Jan Matzeliger 138 years ago invented the shoe machine

Black American shoemaker Jan E. Matzeliger revolutionized the shoe industry by inventing the first machine to manufacture a shoe entirely in one go 138 years ago. Matzeliger was born in Dutch Guiana, now in Suriname. Jan Matzeliger apprenticed at the age of ten at the Colonial Ship Works in Paramaribo, where he demonstrated a natural talent for machinery and mechanics. He left Dutch Guiana at the age of 19 and worked as a mechanic on a Dutch East Indies merchant ship for several years before settling in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Where he first learned the shoe trade. By 1877, he spoke sufficient English (his native language was Dutch) and moved to Massachusetts to pursue his interest in the shoe industry. After a while, he started working at the Harney Brothers Shoe factory. In the early days of shoemaking, shoes were mostly made by hand. Since the biggest challenge in shoemaking was the mounting of the soles on the upper part of the upper shoe, gluing and sewing the two components together required great skill. It was thought that such a complex work could only be done by skilled human hands. As a result, this stage was not yet mechanized, and shoeshineers had great power over the shoe industry. After five years of work, Matzeliger received a patent for the invention of an automated insole in 1883. A skilled hand laster can produce 50 pairs in a ten-hour day. Matzeliger's machine can produce 150 to 700 pairs of shoes per day, cutting shoe prices in half across the country.