Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/144

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
*
112
*

SHOES. 112 SHOGUN. fuither narrowed the sphere of hand-sewing in the manufaeUue of shoes. Of the other earlier inventions the more im- portant are: The cable screw-wire machine for fastening uppers and soles together (1809); Bigelow's and JIcKay's heeling machines ( 1870 ) ; and the edge-trimming machines ( 1870 ) . During the last two decades of the nineteenth century many other important machines were invented, in- cluding polishers and trimmers. From a hun- dred to two hundred difi'erent pieces of machinery are now connnoniy employed in a single factory. The transformation of the raw material into a finished shoe involves over a hvuidred different manipulations. Boots and shoes are made in twenty-six different lengths, numbered in two series from 1 to 13. Between most of the num- bers half-sizes are made and often five different widths for each half size. The modern factorj- usually consists of five de- partments or rooms. In the first room the sole leather is first run through a skiving machine, which pares off the leather to a uniform thick- ness, rejecting thin and ragged portions. It is then solidified in a rolling machine, after which the soles may be cut out. This is- accomplished either by means of dies operated ly a steam- hammer or by machine-driven knives, which fol- low rapidly around a pattern laid on the leather. The heels are also cut liy means of dies and vari- ous forms of machinery in use for building them up. The cutting of the uppers, as well as of the soles and linings, is often done by dies or other cutting machinery. But the best work is still done with a knife, by hand, in order to make sure that the parts are cut the right way of the grain and out of a portion of the skin of uniform text- ure. The tips are cut by punching machines with many different dies, according to shape and pat- terning. In the stitching room the sewing ma- chines are driven by power and often there is a separate girl and machine for each seam. In the bottoming room the uppers are lasted and soled and then heeled. Different methods of heeling are in practice. By one the lifts are nailed together by a nailing machine, which both cuts the wire off the reel and drives it through the heel. By another, the heel, instead of being built up separately and then secured to the boot, is built up on the boot, and when the top piece is on, the heel is pared and the front curve or breast formed. The final shaping of the heel usually involves several manipulations. In the fifth room the final operations of trimming and polishing are conducted. The trimming is ef- fected by specially adjusted, rapidly revolving wheels. The final polishing is done by machine- driven burnishers, .sandpaperers, and other pol- ishing devices. Last of all, if a shiny surface Is desired, the shoe is given a coat of liquid pol- ish and rubbed with a hot iron. If a dull finish is desired, as in calfsl»in. the shoe is rubbed with grease and then with an ebony stick. When the shoes are screwed or riveted, the process is, of course, somewhat changed. In riveted work no welt is used. In screwing, a reel of stout wire is provided with a screw thread, which is driven by the machine through the oiiter .sole, inner sole, and ipper and then cut off evenly. This makes a strong, durable shoe. A great variety of different leathers are used in making shoes, including alligator, lizard, snake, and nioa- key skins, as well as the more common kinds. KuDDER JSiiOES. An important branch of shoe manufacture is the making of rubber overshoes and boots, as a protection to the feet from the wet. The best quality of raw rubber is used, which, received at the factory in crude lumps, is ground and washed, and rolled into sheets. The sulphur necessary for vulcanization, lamp- black for coloring, and sometimes other ingredi- ents, are added; after which the sheets are passed through heated rollers, which reduce them to a thickness of less than one-third of an inch. A cloth backing is then applied by simply laying the rubber on the cloth and then subjecting it to great pressure under a cloth-calendering ma- chine. Out of this cloth the rubbers are cut. a different thickness of fabric for sole, heel, and upper, and the parts are skillfully joined over wooden lasts. This is not done by sewing, but by using some solvent, as turpentine, which causes the edges to adhere. The shoes are now covered with a coat of rubber varnish and vul- canized (see Etjuber), after which they are ready for the market. ■ Statistics. According to the section on Boot and Shoe Manufacture of the United Stat«s Cen- sus for 1900. the capital invested in this indus- try amounted to .$101.795,2.33, and the annual product was $261,028,580. This was distributed among 1,600 establishments, employing 142,922 laborers, of whom about one-third were women. The number of factories or shops was about 350 less than it was in 1880, but that this is simply the result of consolidation is shown by the fact that in 1880 the capital invested was only $42,994,028. and the value of the product, $160,050,354. In the manufacture of rubber boots and shoes 22 establishments were engaged in 1900, an in- crease of 13 since 1880. The capital invested was $33,667,533, as against $2,425,000 in 1880. The value of the annual product was $41,089,819, as against $9,705,724 in 1880. The centre of the industry, like that of the manufacture of leather boots and shoes, is in New England. BiBLiOGR.^piiY. There is very little recent lit- erature on shoe manufacture. In 1889 .lohn Bedford Leno published in London a book on the Art of Boot and Shoe Making, containing a de- scription of most of the modern shoemaking machinery. A history of the development of the industry in America is given in Depew, One Hun- dred Years of A7nerican Commerce (New York, 1895) , and also in Shaler, United States of Amer- ica (ib., 1894), The ITnited States Census for 1900, vol. ix., part 3, "JIanufactures." gives the history of the development of the industry in the L'nited States, together with much descriptive and statistical information. There is also a sec- tion on rubber boots and shoes. SHOGXTW, sho'giion (Sinico-.Tap., generalissi- mo). The title adopted in .lapan for the general commanding each of the four divisions of the Empire in early times. In 1192 Yoritonio Mina- iiioto ( q.v. ) was given the title Sei-I-Tai-Shogun (Barbarian-quelling great General). By degrees the Shogun became independent of the Emperor, so that in the hands of the Tokugawa family (1603-1868) the shogunate became the de facto ruling power in the country. After having been held successively by four great military clans for