There are attachments which make buttonholes, darn, embroider,
make ruffles or hems, and dozens of other things. There are
special machines for every trade, some of which deal successfully
with refractory materials.
The Singer machine of 1851 was strong enough to sew leather and
was almost at once adopted by the shoemakers. These craftsmen
flourished chiefly in Massachusetts, and they had traditions
reaching back at least to Philip Kertland, who came to Lynn in
1636 and taught many apprentices. Even in the early days before
machinery, division of labor was the rule in the shops of
Massachusetts. One workman cut the leather, often tanned on the
premises; another sewed the uppers together, while another sewed
on the soles. Wooden pegs were invented in 1811 and came into
common use about 1815 for the cheaper grades of shoes: Soon the
practice of sending out the uppers to be done by women in their
own homes became common. These women were wretchedly paid, and
when the sewing machine came to do the work better than it could
be done by hand, the practice of "putting out" work gradually
declined.
That variation of the sewing machine which was to do the more
difficult work of sewing the sole to the upper was the invention
of a mere boy, Lyman R. Blake. The first model, completed in
1858, was imperfect, but Blake was able to interest Gordon McKay,
of Boston, and three years of patient experimentation and large
expenditure followed.
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