1. Jan E. Matzelinger Jan E. Matzelinger Jan E. Matzeliger was born September 15, 1852. He invented the first ever shoe making machine. This machine was so amazing and time saving that it could make up to 700 pairs of shoes in just a ten hour work day. He first used cigar boxes and metal scraps to make his initial machine. Finally in 1883 he got a patent to officially create his invention. But due to poor health conditions he died at the age of 36. Jan E. Matzeliger was born September 15, 1852. He invented the first ever shoe making machine. This machine was so amazing and time saving that it could make up to 700 pairs of shoes in just a ten hour work day. He first used cigar boxes and metal scraps to make his initial machine. Finally in 1883 he got a patent to officially create his invention. But due to poor health conditions he died at the age of 36.

2. The invention

3. Jan Matzeliger was born in Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana in 1852. He was a shoemaker by trade, the son of an African homemaker and a Dutch engineer, in whose machine shop Jan began working at the age of ten. He immigrated to the United States at age 18 and went to work in a shoe factory in Philadelphia. Shoes then were hand made, a slow tedious process. Jan Matzeliger helped revolutionized the shoe industry by developing a shoe lasting machine that would attach the sole to the shoe in one minute. Jan Matzeliger was born in Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana in 1852. He was a shoemaker by trade, the son of an African homemaker and a Dutch engineer, in whose machine shop Jan began working at the age of ten. He immigrated to the United States at age 18 and went to work in a shoe factory in Philadelphia. Shoes then were hand made, a slow tedious process. Jan Matzeliger helped revolutionized the shoe industry by developing a shoe lasting machine that would attach the sole to the shoe in one minute.

4. The ending Jan Matzeliger died poor, but his stock in the machine was quite valuable. He left it to his friends and to the First Church of Christ in Lynn, Massachusetts. By, James Caston Information source About.com/Black inventors encyclopedia