Universal Outsole Rapid Lock-Stitch Machine, illustration by Universal Shoe Machinery Company, St. Louis, Missouri, c. 1916. Maine State Museum. Gift of Caroline Lumbard, 87.62.
Universal Outsole Rapid Lock-Stitch Machine, illustration by Universal Shoe Machinery Company, St. Louis, Missouri, c. 1916. Maine State Museum. Gift of Caroline Lumbard, 87.62.
By 1900, centralized factories produced millions of shoes annually. Workers stood at machines such as this outsole lock-stitch machine. They moved their fingers quickly as possible, careful not to mangle or stitch them. Owners expected their workers to labor intensely ten hours a day from whistle to whistle.
Henry Lumbard, owner of a show factory which operated during the 1937 Auburn shoe strike, included this machine illustration in the scrapbook that he created as he studied the industry early in his career.