Shoe.
1. (
Apparel.)
a. A covering for the foot, made of leather in
Europe, America, and some other parts; of paper and various fabrics in
China and
Japan; of wood in
Holland and
France (sabots); of dressed skins among the
North American Indians (moccasins).
A shoe has a thinner and more elastic leather for the upper, and one or two thicknesses of thicker leather for the sole.
The parts are united by stitches, pegs, nails, screws, cement.
See boot; moccasin; sabot.
Among the interesting series of trades practiced by the Egyptians in the times of Joseph and of
Moses, and illustrated in the tombs of
Thebes and elsewhere, are shown the shoemaker at his bench engaged in boring a leather sole with an awl. The latter is also represented, as also two pieces of leather not yet cut to shape, and two thongs ready twisted, which are to be attached to the sole as a means of securing the sandal to the foot.
The painting is of the time of Thothmes III., the contemporary of
Moses, 1490 B. C.
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Sandal-makers and shoemakers in Thebes. |
Another shoemaker's shop is represented in a Theban painting, where a larger stock and selection of tools are shown.
Two men are employed; one is piercing the side piece by which the thongs are attached to the soles, and the other tightening the thread in the time-honored way, gripping it by the teeth.
The tools are a mallet, bent and straight awls, a scraper, and a tool like a comb, which probably had a row of points for marking the places for piercing with the awl.
In
Dr. Abbott's collection of
Egyptian antiquities, now in the possession of the Historical Society of New York, are a number of shoes which have survived the lapse of centuries.
While many of them are shriveled, dried, and dilapidated, sufficient remains to identify their form and mode of construction.
The most interesting one is yet occupied by the foot of a mummy.
The bones and dried integuments reveal a form of extreme elegance, with a highly arched instep and feminine grace and proportions.
The material of the shoe has become brittle by the desiccation of perhaps 25 centuries, and is falling to pieces.
It appears to have been of kid, but is securely locked in a case, and does not admit of very close inspection.
The shoes of the ancient
Egyptians were made of papyrus, leather, or textile fabrics.
The
upper was sewed to the
sole, but an examination of a number of shoes of that ancient people has failed to reveal a
heel.
The
Chinese and the inhabitants of
India have had shoes from time immemorial.
Skins, silk, rushes, linen, wool, wood, bark, and metal have been used by these Orientals.
The Homeric heroes are represented without shoes.
Moses wore sandals or shoes in the wilderness of
Sinai.
The early
Greeks and
Romans used them but little; succeeding ages introduced foot coverings of various kinds: the sandal with latchet; the same with a toe-piece or cap; a leather moccasin, or soleless shoe; a shoe in which the toes are exposed (Fig.
4557,
e); a shoe, as we understand it; slippers; boots; buskins, etc., etc.
The material was of
tanned or
tawed skins.
Homer,
Ovid, and Pliny agree in celebrating the skill of
Tychius, the Boeotian, in the art of shoemaking.
The latter credits him with the invention of leathern shoes.
It may be supposed that the sandal and moccasin had been in use from time immemorial, and that
Tychius united an upper to a sole and formed a shoe.
If so, he had been anticipated in this by the Egyptians.
Artaphernes, speaking to
Histiaeus, said, “
Aristagoras drew the sandal on, but it was of your stitching.”
See sandal.
Extravagance has descended to our clothes and shoes.
The Roman senators wore leathern (or skin) boots reaching to the midleg; these were usually black, but Roman magistrates wore red shoes on occasions of ceremony.
The Roman foot-gears were the
calceus, or shoe, and the
solea, or sandal.
The former had an upper and sole, and was tied upon the instep with a latchet or lacing.
See sandal.
The
solea was a cork or wooden sole, covered above and below with leather, and stitched on the edge.
It left the upper part of the foot bare, and was secured by straps, which were crossed over the instep and wound about the ankle.
No buckle.
The
caliga was the coarse shoe of the
Roman soldier and company officers.
The
regimental officers, so to speak, wore the
calceus. The sole of the
caliga was thickly studded with hobnails.
Other protections for the foot were the
cothurnus and the socca.
See
Smith's “Dictionary of
Greek and Roman Antiquities.”
The shoes of
the Emperor Marcus Aurelius had separate compartments for the toes, as we see by a statue of that monarch.
The small shoes and cramped feet of the Chinese ladies cannot be traced farther back than the tenth century A. D.
From the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries shoes were made for the fashionables with long toes, stuffed with
tow. In the reign of Richard II., the toes of the boots were chained to the knees.
In 1493, Parliament limited the length of the
pike, or useless projection, to two inches.
In the seventeenth century very high heels were in vogue among the
English ladies.
See “The boot and shoe makers' assistant,”
London, 1853, for an excellent display of early foot-coverings.
The
Syrian shoes are made to be easily shifted on and off, as they are left at the entrance to a mosque or room.
They are made of various materials for indoor or outdoor wear; leather for the latter.
They have boots also, but the representations of their “foot-gear” with which we are favored by travelers make very poor affairs of either shoes or boots, they appearing to have no broad sole, but to resemble heavy moccasins.
Isambard M. Brunel invented, in 1810, a machine for making seamless shoes.
