoes
- important legacy of pegging machine: Townsend got interested in metallic pegging
- bottom nailing machine had come out
- developed screw-wire bottoming machine for heavy shoes
-
Lyman Blake
- first patent for nailed shoes
- adapted horn of McKay stitcher for nailing soles
- McKay Metallic Fastening Association
- never more than 15% of industry output
- McKay soles had to be “beaten out” or “leveled” after stitching
- channeling a critical complement to McKay stitching
- accuracy of channeling depended on accurate sole rounding
- 1880 Jason smith patent for combo rounding and channeling machine to an iron sole pattern
- Henry Briggs 1891 patent outsole rough rounder and channeler
- fixed problem of outseams crossing inseams and cutting them
- molding machines eliminated McKay bagginess
- David Knox 1860 sole-molding machine
- Joseph Johnson adapted molder for beating-out machine
14
- Shoe Machinery Manufacturing Company combination, foreshadowing USMC
- McKay didn’t pay a dividend until 1866
- McKay per-pair royalties stayed the same until 1881
- McKay Metallic Fastening Association
- McKay and Bigelow Heeling Machine Association
- McKay Lasting Association
- “Through employment and regular patent purchase, McKay professionalized invention.”
-
Charles Glidden the second most prolific inventor
- Lynn heel contractor
- assigned 40 patents to McKay companies
- Hadley Fairfield assigned 14 shoe patents to McKay firms
- McKay machines did most tasks of the ten-footer
- after channeling, McKay invested in machines that substituted for or were largely independent of its other machines
- Goodyear focused on complementary machines
- system of welt-sewing machines
- additional machines for only minor set-up fees
- Andrew Eppler developed turn- and welt-sewing machine with backing of several large Goodyear users
- Copeland Rapid Laster the first integrated into bottoming system
- Goodyear threatened to enforce patents against channeling, stitch-separating, and indenting machines
- lasting the hardest bottoming step to mechanize
- variable material
- pull-and-twist motions
- analogy to cotton picking hand motions versus reaping arm motions
- still mostly by hand in 1890s
- Goodyear took Copeland machine into its system
- “Hand Method lasting machine”
-
Jan Matzeliger
- operated a McKay stitched in Lynn
- observed hand lasters
- applied as well to different weights, shapes, construction methods
- practical within a decade
- couldn’t develop, produce, market
-
Consolidated Hand-Method Lasting Machine Company
- practical McKay compatible machine by 1890
- Goodyear by 1897
- training school in Lynn
- by 1900, practical pulling-over machine produced by USMC
15
- Hand and Machine Labor
- about 3/4 of labor time mechanized by 1898
- hand operations came to be fined in relation to machine work
- USMC justified its agency system on protection of small firms
- Goodyear lasting machine was inferior to the hand method machine, but Goodyear could tie it to the use of its inseamers
- USMC continue Goodyear practice of leasing whole lines
- New England Association of Boot and Shoe Manufacturers negotiated, god USMC to allow leasing machines for just one department, but at a higher fee
- USMC experimental division
- pulling-over machine took $900,000 to develop
- USMC diversified a lot by buying other companies
- 43 acquisitions 1899-1904, 16 through 1911
- USMC machinery line marks completion of mechanization
Part IV
- list of important inventors
- list of important businesspeople
- cooperation often came from inability to “appropriate the results of one’s own efforts”
- Figure 16.2, Page 241, “Lines of Influence of Sewing and Shoe Inventions”