Sole Department. {Foreman, Mr. Nolan)

Progress, Volume III, Issue 6, 1 April 1908, Page 202

Sole Department. {Foreman, Mr. Nolan)

Here the soles and heels are built before being sent to the makers and the finishers. Here you note the sound of industrial battle louder than below, and you see as fine a lot of men as may be met with on a day's march. These are at work in a forest of machinery. Shafts bring the power in from without and belting descends into the said forest. Overhead hang countless sole cutters, heel cutters, and lasts. You recognise the domain of Si Crispin.

do its pulling adjustment. One might almost imagine an elephant hauling and holding and tacking. It works away with giant pincer; and hammer going merrily, and an automatic arrangement for tacking as the operator lasts the boot, and a clock for registering the numbers done — very necessary, as the enterprising American m\entor wants a royalty of per pair of boots put thiough the machine. The Ideal Laster holds while the man pulls and tacks, both working hard. The tacking machine is just an ordinary cylinder with an arrangement of hopper, way, and hammer. Gone are the days of tacks carried between the teeth, to be transferred slowly one by one to the driving place. This hand machine simply drops the tacks into place and hammers away whenever the man moves his arm. You see him hammering away and you wonder what he is hammering, and how he does it, until he obligingly stops and shows you. After the lasting, the toe and seat are " beat up " and the bottom filled, and the sole put on by the Strip Tacking Machine, which makes its own tacks feeds them into position, and fastens them on. The soles are now ready for final fixing They may be pegged, rivetted, screwed, or sewn, each process having its special machine \ cry ingeniously contrived they all are. The Pegger makes its own pegs out of a lath of wood, cutting off each one as it is wanted ; it feeds the pegs so cut into a raceway which'hands them

The sole sewer (Blake's) is a strong sewing machine, turning out the most comfortable footgear for walking. It does the work with a single thread and chain stitch, adjusting its stitches to the thickness required without consulting the operator who stands and guides the boot, taking care of the temperature of the pot through which the thread passes picking up the wax. The needle with the thread wrapped about it makes no more of the sole than if it were thin paper. Ratchet and pinion is the moving power. As the work goes on we almost think there is something human about it, especially when the obliging operator tells us why it never gets out of order. If anything were to fall in the way, a tack or something of that kind, there would be a merry break-up of the cogs. But nothing falls in, because there is a vigilant guardian. This is known in the place as an automatic " thrower out." It is a lever so finely adjusted that the moment anything drops it stops the whirling mechanism and the obstruction drops through into safety. Then the lever lets the whirl start again. This arrangement is regarded as the ne plus uVra of mechanical ingenuity. It is much wanted, as this whirling devil will put you 60 stitches through a dainty No. 4 (lady's) boot in 12 seconds, and is guaranteed to do the same for a big " shooter " in 15. Welters, rapid stitchers, separators take a hand. The automatic leveller — an interesting, powerful ma-