Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/901

 SHOE 875 can be definitely ascertained ; but about three fourths of the goods made in the shoe towns of eastern Massachusetts, as well as some from Maine and New Hampshire, are shipped from Boston, and these shipments have been as fol- lows for 10 years : 1865,720,000 cases; 1866, 820,000 ; 1867, 920,000 ; 1868, 1,010,000 ; 1869, 1,340,000; 1870, 1,260,000; 1871, 1,310,- 000; 1872,1,450,000; 1873, 1,340,000; 1874, 1,375,000. A case of women's or children's shoes regularly contains 60 pairs, and of men's boots 12 pairs are packed to a case; it is there- fore probably below rather than above the actual amount to estimate the total shipments from Boston to places outside of New Eng- land for the year 1874 at 55,000,000 pairs. There is a very wide difference in the prices, as the goods comprise everything from a car- pet slipper to a farmer's brogan, from a gentle- man's tine calfskin boot to a miner's iron-clad shoe. But on an average they sell for about $45 a case, making a total for the reported shipments for 1874 from Boston of $61,875,- 000. By a careful estimate, the value of the boots and shoes made in Massachusetts and the shoe towns of Maine and New Hampshire is placed at $100,000,000 per annum. While Boston is the leading wholesale shoe market of the United States, New York is entitled to the next place in importance as the distribu- ting point for a great portion of the country, and for the manufacture of what are known as fine goods. Its work is the very best made in the country, and surpasses any factory-made boots and shoes in the world. In these goods only the best grades of French and German calf and kid skins, and the best morocco of domestic manufacture, with oak-tanned sole leather, are used. The work for ladies, misses, and children is nearly all machine-sewed, but of the best men's work a large proportion is made by hand. The production in the city of New York in 1874 amounted to about 3,000,- 000 pairs, of an estimated value of $10,000,- 000. Next to New York may be classed Phila- delphia, after which come Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and many smaller places throughout the Union. The imports of boots and shoes into the United States are insignifi- cant, those entered at New York for 1874 having an aggregate value of only $41,270. The exports for the same year from New York were $202,593, almost entirely to the West Indies and Central America. The total ex- ports from the United States for 1874 were 302,218 pairs, valued at $448,138; for 1873, 215,308 pairs, valued at $351,318. Except- ing possibly England, no other country in the world is so generally supplied with factory- made shoes as the United States. Throughout Europe the cobbler and the journeyman shoe- maker still do a large part of the business. In England the factory system, with very _ much the same machinery and a similar division ol labor as in the United States, supplies by far the greater part of the shoes called for by the British home trade, and its vast demand for export to all quarters of the globe. The man- ufacture of boots and shoes in England is prin- cipally carried on at Leeds and in its vicinity, in the northern part of the kingdom, and at Northampton, as well as in the city of London. It would require a volume to give a full list of all the boot and shoe machinery made, with even brief mention of the uses of the different kinds. The pegging machine, one of the most important, is principally due to Alphcus 0. Gallahue, to whom were granted six different patents, the first in 1851. Elmer Townsend and B. F. Sturtevant, of Boston, largely aided in perfecting the invention of Gallahue; but it was not until about 1858-'60 that it came to be generally introduced. There were 1,700 peg- ging machines in operation in the United States in 1873. A machine is capable of pegging two pairs of women's shoes in a minute, and will put in one, two, or three rows of pegs at once, as may be required. The pegs are cut, by the working of the machine, from ribbon-like strips of white birch, which are supplied in rolls of from 75 to 150 ft. in length. About 1,000 cords of wood are required yearly for the manufac- ture of pegs in this country, but large quanti- ties are regularly exported. Of equal impor- tance with the pegging machine is the McKay sole-sewing machine, known in England and on the continent of Europe as the "Blake" machine. It was invented about 1858 by Ly- man E. Blake, but was perfected and intro- duced into use by Gordon McKay. By this machine the soles can be sewed on nearly 1< pairs of women's shoes in an hour, and 800 pairs in a day of ten hours is fair work for an experienced operator. A royalty payable in stamps is required on all goods made on this machine, as follows: on slippers and misses' and youths' shoes, 1 ct, a pair; women's and boys' shoes, 2 cts. ; men's boots, 3 cts. income of the McKay machine association from the sale of stamps has been as follows: 1 $38746 51; 1864, $99,157 63; 1865, $150,- 776 15- 1866, $181,404 97; 1867, $210,225 36; 1868, $286,011 93; 1869, $356,026 06; 1870, $400011 08; 1871, $486,083 09; 1872, $564,- 501 22 ; 1873, $529,973 81. This machine is in such general use that a statement of the number of machines employed in different I calities will give a very fair general idea of the distribution of the manufacture. In 1874 there were 1,200 of them in use in the Unit* States, over 400 in England, and about on the continent of Europe. Of those in the United States, 180 were employed in Lynn, in Haverhill, 300 in the state of Massachnsetti outside of these two places, 180 in the other New England states, 100 in ^ew 1 ork, 90 in Philadelphia, 150 in the western states, and in the southern. There are two other k ml of sole-sewing machines, viz.: the Goodyear welt machine, which makes a shoe in almost perfect imitation of hand work, and the Good; year and McKay machines for making