Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

BOOT AND SHOE MAKING. 57 EDGE SETTER AT WORK. are withdrawn when the upper is secured to the “lip” of the inner sole by a cord. The welts are sewn in by a machine having a curved needle, and which feeds the welt from a roll, like tape. This welt is afterwards beaten to make it stand out squarely. The surplus upper leather is trimmed with a knife. The space between the upper leather which lies on the bottom of the last is filled in evenly. The filler may be cork, felt, or scraps of leather cemented in. The outer sole, channelled and moulded to the shape of the bottom of the last, is now cemented on. Fair stitching then follows. The channel is rubbed down and the bottoms leave the “ lasting department ” on skeleton racks, which run on castors, and are just a little wider than the length of the sole. They carry three or four tiers of boots. In the shoe - finishing department, the machinery would seem to have originated in the brass-finishing shop; the cutters which pare the heel and sole edges before the bottoms are scoured, the polishing mops, pads, and brushes, all having had their counterpart in Birmingham years ago. Everything here revolves at a high rate of speed—2,000 to 3,000 revolutions per minute; and the dust and parings which fly rapidly from the boots as they are trimmed or scoured, are removed by fans in pipes attached to each individual machine, and having connection with other pipes leading to the outside of the building. Heels and edges are set, after being coloured, with a hot iron and wax. The bottoms are, in a large number of cases, literally painted with a brush and “slosh”; the “damped down” process of the old shoemaker is still re- tained, but it is more costly. The goods removed to the stock-room have all dis- figuring marks removed from them by girls, and, if of a high-class character, are “treed and ironed.” They are then “sized” (polished) and boxed, or, if of a commoner quality, are tied in pairs by the machine shown in the illus- tration. The hot irons of the “ edge-setter ” have the backward and forward sweep of the human arm, long experience having shown this to be the only satisfactory movement. This motion causes great vibration, making it one of the most trying of machines. Martin W. Wright. are levelled under pressure in a machine carrying rollers con- forming to the shape of the sole. The operations of lasting, sewing, stitching, and “ rounding ” are performed whilst the sole leather is in a mellow, damp condition, and in welted work the last re- mains in the boot until it is “ finished,” which process takes place soon after the boots are dry enough to allow the sand- paper — mounted on a roll— which scours the bottom to do its work effectively. The boots TYING-UP MACHINE. 8