Jan Ernst Matzeliger -- USA
Jan Ernst Matzeliger an African-American inventor, 
with 5 patents in the shoe industry. Born in Paramaribo Dutch Guyana (Suriname) on the15, September 1852, his father was a Dutch engineer and his mother a black Guyanese.
At the age of three Matzeliger was sent to live with his father’s sister, at 10 years old, Matzeliger started work in the machine shop that his father owned. It was at this time that he became aware of his talent for working with machinery. At 19 after working as a sailor for two years he settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. By 1877 he had worked in a number of jobs, could now speak a reasonable amount of English and he moved to Massachusetts to find employment. He found a job at Harney Brothers Shoes factory, at the time, there were no machines could attach the upper part of a shoe to the sole.
A “hand laster” did this manually; a skilled person could produce 50 pairs in a ten-hour day. Despite his language difficulties, Matzeliger began working on various innovations that would improve shoe manufacturing productivity. Matzeliger's employer made an offer for the machine, even before it was perfected but Matzeliger rejected the offer. Instead he sought investment in exchange for a part of the ownership rights, he was then able to perfect the lasting machine. His initial diagrams were so complex that a representative of the patents office had to view the machine to understand how it worked. On 20 March 1883, Matzeliger received patent no. 274, 207 for a “Lasting Machine” that rapidly stitched the leather and sole of a shoe.
His machine could produce between 150 to 700 pairs of shoes a day, cutting shoe prices across the nation in half. Jan Matzeliger’s invention quickly made Lynn the “shoe capital” he became one of the founders of the Consolidated Lasting Machine Company, which was formed around his invention, and sixty years later was worth more than one billion dollars. However, his early death from tuberculosis on 24 August 1889 meant he never saw the full profit of his invention, but his stock in the Consolidated Lasting Machine Company was quite valuable. He left it to his friends and to the First Church of Christ in Lynn, Massachusetts.
In recognition of his accomplishment, he was honoured on a postage stamp on 15 September 1991. A statue was erected in his honor in Lynn, and a life-size portrait of Matzeliger hangs on the wall of the North Congregational Church
Jan Ernst Matzeliger an African-American inventor, with 5 patents in the shoe industry.
Born in Paramaribo Dutch Guyana (Suriname) on the15, September 1852, his father was a Dutch engineer and his mother a black Guyanese.
At the age of three Matzeliger was sent to live with his father’s sister, at 10 years old, Matzeliger started work in the machine shop that his father owned. It was at this time that he became aware of his talent for working with machinery. At19 after working as a sailor for two years he settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. By 1877 he had worked in a number of jobs, could now speak a reasonable amount of English and he moved to Massachusetts to find employment.
He found a job at Harney Brothers Shoes factory, at the time, there were no machines could attach the upper part of a shoe to the sole. A “hand laster” did this manually; a skilled person could produce 50 pairs in a ten-hour day. Despite his language difficulties, Matzeliger began working on various innovations that would improve shoe manufacturing productivity.
Matzeliger's employer made an offer for the machine, even before it was perfected but Matzeliger rejected the offer. Instead he sought investment in exchange for a part of the ownership rights, he was then able to perfect the lasting machine. His initial diagrams were so complex that a representative of the patents office had to view the machine to understand how it worked. On 20 March 1883, Matzeliger received patent no. 274, 207 for a “Lasting Machine” that rapidly stitched the leather and sole of a shoe.
His machine could produce between 150 to 700 pairs of shoes a day, cutting shoe prices across the nation in half. Jan Matzeliger’s invention quickly made Lynn the “shoe capital” he became one of the founders of the Consolidated Lasting Machine Company, which was formed around his invention, and sixty years later was worth more than one billion dollars. However, his early death from tuberculosis on 24 August 1889 meant he never saw the full profit of his invention, but his stock in the Consolidated Lasting Machine Company was quite valuable. He left it to his friends and to the First Church of Christ in Lynn, Massachusetts.
In recognition of his accomplishment, he was honoured on a postage stamp on 15 September 1991.
A statue was erected in his honor in Lynn, and a life-size portrait of Matzeliger hangs on the wall of the North Congregational Church.