How Did Jan Matzeliger's Lasting Machine

Jan Matzeliger and his ‘shoe lasting machine’
Jan Ernst Matzeliger was born on the 15th of September 1852 in what used to be Paramaribo – part of the Dutch colonies on the South American continent, known as the Dutch Guiana – now the Republic of Suriname. Although his mother was a black Surinamese slave, his father was a white Dutch engineer, sent to Paramaribo to manage government machine shops. This meant that Jan, despite the black colour of his skin, was born free, wealthy and educated thanks to his father. By the age of 10, he became an apprentice in his father’s shops, where he learnt about machinery and mechanisms, and nurtured a fascination in mechanics that was to follow him into adulthood. When he turned 19, he left his family
This helped the project really begin, and in May 1885, the ‘lasting machine’s’ first factory test commenced, during which it reached a record production of 75 completed pairs of shoes in one day. Investors flocked around the golden egg of opportunity, and business soared so high that Matzeliger was forced to sell his patent rights for stocks in the company producing his invention instead. 65 years and several companies later, the United Shoe Machinery Corporation was created through mergers, and came to be worth billions of dollars through their domination of the American shoemaking industry. Jan Matzeliger’s ‘shoe-lasting machine’ had finally become a successful reality, and was the pinnacle of the industrialization of the shoe industry. No more new inventions or machines were created for shoemaking from then on – rather the existing machinery was improved to new reach heights and
He was only recognized 12 years after his death, when he was awarded a Gold-Medal and Diploma at the Pan-American Exposition of 1901 (a huge world fair held in Buffalo, New York), as well as being awarded patents for some of his previously unrecognized inventions. In 1991, a stamp was issued in his honour by the U.S Postal Service, forming part of the Black Heritage Collection, and a statue was erected in Lynn, Massachusetts, to honour him in the place of his greatest success and contribution to humanity and our society.

Jan Matzeliger was a brilliant man, and contributed greatly to the world in his lifetime. However, his life was hard, not just because of his gruelling work later in life, but because of his skin colour. Throughout his life he was resented, ridiculed and scorned – because his was the skin colour of slaves, yet he was a free man amongst a society of whites. His ideas and intelligence were scornfully disregarded, and people thought his projects absurd and pathetic. Even churches rejected him, until he eventually found one that didn’t hold his skin against him.
He persevered, despite the many obstacles and prejudices that faced him, which seem insurmountable to most of us even now. He was a true role model – one that should be remembered, not lost beneath the other shallow, false idols of our modern