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National Geographic : 1920 Mar
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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE Photograph by Leon II. Abdalian CUTTING "UPPERS" SHOE LEATHER IN A MASSACIUSETTS FACTORY The average American wears three pairs of shoes a year. Massachusetts makes nearly half of them. For the pedigree of a shoe see text below. ble, but the trip shows to what perfection the Yankee shoemaker has carried the art of quantity production. FOLLOWING A SHOE TIROUGI A BROCKTON FACTORY Before going on this pilgrimage, which is in a factory making a specialty of welt shoes, it must be remembered that there are four general types of footwear, ac cording to the manner in which the soles are attached to the "uppers." The lead ing type is the welt. It has a small strip of leather sewed fast, first to the upper, and then to the sole, so that upper and sole are not joined directly. Welt soles are used mainly in higher-grade men's and boys' shoes and in women's walking shoes. The McKay sewed shoe is the second type. In it the sole is sewed directly to the upper. The cheaper grades of stiff soled sewed shoes are made by this method. The turned shoe is the third type. In it the sole is joined to the upper whole shoe inside out, then Women's pliable-soled shoes are with the turned. made in this fashion. The nailed, pegged, or screwed-on sole represents the fourth type and goes with cheaper grades of shoes. A merchant in Bethesda, Maryland, say, has sent to the factory we are to visit an order for ten dozen pairs of shoes. After the order is entered upon the records four sets of tags are made out. One set goes to the uppers ma terial department, another to the uppers stitching department, the third to the sole-leather department, and the fourth to the making department. A MASTER HIDE-MEASURING MACHINE As uppers leather comes into the fac tory it has the irregular outlines of a hide or skin, as indented as the coast of Maine, and by hand could be measured only by a master of trigonometry, through a long process of calculations, but a machine 230
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