124:
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328:, shaping the shoe leather by pulling it tightly over a form. In 1872, McKay attempted to replicate his earlier success by joining with James W. Brooks and Charles W. Glidden to form the McKay Lasting Machine Association and buying out the patents of William Wells's American Lasting Machine Company with the intention of improving them to commercial viability and then leasing the resulting machines. Ultimately, they spent $ 120,000 on their improvements and, after George Copeland demonstrated a viable lasting machine at the
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332:, another $ 130,000 attempting to sue him for patent infringement. They further absorbed Henry G. Thompson's company, becoming the McKay and Thompson Lasting Machine Association. For his part, Copeland had spent $ 100,000 on his own efforts and then $ 170,000 on the litigation. Ultimately McKay won but, seeking the best possible machine, promptly combined with Copeland's firm as the McKay and Copeland Lasting Machine Association in 1881. They were able to market an
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master" filling his house "with loose women under the noses of respectable people". Harvard got its first million in 1909. By the time
Harvard received the full amount, the total came to $ 16 million, the largest single gift received by the university up to that time and still one of the most generous when adjusted for inflation. The inability of Harvard to share the bequest with the
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gold mine. The terms of the will read in part: "I direct that the salaries attached to the professorships maintained from the
Endowment be kept liberal, generation after generation, according to the standards of each successive generation, to the end that these professorships may always be attractive
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on future sales. (The machines included devices that tallied their uses.) The low overhead, increased productivity, ready market, and glowing reports prompted more and more companies to adopt them as well. Blake helped install the machines until retiring in 1874. Ultimately, McKay's company received
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An 1897 letter illustrates one arrangement and subsequent disagreement. "My Dear Edith, you asked me to let you know what I could do for you, and you asked me not to write you a terribly cruel note.—I'll try to do the one and avoid the other... You will remember when this commenced I asked you how
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Invested by the university, his legacy has grown to over $ 500,000,000 and supports 40 professorships in engineering and applied science, one of the most significant monetary contributions to academic salaries. Harvard's Gordon McKay
Laboratory for Applied Sciences is named for him. The university
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during a period of abstinence in their relationship; for Minnie's mother and sister; and for 13 other women of no apparent relation with whom he negotiated life trusts in consideration of their love and affection, to such an extent that a neighbor complained about him as a "miserible old whore
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royalties on billions of pairs of footwear, making $ 500,000—about 750 kg of gold—a year at the system's height of profitability around 1876. Over 120,000,000 pairs were tallied on McKay's machines in 1895 alone, over half of US production. The legal arrangements were partially handled by
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finally solved the problem with his own machine in 1883 and then developed a commercially viable prototype in 1885, McKay swiftly bought out the resulting company, creating the
Consolidated McKay Lasting Machine Company. In 1899, this merged with the McKay Shoe Machinery Company, the
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8,000 in cash and an agreement to pay a further $ 62,000 from future profits. While contesting an earlier agreement Blake had made for less money, the two men then further improved and streamlined the design, with McKay receiving another patent in 1862.
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he separately established for his second exwife Minnie Treat, "the prettiest and sweetest young lady the world has produced" and the 36-year-younger daughter of his former housekeeper; for Minnie's two sons allegedly fathered by a
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His first divorce in 1867 had involved "an allegedly libelous pamphlet" to which he had responded with a 30-page account of his wife's abandonment, an extensive list of his gifts to her, and complaints about her
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to able men and that their effect may be to raise, in some judicious measure, the general scale of compensation for the teachers of the universities." The professorships he endowed are within
Harvard's
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for its soldiers. McKay filled an order for 25,000 pairs on his own. Rather than sell a few of his stitching machines outright at their full price, though, the McKay Shoe
Machinery Company arranged to
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his "McKay machines" rather than selling them outright, collecting a small royalty on each pair of footwear made with his equipment. He then secured his market position by, helping create the
216:. In 1844, at age 23, he established his own machine shop in Pittsfield. Partnering with J.C. Hoadley as McKay and Hoadley, the firm employed over 100 men before moving in 1852 to
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but it was limited to heavy work and useless for the pointed toes then in fashion or for women's shoes in thin leather, which still made up the bulk of sales. When the
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much you would require a month. And your mother answered (you being present and not dissenting) $ 300. This was about the undertaking I thought I was engaging in."
