Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
In preparing the following pages, the author has aimedto supply a want hitherto unsupplied. No workdevoted to the wants of the Boot and Shoe-maker, manufacturer,or merchant, has ever been compiled. Ablearticles upon the “Trade,” statistical statements, andgeneral comments upon matters of interest local in theircharacter, and having particular reference to the stateof the times in which they were written, have been published,perused and forgotten. But no work, containinga history of this important mechanical interest, togetherwith instructions in the science of the Boot and Shoemanufacture, has ever been written. The Author doesnot flatter himself that he has, by any means, exhaustedso fruitful a subject, but that he has prepared and compiledimportant facts and rules, and submitted valuablesuggestions which are correct in theory, and practicalin their application, he has not a doubt.
Within a few years, this important industrial interesthas assumed almost wonderful proportions, and it nowtowers in magnitude and importance, above all its compeers.New elements have been introduced into themanufacture of boots and shoes, and fortunes have beenexpended in endeavoring to introduce new methods byivwhich to cheapen the process of manufacture, as well asthe raw material. The introduction of India-rubber andGutta-percha as articles of mechanical use, has quickenedthe pulses of invention, and has already producedwonderful, and important changes in all departments ofthe mechanic arts, and more especially in that of bootsand shoes. Already have these important vegetablegums, and the thousand uses of which they