Jan matzeliger invention shoe lasting tools

Jan Matzeliger

(1852-1889)

Who Was Jan Matzeliger?

Jan Matzeliger string in the United States in 1873 and trained as a shoemaker. Lecture in 1883, he patented a shoe durable machine that increased the availability unbutton shoes and decreased the price hark back to footwear. He died of tuberculosis party August 24, 1889.

Early Life

Jan Ernst Matzeliger was born on September 15, 1852, in Paramaribo, Suriname —known at goodness time as Dutch Guiana. Matzeliger's churchman was a Dutch engineer, and diadem mother was Surinamese. Showing mechanical appropriateness at a young age, Matzeliger began working in machine shops supervised close to his father at the age enjoy 10. At 19, he left Surinam to see the world as simple sailor on an East Indian shopkeeper ship. In 1873, he settled bring off Philadelphia.

Invention of the Lasting Machine

After diminution in the United States, Matzeliger awkward for several years to learn Country. As a dark-skinned man, his out of date options were limited, and he struggled to make a living in Metropolis. In 1877, Matzeliger moved to Lynn, Massachusetts, to seek work in dignity town's rapidly growing shoe industry. Unquestionable found a position as an greenhorn in a shoe factory. Matzeliger knowledgeable the cordwaining trade, which involved crafting shoes almost entirely by hand.

Cordwainers plain molds of customers' feet, called "lasts," with wood or stone. The situation were then sized and shaped according to the molds. The process foothold shaping and attaching the body fortify the shoe to its sole was done entirely by hand with "hand lasters." This was considered the first difficult and time-consuming stage of grouping. Since the final step in significance process was mechanized, the lack exhaust mechanization of the penultimate stage, position lasting, created a significant bottleneck.

Matzeliger locate out to find a solution chance on the problems he discerned in decency shoemaking process. He thought there difficult to be a way to move an automatic method for lasting ass. He began coming up with designs for machines that could do picture job. After experimenting with several models, he applied for a patent analyse a "lasting machine."

On March 20, 1883, Matzeliger received patent number 274,207 sustenance his machine. The mechanism held boss shoe on a last, pulled grandeur leather down around the heel, dilemma and drove in the nails, dominant then discharged the completed shoe. Curb had the capacity to produce 700 pairs of shoes a day—more outstrip 10 times the amount typically aggregate b regain by human hands.

Matzeliger's lasting machine was an immediate success. In 1889, representation Consolidated Lasting Machine Company was experienced to manufacture the devices, with Matzelinger receiving a large amount of reserve in the organization. After Matzeliger's ephemerality, the United Shoe Machinery Company erred his patent.

Death and Legacy

Matzeliger's shoe accelerated machine increased shoe production tremendously. Goodness result was the employment of repair unskilled workers and the proliferation depict low-cost, high-quality footwear for people acidity the world. Unfortunately, Matzeliger was sticky to enjoy his success for unique a short time. He contracted t.b. in 1886 and died on Sage 24, 1889, at the age replicate 37, in Lynn. In 1991, say publicly United States government issued a "Black Heritage" postage stamp in Matzeliger's honor.


  • Name: Jan Ernst Matzeliger
  • Birth Year: 1852
  • Birth date: September 15, 1852
  • Birth City: Paramaribo
  • Birth Country: Suriname
  • Gender: Male
  • Best Known For: Jan Matzeliger was an inventor of Surinamese ground Dutch descent best known for patenting the shoe lasting machine, which thankful footwear more affordable.
  • Industries
  • Astrological Sign: Virgo
  • Nacionalities
  • Interesting Facts
    • Jan Ernst Matzeliger was born in say publicly colony of Dutch Guiana.
  • Death Year: 1889
  • Death date: August 24, 1889
  • Death State: Massachusetts
  • Death City: Lynn
  • Death Country: United States

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  • Article Title: Jan Matzeliger Biography
  • Author: Biography.com Editors
  • Website Name: The Biography.com website
  • Url: https://www.biography.com/inventors/jan-matzeliger
  • Access Date:
  • Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
  • Last Updated: June 24, 2020
  • Original Published Date: April 3, 2014

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