Jan Matzeliger
Biography
Jan Ernst Matzeliger was an African American inventor who contributed to the show manufacturing industry. Specifically, he invented the Lasting Machine: a device that was able to shape and attach the body of the shoe to the sole without the need of hand labor. Though he died at an early age and was never able to profit from his invention, the Lasting Machine is noted for being a pivotal device that significantly impacted American commercialism.[1]
Jan Enst Matzeliger was born in 1852 in Paramaribo, Surnam to a very wealthy Dutch engineer and a native black Surinamese mother. His mother was of African decent, and his father had been sent to Surinam by the Dutch government to oversee the work going on in the South American region. At a young age, he was known for showing remarkable mechanical aptitude, and at the age of ten he began to accompany his father in the machine shops his father supervised. [2]
Reaching the age of 19, he left Surnam to sail and explore the world in 1871. Two years later in 1873, he eventually decided to settle in Philadelphia in the town of Lynn, Massachusetts to look for work after hearing about the town's growing shoe industry. Due to being foreign and black he had a difficult time finding work; but in 1877 he eventually learned to speak English fluently, and took a position as a shoe apprentice at a shoe factory. Here he operated and managed various shoe making machinery during time when most white people would look down on him because of his black ancestry. But due to his level of intelligence and skills as a worker, he was able to make a few friends within the town. He was also a devote Christian who taught Sunday School at The North Congregational Church. [3]
As an apprentice within the Harney Brothers' shoe factory, Jan had took up the cordwaining trade, which involved crafting shoes by hand. Cordwainers made the molds of the customer's feet with wood or stone. The shoes were sized and shaped with the molds in place; eventually the body of the shoe was attached to sole by hand with "hand lasters." This was considered the most difficult and time-consuming stage of the assembly, as the final step in hand lasting the shoe took a significant period of time. This created a problem within the shoe industry; The first aspect of the process of measuring the foot and creating a mold was completely mechanized. The latter half was done by hand and took significantly longer, creating a bottleneck effect in production; an excess number of soles were being produced at a rate that encumbered hand lasters. [4]
Operating a McKay sole-sewing machine, he noticed this issue within the industry; unfortunately, no machines existed that could attach the upper part of the shoe to the sole. In fact, many thought it to be impossible create a machine of such nature. Jan was determined to prove them wrong. Watching hand lasters all day, Jan began to understand how they were able to join the upper parts of a shoe to a sole. Thus, after work he would devise mannerisms to complete the task, and began to sketch out rough drawings of machines that might work in the same manner.
Soon Jan began to develop a few crude working models of his invention; lacking in proper materials, he used whatever scraps he found, including cigar boxes, discarded wood, scrap wire, nails, and paper. After 6 months of development, he felt he was on the right path, but needed better materials to continue. Eventually as he slowly improved his device, people began to make notice and offered him prices as high as $1,500 (substantial prices for the time). Jan could not bear selling the device he had worked so hard on, and instead reached a deal to sell a 66% interest in the devices to the two investors Charles H. Delnow and Melville S. Nichols, retaining the other third for himself. With the influx of revenue, he was able to finish the machine, where in which he applied to patent the device.[5]
On March 20th, 1883, Jan received a patent for the lasting machine which could adjust a shoe, drive in the nails, and produce a finished product in one minute. Continuing to improve the machine, the first public operation took place May 29th, 1885, when the machine broke a record by lasting 75 pairs of shoes. Jan, Delnow, and Nichols secured additional capital from George A. Brown and Sidney W. Winslow to finance the production of the lasting machine; they eventually formed the Consolidated Lasting Machine Company. Jan sold his patent rights to the investors in exchange for stock that saw rapid growth. In the late 1890s, it merged with several small companies to form the United Shoe Machinery Corporation, dominating the U.S. shoe making industry. The company went on to be worth over one billion dollars. [6][7]
Sadly, in the summer of 188, Jan had fallen ill with what he originally believed to be a cold. Later it was confirmed that he instead contracted tuberculosis. Jan remained active in bed despite being sick, continuing to tinker with inventions and paint as a hobby. He passed away from illness on August 24th, 1889 in Lynn, Massachusetts, a month shy of his 37th birthday. Due to his premature death, Jan was unable to experience the true impacts of his lasting machine, which allowed for the turn out of 7 00 shoes a day. Conditions of the shoe industry improved and many workers saw raises within their wages; and eventually, as a result of his invention, Lynn, Massachusetts came to be known as the shoe capital of the world.
Jan was recognized after death for his contributions, and was rewarded the Gold Medal and Diploma at the Pan-american Exposition of 1901. Additionally, in 1967 a series of radio dramas called "The Great Ones" produced a broadcast that features the life of Jan Matzeliger. The U.S. Postal Service eventually issued a stamp in his honor in 1991 as part of the Black Heritage Collection. [8] Today, his contributions as an inventor are valued in African American history, and within the history of science and technology.
References
- ↑ http://www.biography.com/people/jan-matzeliger-21317107#synopsis
- ↑ http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi522.htm
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20120821203314/http://www.users.fast.net/~blc/xlhome9.htm
- ↑ http://www.biography.com/people/jan-matzeliger-21317107#invention-of-the-lasting-machine
- ↑ http://blackinventor.com/jan-matzeliger/
- ↑ http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404707408.html
- ↑ http://blackinventor.com/jan-matzeliger/
- ↑ http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404707408.html