Jan Matzeliger, the man who invented the »shoes lasting machine »

On March 20, 1883 Matzeliger received a patent for his invention, a shoe lasting machine.

Jan Matzeliger was born in 1852 in Surinam. When he was 21, he traveled to the United States, though he spoke no English. He got a job as an apprentice in a shoe factory in Massachusetts. At the time, the shoe industry was held captive by skilled craftsman known as hand lasters. The hand lasters had the hardest and most technical job on the shoe assembly line; they had to fit shoe leather around a mold of a customer’s foot and attach it to the sole of the shoe. A good hand laster could complete about 50 pairs of shoes a day, and because the work was so skilled, hand lasters were paid very large salaries, which made shoes very expensive to produce. Matzeliger got tired of waiting for the lasters to do their jobs; because they worked so slowly, there were huge backups on the assembly line. He went to night school to learn English so that he could read books about science and manufacturing. He had no money, so he constructed models from spare parts and scraps. After years of study, he produced a shoe lasting machine, which produced between 150 to 700 pairs of shoes a day (as compared to 50 per day for a hand laster). Sadly, Matzeliger would only enjoy his success for a short time, as he was afflicted with tuberculosis in 1886 and died on August 24, 1889 at the age of 37. As a result of his work, shoe manufacturing capabilities increased as did efficiency. This allowed for lower prices for consumers and more jobs for workers. Matzeliger left behind a legacy of tackling what was thought to be an impossible task making shoes affordable for the masses.

 

Black inventors

George Washington Carver (1864-1943)

Lewis Howard Latimer (1848-1928)/ Inventor of the electric lamp with carbon filament

Garrett Morgan (1877-1963)/ Inventor of the gas mask and traffic light signal

Jan Matzeliger (1852-1889)

 

 

 

 

Jan Matzeliger was born in 1852 in Surinam. When he was 21, he traveled to the United States, though he spoke no English. He got a job as an apprentice in a shoe factory in Massachusetts. At the time, the shoe industry was held captive by skilled craftsman known as hand lasters. The hand lasters had the hardest and most technical job on the shoe assembly line; they had to fit shoe leather around a mold of a customer’s foot and attach it to the sole of the shoe. A good hand laster could complete about 50 pairs of shoes a day, and because the work was so skilled, hand lasters were paid very large salaries, which made shoes very expensive to produce. Matzeliger got tired of waiting for the lasters to do their jobs; because they worked so slowly, there were huge backups on the assembly line. He went to night school to learn English so that he could read books about science and manufacturing. He had no money, so he constructed models from spare parts and scraps. After years of study, he produced a shoe lasting machine, which produced between 150 to 700 pairs of shoes a day (as compared to 50 per day for a hand laster). Sadly, Matzeliger would only enjoy his success for a short time, as he was afflicted with tuberculosis in 1886 and died on August 24, 1889 at the age of 37. As a result of his work, shoe manufacturing capabilities increased as did efficiency. This allowed for lower prices for consumers and more jobs for workers. Matzeliger left behind a legacy of tackling what was thought to be an impossible task – making shoes affordable for the masses.

 

 

Marie Van Brittan Brown (1922-1999)

Marie Van Brittan Brown was born in 1922 in Jamaica, Queens, New York City. She was an African-American nurse and inventor.
In 1966 she had the idea for a home surveillance device. She applied for a patent along with her husband Albert Brown in 1966 for a closed circuit television security system. They created a system for a motorized camera to show images on a monitor. The patent, #3,482,037 was granted. Her devise was the forerunner to the modern home security system. Brown’s system had a set of four peepholes and a camera that could slide up and down to look out each one. Anything the camera picked up would appear on a monitor. An additional feature of Brown’s invention was that a person also could unlock a door with a remote control. Marie Brown told The New York Times the couple invented the device because police were slow in responding to emergencies in their neighborhood. There had been an uptick in crime, and Marie Brown wanted to feel safer while at home alone. The Times reported the “audio-video alarm system” could be used to see who was at the door and interview them as well. She was given an Award for the National Scientists Committee (NSC).
Marie Van Brittan Brown died February 2, 1999.

Philip Emeagwali (1954-)

Philip Emeagwali was born in Akure, Nigeria on August 23, 1954. He is ranked the greatest African scientist of all time and the 35th greatest African of all time. He won the prestigious Gordon Bell Prize for inventing the machine to compute a world record 3.1 billion calculations per second using 65,536 processors to simulate oil reservoirs. On account of being extremely fast, accurate, and being capable of analyzing huge data analyses, his computers are being extensively used for weather forecasting and predicting the effects of global warming and the impacts of other serious environmental issues. As a result of his intellect and hard work, the child of a poor family raised himself to a position which brought him fame and wealth to the extent of his being known as the “Bill Gates of Africa.”

Bessie Virginia Blount (1914-2009) Inventor of a self-feeding device for amputees

Bessie Blount was born in 1914 in Virginia. She trained as a physical therapist in Chicago and New Jersey.
She provided physical therapy for WWII soldiers; it was here that she invented the electrically driven feeding device. This was the first device that fed a patient that was bedridden or wheelchair bound. It would administer food through a tube in small continuous portions. If a patient bit down on the feeding tube it would activate the flow of food. Blount was unable to market her device. She took her invention overseas where France quickly purchased her device for use in their military hospitals
She later invented a receptacle device that could be worn around a patient’s neck. She again applied for a patent for the receptacle device and again was denied. This time the device was bought by Belgium. Blount also taught physical therapy at the Bronx hospital in New York. She became a forensic scientist and went into the area of law. She was the first African American to work for Scotland Yard. She died in 2009. She was quoted as saying that she had proven « that a black woman can invent something for the benefit of humankind. »