Jan Ernst Matzeliger
Jan Ernst Matzeliger (born September 15, 1852 on the Twijfelachtig plantation at Cottica in Suriname , † August 24, 1889 in Lynn , Massachusetts ) was an inventor.
Life
Matzeliger was born during slavery as the son of Ernst Carel Martzilger jr. (1823–1864) and the slave Aletta were born on the Twijfelachtig coffee plantation on the Cottica River. As the child of a slave, one was automatically born into slavery. His father was the owner of this plantation at the time, which he sold to his brother-in-law Alexander Christie in 1854. In 1862, one year before the abolition of slavery in the Dutch colony of Suriname, the sister of Ernst Carel Martzilger Jr., Maria Jacoba Henriette Martzilger widowed Christie (1827–1890) obtained the release ( manumissio ) of her nephew. With the ransom he was given the name Jan Ernst Martzilger. Jan. Ernst already arrived a few years after his birth from the plantation Twijfelachtig in the household of his aunt in Paramaribo .
Shortly after the purchase, he began technical training as a toolmaker in the colonial vehicle service in Paramaribo.
United States
Jan Ernst Martzilger left the country of his birth in 1871 and was hired as a sailor on a cargo ship. Three years later he demolished in the United States and began training as a shoemaker in Baltimore . Via New York City and Boston and after various jobs, he came to Lynn in Massachusetts in 1877. Lynn was the center of the American shoe industry and he became the assistant to a small shoe manufacturer here. A year later, the ambitious immigrant was naturalized and he became an American citizen under the surname Matzeliger.
In Lynn he began developing a prototype for mechanizing the work flow in the shoe factory, and in 1882 he presented the working prototype of a special shoe sewing machine that connected shoe uppers and soles. With this lasting machine the production of shoes was mechanized and they could be produced much cheaper and faster. On March 20, 1883, Matzeliger had this machine patented, making him the inventor of it.
Jan Ernst Matzeliger died of tuberculosis three weeks before his 37th birthday in Lynn .
Honors
In 1984 the city of Lynn named a bridge in honor of the inventor and the US Post issued a special stamp in memory of Matzeliger on September 15, 1991.
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Matzeliger, Jan Ernst |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Surinamese inventor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 15, 1852 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Suriname |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 24, 1889 |
| Place of death | Lynn , Massachusetts |