JAN E. MATZELIGER
INVENTOR (1852-1889)
Born in Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana, Matzeliger
found employment in the government machine works at the age of ten. Eight years
later he immigrated to the United States, settling in Philadelphia where he worked in a
shoe factory. He later moved to New England, settling permanently in Lynn,
Massachusetts. The Industrial Revolution had by this time brought the invention of
machines to cut, sew, and tack shoes, but none had been perfected to last a shoe.
Matzeliger lost little time in designing
and patenting just such a device, which he refined over the years so that it could adjust
a shoe, arrange the leather over the sole, drive in the nails, and deliver the finished
product all in one minute's time. Sydney W. Winslow, who established the United
States Shoe Machine Company, subsequently bought Matzeliger's patent. The continued
success of this business resulted in a 50 percent reduction in the price of shoes across
the nation, doubled the wages, and improved working conditions for millions of people
dependent on the shoe inventions, all of which contributed to the shoe-making
revolution. His last patent was issued in September 1891, two years after his
death.
Revised: July 18, 2013.