The problem
Shaping and attaching a shoe upper to its sole could only be done by hand, capping output at roughly 50 pairs a day per worker.
The innovation
A machine that held the last, pleated the leather over it, positioned the sole and drove the nails.
How it worked
A sequence of grippers and formers reproduces the hand laster's motions mechanically around the curved last.
Why it mattered
Output rose by an order of magnitude and shoe prices fell within reach of ordinary wage earners.
The legacy
Lynn became the centre of American shoe manufacturing; mass-produced footwear dates from this machine.
You use this today
Affordable ready-made shoes.
Sources
US Patent 274,207
Primary record
Follow the invention
Iron production at Meroë
Large-scale iron smelting, evidenced by slag mounds and excavated furnace bases across the Meroitic capital.
Dry scouring of clothes
A process for cleaning garments without immersion in water — the ancestor of dry cleaning — patented by a New York tailor.
Multiple-effect evaporator
A sealed series of vacuum pans in which the vapour boiled off in one pan supplies the heat for the next, at successively lower pressures.