Jan Matzeliger #1255
$ 8.00
Caption from poster__
Jan E. Matzeliger
African American Inventor
(Born Sept. 15, 1852, Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana (now
Suriname) died Aug. 24, 1889, Lynn, Mass., U.S.) inventor
best known for his shoe-lasting machine that mechanically
shaped the upper portions of shoes. Son of a Dutch father
and a black Surinamese mother, Matzeliger began work
as a sailor on a merchant ship at the age of 19 and after
about six years settled in Lynn, where he found employ-
ment in a shoe factory and became interested in the
possibilities of lasting shoes by machine. Working alone
and at night for six months, he produced a model in wood
and on March 20, 1883, received a patent ( see photograph).
His invention won swift acceptance and within two years
had largely supplanted hand methods in Lynn. Matzeliger
received several other patents for shoe-manufacturing
machinery, including an improved model of his first lasting
machine.
Jan Ernst Matzeliger (September 15, 1852 – August 24, 1889) was an American inventor in the shoe industry. Matzeliger was born in Paramaribo (then Dutch Guiana, now Suriname). His father was a Dutch engineer and his mother black Surinamese. He had some interest in mechanics in his native country, but his efforts at inventing a shoe-lasting machine began in the United States. He settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at 19 after working as a sailor. By 1877 he spoke adequate English and had moved to Massachusetts. After five years of work he patented his invention in 1883. His machine would speed up the production of shoes to a considerable degree. The skilled hand methods of lasting could produce 50 pairs of shoes a day, but his machine could produce between 150 to 700 pairs of shoes a day. Despite that, a combination of early death in Lynn, Massachusetts from tuberculosis, and other factors, meant he never saw the full profit of the invention. In recognition of his accomplishment he was honored on a postage stamp on September 15, 1991.
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