A Manual of Shoemaking and Leather and Rubber Products — A Reader’s Guide

Factory Floor Distinctions: Lasting and Bottoming

Dooley draws sharp contrasts between shoe types based on how the bottom is fastened. The McKay shoe, after heeling, is “relasted or have followers put in to keep them in shape,” while the welt shoe and turn shoe remain on the original last throughout bottoming. The turn shoe, uniquely, is lasted inside out and must be “turned right side out” after coming off the last. These differences affect only two departments—sole leather and making—while cutting, stitching, finishing, treeing, and packing remain “practically the same on every shoe.” The manual emphasizes that the bottom stock must be prepared differently to fit each method, and that patterns may vary. This systematic breakdown reveals how a single factory could handle multiple construction types by isolating variable processes.

The Turn Shoe: A Case Study in Material Constraints

The turn shoe receives special attention as a woman’s fine shoe that is sewed wrong side out and then rolled “like a roll of carpet” to turn it right side out. Dooley states plainly that “nothing but good quality, pliable leather can be used satisfactorily,” and great care is taken to include only the best. The sole is channeled on the side next to the foot, with two incisions made. Unlike McKay or welt shoes, the turn shoe has no insole—the upper is sewed directly to a portion of the sole itself. This construction demands a longer, larger back piece to allow lasting over the sole. The manual’s treatment of the turn shoe illustrates how a single design choice (no insole) cascades through material selection, cutting, and assembly, making it a distinct system rather than a simple variation.

Finishing: Wax, Heat, and Polish

Dooley describes the finishing room as a place where bottoms and heel edges are sandpapered or scoured, then blacked and polished “under hot-iron pressure.” Considerable wax is used on the edge, melted by the hot iron. Heel edges may also be finished on a wheel or roll, but the object of each method is “to give a hard, black, and highly polished surface to the edge.” The bottom receives separate treatment for the top lift, sole, and breast of the heel, each handled by a different operator. Stains and blackings are applied, then brought to a high, hard gloss with rolls and brushes. Hot irons are used on black shanks and bottoms to add hardness and luster. The passage conveys a factory where finish is not a single step but a sequence of specialized, tactile operations aimed at producing a uniform, durable gloss.

Dooley’s manual is best approached as a period technical document, not a narrative. Readers interested in the history of industrial education or early twentieth-century manufacturing will find a wealth of process detail, but no discussion of labor conditions, design aesthetics, or market forces. The book’s value lies in its precise, step-by-step exposition of methods that were already being supplanted by newer machinery. For those studying the material culture of footwear, the manual offers a rare, unsentimental look at how shoes were actually made in 1912.

Holding this manual, my grandfather’s fingers come back—calloused, smelling of neatsfoot oil, turning a welt by lamplight. The precision here feels like a catechism. It reminded me of the quiet awe I felt reading A Treatise on Hat-Making and Felting Including a Full Exposition of the Singular Properties of Fur, Wool, and Hair — A Closer Reading, where fur’s barbed secrets unfolded like a private whisper between maker and material.