Lyman Reed Blake was an American inventor and businessman. He was a co-owner of the shoemaking firm of Gurney, Mears & Blake.
Background
Lyman Blake was born on August 24, 1835, at South Abington, Massachussets, United States, the son of Susannah Bates and Samuel Blake, directly descended from William and Agnes Blake who came to Dorchester, Massachussets, from Plymouth, England, in 1630. Lyman was the youngest of ten children, eight of whom were girls.
Education
Lyman received the usual district school education of the period.
Career
During his school vacations Lyman worked for the shoemakers of Abington and at sixteen was regularly employed by his older brother Samuel, who was manufacturing shoes in a small way. From Samuel's "factory" the cut-out parts of shoes were given to the shoemakers, who worked on them at home and then returned the finished shoes. Lyman's duties at the factory were to give out the stock, receive the finished shoes, and keep account of these. Following this he worked with Edmund Shaw, agent for the Singer Sewing Machine Company at Abington, setting up sewing machines in the shoe factories and teaching operators their use.
By 1856 Blake had saved money enough to purchase an interest in the shoemaking firm of Gurney & Mears, which became Gurney, Mears & Blake. Here he immediately organized a stitching room, put in machines, and taught the operators in what was probably the first such room to be run on the "contract" system. At that time the machines were able to sew only the seams of the uppers which were then hand-sewed or pegged to the sole. Blake entertained the idea of a machine capable of sewing the soles of shoes to the uppers. His partners thought this a bit visionary and suggested that any work on the machine should be done on his own time. Blake went ahead at night and first designed a shoe that could be sewed. It is described in Patent No. 29, 561.
He then whittled a wooden model of a machine that would, in his opinion, sew such a shoe. He had the parts made for a metal machine, put them together, and found that it worked. He immediately patented the machine (Patent No. 20, 775, July 6, 1858) and through his patent attorney met Gordon McKay (1859), who was able and willing to promote it. McKay paid Blake $70, 000 for this patent, $8, 000 in cash, and $62, 000 from the profits of the company. Because of poor health Blake then moved to Staunton, Virginia, where with the $8, 000 he was able to open a retail shoe store, though the Civil War very soon forced him to leave his store and return to the North.
In 1861 he rejoined McKay and to promote the introduction of his machine, did all in his power to improve it. With McKay he worked out the details of the factory system which made the machine available and traveled over New England introducing the machine and instructing manufacturers in its use. Blake's machine, when finally perfected, came into almost universal use, as is indicated by Blake's own statement that in fifteen years (1861 - 1876) over 177, 000, 000 pairs of shoes had been sewed on the McKay machines at a saving of $14, 000, 000. The product and process patents on the shoe were reissued to Blake in 1874 and reassigned by him to the McKay Association, for which he received a large sum of money. He then retired from active business and spent most of his remaining years in travel.
Achievements
Connections
Blake was married on November 27, 1855, to Susie V. Hollis of Abington.