Many African-Americans have made their names as inventors: Madam C.J. Walker (hair care products), Benjamin Banneker (wooden pocket watch), George Washington Carver (peanut butter), George Crum (potato chips), Garrett Morgan (gas mask), Lonnie G. Johnson (Super Soaker), and Tommy the Clown (hip hop clown dancing a.k.a. krumping). This impressive list of contributions goes on and on. Who doesn’t love peanut butter and potato chips? I can’t imagine a time without them. Water guns can be loads of fun. The gas mask’s utility is undisputed in the military and perhaps soon in everyday civilian life, as we gear up for the war against bio-terrorism. Even Madonna, pop music’s re-inventor, has learned to krump.
The African-American inventor who made the most lasting impression on us here at Shoe-n-Tell.com was named Jan Ernst Matzeliger. He invented the lasting machine. This machine carried out the final task in shoemaking, called lasting, a process that involved fitting the leather upper over, and then nailing it, to the sole.
Jan Matzeliger lived a relatively short, but surefooted life. He was born in 1852 in Paramaribo, the capital of Dutch Guiana (now Suriname), in South America. At a young age, he proved himself quite skillful at the machine shop where his father worked. In his late teens, he set sail for the world aboard an East Indian merchant ship. His life would change courses in the next few years and after some soul searching, he wound up working in a shoe factory in Lynn, Massachusetts.
At this time, machines existed that handled the cutting, sewing, and tacking of shoes. Lasting, however, the final step in shoemaking, was done by hand by highly paid craftsmen called lasters. Hand lasters essentially controlled the shoe industry since they had formed a powerful union known as the Company of Shoemakers and could charge great sums of money for their service. Thus, shoes were very expensive for the average person. Matzeliger envisioned a machine that would mechanize the lasting process.
