BOOTS AND SHOES, foot coverings of the human family; exceedingly varied in form, and not less diverse in the material out of which they are made.
The sandal is the most ancient foot covering of which we have any record, and examples of very ancient manufac ture, taken from Egyptian mummies, are preserved in public collections. The shoe frequently referred to in the Old Testa ment, and which played an important part in buying and selling, and in other social usages, was a sandal. The common sandal of the ancient Egyptians consisted of strips of papyrus plaited into a kind of mat, and that form remains the type of sandal of plaited grass or straw worn i to this day by multitudes in central Asia, India, China and Japan. The sandal was the ordinary shoe of the ancient Greeks. In Greece, shoes were used only in ex ceptional circumstances, and long boots lacing up the front were worn by hunters. Sandals (soles;) were the everyday wear of the Roman populace; the patricians wore shoes (calcei) of black leather; red leather shoes were reserved for the senators; and the long boot or buskin (eothurnus), reaching, sometimes, to near the knee, and frequently supplied with a thick sole to add to the apparent stature of its wearer, was appropriated to tragedians and hunters. Sandals and slippers continue to this day to be the staple footgear of Oriental communities.
In medimval times, shoes with long, pointed toes were worn by the high born; and toward the end of the 14th century these points became ridiculously elon gated, so that there appeared to be a long strap projecting from each foot. Different kinds of half boots were worn by the Anglo-Saxons and Anglo-Nor mans; and in the reign of Edward IV., if not earlier, the boot proper, with tops and spurs, was established as an article of knightly dress. In the reign of Charles I., a species of boot, exceedingly wide at the top, made of Spanish leather, came into use; and with Charles II. the highly decorated French boot was introduced as an article of gay courtly attire. Mean while, the jack-boot, as it is called, had become indispensable in the costume of cavalry soldiers and horsemen generally; and by William III. and his followers it was regularly naturalized in England. This huge species of boot remained in use in British cavalry regiments until comparatively recent times, and, in a somewhat polished and improved form, it is still worn by the Horse Guards.
The jack-boot is almost entitled to be called the parent of the top and some other varieties. Boots with tops of a yellow color were so commonly worn by gentlemen in the 18th century, as to be come a peculiarity in the national cos tume of the English. Among jockeys and fox i hunters, top boots are likely to re main in permanent use.
For many reasons the ancient domestic craft of shoemaking is dying out. Ma chine-made shoes being much cheaper, and answering the general need in ap pearance and wearing qualities, have generally superseded the hand-made article. A machine for sewing together soles and uppers was patented in the United States by Blake, and, as subse quently improved by Mackay, it became the apparatus which, for the period dur ing which the patents were current, dominated the factory shoemaking in dustry. The Blake-Mackay machine sewed through outsole, upper and insole at one operation; but as the corporation owning the machine held the patent right for machine sewed boots and shoes, im provements by outsiders were for the time barred. Now there are in operation many varieties of sewing machines, some of which sew welted boots in all respects like the hand-made product.
Factory-made boots and shoes are now entirely cut out by machinery, the uppers are sewn by strong sewing machines, and soles and uppers are fastened to gether either by (1) sewing, (2) peg ging with wooden pegs, (3) riveting with metal pins, or (4) screwing by means of the Standard screw machine. The latter most ingenious apparatus uncoils a reel of screwed brass wire, inserts it into the sole, and cuts off the wire flush with the outsole with remarkable rapidity; and for solidity and durability the work leaves nothing to be desired.
The manufactures in 1914 were as follows: Boots and Shoes (total) 216,039,401 pairs Slippero total) 17.733,689 pairs Since 1914 there has been an increase of about 25 per cent in manufacture. The domestic per capita consumption of men's shoes in 1914 was 2.9 pairs as contrasted with 2.6 in 1918; women's in 1914, 2.6 pairs compared with 4 pairs in 1918. In 1919-20 prices of shoes reached ex tremely high altitudes, but by the begin ning of 1921 conditions had so read justed themselves that a more normal basis of production and prices was in dicated.