6. The welting stand. A small square cast iron ta ble is fixed upon the top of a pedestal so as to turn round upon it; an iron frame is connected with the table by hinges on one side, so that it can be made to rise from it, or to lie flat upon it, and in this situation it may be fixed by a clamp. This frame has an open ing in it nearly of the same shape as the sole of the shoe which is placed flat on the table, so that when the iron frame is brought down upon it and the clamp fixed, it encloses the sole as it were with an iron hoop or elevated border. The sole is now lying as it were at the bottom of a cell of iron, with the projecting points of the nails upwards. The welt is now applied by laying the strip of leather upon the edge of the sole, and binding it so as to follow the outline of the sole. Whenever any part of the welt is placed in its position, it is struck down upon the sole with a mallet, which draws it upon the points of the nails. When the welt is brought quite round the sole and heel, it is bevelled at its extremities, which thus form a joint without any increase of thickness. The welt and sole being well beat together, they are next carried to the cut ting press, by which the edge of the sole and welt are cut precisely and exactly to the same size. Previous to this operation, the sole is confined between two iron patterns, made exactly of the size to which the sole is to be formed.
7. The cutting press. A horizontal spindle, like that of a turning lathe, passes through two standards rising from a horizontal plate. It goes through a col lar in one standard, projecting some inches beyond it, and carries at its extremity a piece of wood with a flat surface, and of the same shape as the sole. The sole between the two iron plates is pressed against this flat surface by a screw fitted into an iron standard rising from the same horizontal plate, and pressing by the intervention of a lever upon the iron plates op posite to the end of the spindle. By this pressure the spindle retreats in the direction of its length a small quantity; and in consequence of this, a flat circular plate, fixed upon the spindle like the pulley of a lathe, presses against a similar flat plate fixed to the frame, and unable to turn. The spindle becomes immovea ble by the friction of these two surfaces, and the sole is kept firm in the press, while the workman with a drawing knife, worked by both hands, cuts the edge all round. After having pared the uppermost part the edge, he releases the screw of the press, and the spindle, pressed forward by a spring, advances and separates the friction plates. The spindle with its role being turned round, a fresh part of the edge is pared, and so on till the whole is finished. The edge of the sole thus cut is then ground smoothly on a ra pidly revolving grindstone, and polished on a wooden wheel with a little bees wax spread upon it.
S. The clamping machine. The object of this ma chine is to close or rivet the shoe together. The up per leather being put upon a last, is fixed with its sole upwards about six inches above a small oval table, capable of turning round upon the column which sup ports it. The sole of the last is a solid piece of cast iron, but the lower part which receives the upper leather is of wood. The last is then fixed firmly on
the table by two steady pins, and by a strong pin pro jecting downwards through the table, and confined by a wedge. To the oval table are attached a number of pieces of brass by hinges, which are so arranged round the last that they can be bound up against the upper leather, and form clamps, which, when they are all up, form a complete cell or box embracing the upper leather. Each clamp is forced into its situa ticn by an independent screw, tapped obliquely through the edge of the table, and pressing up by its point the end of a small rod jointed to the clamp, near the part where it presses upon the leather. By releasing this screw, the clamp turns back on its hinge and falls back upon the table. The inner sole of the shoe being fastened to the sole of the last by two short pins, one in the sole and the other in the heel, the upper leathers are put on in their true po sition, and the last is fixed in its place in the middle of the clamping table. The clamps are now turned up, and the upper leathers drawn up all round with a pair of pincers, so as to fit them to the last; the clamps arc screwed tight up. The edges of the up per leather are now turned over, and the operation is carried on as in common shoemaking till the sole is put on. The nail which fastens the inner sole to the last is now drawn out, the real sole is applied and put in its proper place by an iron frame or saddle. This frame, which is of thin iron, has its inside figure of the same size as the row of rivetting nails which pro ject through the sole. It is made in two halves, unit ed by a hinge at the heel part, and there are two holes at the toe in which a pin can be put to hold the frame together. This pin, and the joint pin of the hinge at the heel, projects far enough into a hole in each of the two clamps at the toe and heel, so as to guide the frame into its proper position.
When all the long nails arc inserted in the soles by the machine already described, it is put into an iron box, and Ly a blow of the fly press it is made concave inside so as to fit the last. When taken from this mould, the inner frame is put together round the row of nails, the inside of the frame just receiving the projecting points of the nails so as to keep them per pendicular to the leather, and prevent them front spreading out. The sole being then applied by the guide pins of the frame, and the heads of the nails struck, their points penetrate through the turned in upper leather and the inner sole. When they are well entered, the iron frame is removed by opening it at its hinge, and the nails are driven down into their places. The nail points fall into a slight semicircular groove round the sole and the last, which turns their points all the same way. The last being taken out of the shoe, which is easily done from the heel of the last being made in a separate piece, the shoe is car ried to the rivetting last, without a semicircular groove, upon which it is beaten, so as to rivet all fast, and smooth the sole inside. The heel is then put on in its place, and the long nails put through its holes by the nailing machine, and driven down in the same way as for the sole.