Today in History – 1883 – Jan Matzeliger Patents the shoe “lasting machine”
So this morning I read that on this date in 1885 – John Matzeliger of Suriname patented the shoe lacing machine. I thought that sounded interesting, especially since I had no idea what a shoe lacing machine did? Anyway, what I found when I googled the event was that in 1883 a young man named Jan Matzeliger, who was born in Suriname patented a “shoe lasting machine”. Matzeliger was born in Suriname of a Dutch Father and a black native of Suriname. At an early age Matzeliger showed an aptitude for machines and by the age of 10 he was working in a machine ship that his father supervised. By 1873 he moved to Philadelphia and then on to Lynn, Massachusetts where the shoe industry was booming. He became an apprentice in a shoe factory’. From MIT’s Inventor of the Week:
