Matzeliger, Jan Ernst (1852-1889), invented a machine that revolutionized the shoe industry. Matzeliger made the first shoe-lasting machine, which shaped and fastened the leather over the sole of a shoe. This process, which previously had been done by hand, led to the mass production of shoes and greatly reduced their price.
Matzeliger, a black, was born in Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana (now Suriname). As a boy, he worked in a government machine shop there. In 1873, Matzeliger settled in Philadelphia and worked as a cobbler. In 1877, he took a job in a shoe factory in Lynn, Mass.
Matzeliger completed his shoe-lasting machine in 1882 and patented it in 1883. He did not have enough money to produce and sell the machine himself, and so in 1885 he sold the patent to a company in Lynn. This company later became the United Shoe Machinery Company.
Matzeliger died of tuberculosis at the age of 37. He shared only partly in the great profits that resulted from his invention.