Sir Richard Phillips states as follows, in his “Morning walk from
London to
Kew” :—
“I was shown his manufactory of shoes, which is full of ingenuity, and, in regard to subdivision of labor, is on a level with the admired manufactory of pins.
Every step is effected by the most elegant and precise machinery; while, as each operation is performed by one hand, so each shoe passes through 25 hands, who complete from the hide, as supplied by the currier, 100 pairs of strong and well-finished shoes per day. All the details are performed by the ingenious application of the mechanic powers; and all parts are characterized by precision, uniformity, and accuracy.
As each man performs but one step in the process, which implies no knowledge of what goes before or comes after him, so the persons employed are not shoemakers, but invalided soldiers, who are able to learn their respective duties in a few hours.
The contract at which these shoes are delivered is 6s. 6d. per pair ($1.56), being at least 2s. (44 cents) less than what was before paid for an inferior article.”
Brunel's nailed shoes did not answer the expectations formed of them; the nails were found to penetrate the leather of the soles and hurt the soldiers' feet in marching, so that the scheme was finally abandoned.
Shoes are now largely made by machinery.
Several different methods and a great variety of machines are employed.
In one process, a thread is cut upon a brass wire, and the screw thus made is forced through the sole and upper placed on an arm beneath and riveted and then cut off. This is repeated as the shoe is advanced by the workman, until the operation is finished; the whole being effected automatically by a single machine.
The ends of the wires are then cut off and filed down, and the heels nailed on by machinery.
The heels are also burnished and the soles sand-papered and finished by machinery.
See nailing, pegging-machine; pages 2161, 2162; also the pages here following.
India-rubber shoes and boots are made by the following process:—
The gum is ground and cleaned.
Is triturated with say 3 per cent of sulphur.
Dissolved in benzine or other solvent.
The
cement thus obtained is spread upon fabric by rollers; the lower roller carrying the cloth moves slower than the heated upper roller, and thus generates a friction which
grinds the gum into the cloth.
The cloth is cut by pattern into the required shapes and sizes.
These are united by rubber cement over a last.
They are treated with
linseed-oil varnish laid on with a brush.
Put in a heater, 280° Fah., for 7 hours.
b. A
snow-shoe; a
racket.
2. (
Farriery.) A metallic plate nailed to the hoof of a horse, mule, or ox, to preserve the hoof from wear and prevent it from becoming sore.
See
horse-shoe.
[
2159]
3. (
Machinery.)
a. A bottom piece on which a body is supported, as the
ink, step, or support for the lower end of a vertical shaft.
b. A piece on which an object is placed while moving, to prevent its being worn.
4. (
Building.)
a. A block or base piece for the reception of a pillar, or on the top of a column for the reception of a truss, girder, or other portion of the flooring or roof-frame.
b. An iron plate having an inclined seat adapted to receive the foot of a rafter.
5. (
Shipwrighting.) The step of a mast; it rests on the keelson.
6. (
Nautical.)
a. The
bill-block. A wooden piece secured to an anchor during the operation of
fishing; it holds the point as the anchor rises, and keeps it from tearing the ship's side.
b. A board lashed to the fluke to extend its area and consequent bearing surface when in the ground.
c. A foot-board on which a spar is erected, to act as a jib in hoisting.
7. (
Wheelwrighting.)
a. A strip of wood or steel fastened beneath the runner of a sled or sleigh, to take the wear.
Cast-iron soles of a peculiarly hard quality are used to advantage, and are bolted to the runners.
Otherwise called a
sole. See sled.
b. A drag to receive the wheel of a vehicle to retard the course of the latter in going down hill.
But little used in this country, where we have convenient wagon and carriage locks.
See wagon-drag.
8. (
Agriculture.)
a. The metallic block on the inner end of a finger-bar; it runs on the ground next to the standing grain.
To it the finger-bar is hinged in harvesters of the usual construction.
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Mowing-machine. |
Fig. 5008,
A, shoe;
C, bell-crank lever, having attached a chain
K, which is wound upon the drum
D on the crank-shaft
E, to raise the finger-bar from the ground.
b. The shaking portion of a winnowing-machine or grain-separator, in which the grain is separated from the chaff and offal.
The shoe is pivoted at one end and oscillated by power applied to the other.
It is furnished with riddles and sieves, and the grain, etc., under treatment is subjected to a blast of air from a rotary fan.
9. (
Milling.) The spout beneath the feedinghop-per which conveys the grain from the latter to the eye of the runner.
The shoe is shaken by a
damsel on the spindle.
10. (
Mining.)
a. An inclined trough used in an ore-crushing mill.
b. A removable piece of iron at the bottom of a stamp or muller in a stamp-battery, ore-grinder, or amalgamator.
11. (
Railroad-engineering.) That part of a carbrake which is brought in contact with the wheel in the act of stopping a train.
That shown in
Fig. 5010 has a metallic sole
C, with arms
c c embracing the wooden shoe
A, and having holes to receive pins or blocks which pass through the shoe.
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Shoe. |
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Brake-shoe. |
12. The iron point of a pile.
13. The short horizontal section at the foot of a rain-water pipe, to give direction to the issuing water.
The top end is the
head.
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Shoe-block. |
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Shoe-stretcher. |