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in 1858. Realizing how the invention could increase productivity and profits for shoe manufacturers, McKay hired Blake at his company and purchased his patent for
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out of his desire to train well-educated engineers and his appreciation for Shaler's investment advice regarding investment in a
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166:. The gift grew to over half a billion dollars and was indirectly responsible for Harvard's inability to merge with
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378:) in 1891. In 1893, McKay placed an initial $ 4 million in trust for Harvard to provide for its later endowment.
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as a boy, he did not graduate high school or attend college but became a self-taught
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with his potential competitors. Upon his death, after providing for his family and
794:"Gordon McKay: Brief Life of an Inventor with a Lasting Harvard Legacy: 1821-1903"
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businessman and philanthropist. An important figure in the mechanization of the
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and self-made businessman. When his father died in 1833, he went to work as an
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17:
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R. Victor Jones, Robert L. Wallace
Research Professor of Applied Physics...
739:: Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 2013, archived from
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Gordon McKay: Patent
Pending: The Founding of Practical Science at Harvard
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together but could not do the heavy work of attaching the uppers to the
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in a machine shop at age 12. He briefly worked on a railroad and on the
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maintains his family mausoleum in gratitude. It was renovated in 2007.
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374:. Shaler became dean of Harvards's Lawrence Scientific School (now the
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but they still relied on skilled manual labor organized into elaborate
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was an important impediment to the repeated attempts of its president
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Shoe
Machinery Company, and a few smaller manufacturers to create the
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the "McKay machines" to 60 other companies for a low initial fee and
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220:. While there, he served as treasurer of the Lawrence Machine Shop.
815:, Kettering: Shoe and Allied Trade Research Association, p. 38
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subsequently removed 5 from the original list and added 7 others.
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finally worked out how to accomplish this in 1856, receiving his
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The last remaining impediment to mechanized shoe production was
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as an endowment to support capable professors to train future
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Each boy was provided $ 500 a year until their 21st birthday.
317:, the geologist responsible for McKay's massive bequest to
355:, which then dominated American shoemaking for decades.
862:. Newport, Rhode Island. October 19, 1903. pp. 1,
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854:"Peaceful End: Gordon McKay Dies at His Newport Home"
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American businessman and philanthropist (1821–1903)
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196:McKay was born to a cotton goods manufacturer in
879:"Tomb is Small: McKay Mausoleum Must be Altered"
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505:His will initially listed 11 other women, but 6
428:'s winter home during the early 20th century.
303:, who later became the first president of the
8:
713:
420:, in 1892. After his death, it was sold to
446:School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
376:School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
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38:
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833:Wetherell, Chris T. (January 12, 2019),
752:The Boot and Shoe Manufacturing Industry
184:A McKay Leather Stitching Machine, from
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765:Jones, R. Victor (November 21, 2001),
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385:on October 19, 1903. He was buried at
362:, McKay had become close friends with
231:had become the center of the American
931:19th-century American philanthropists
921:People from Pittsfield, Massachusetts
821:Patten, William; et al. (1926),
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628:
460:Massachusetts Institute of Technology
7:
779:: Harvard University, archived from
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200:on May 4, 1821. Although he studied
158:, he left the bulk of his estate to
749:Fallon, William P. (October 1935),
435:, McKay left much of his estate to
926:Philanthropists from Massachusetts
824:Pioneering the Telephone in Canada
809:"The Birth of the Lasting Machine"
25:
381:Gordon McKay died at his home in
353:United Shoe Machinery Corporation
149:United Shoe Machinery Corporation
143:, his most lucrative idea was to
835:"The Matzeliger Lasting Machine"
122:
466:to merge the two universities.
330:1876 Philadelphia World's Fair
1:
887:. October 23, 1903. p. 8
286:was ordering huge numbers of
227:and other communities around
30:For American politician, see
895:– via Newspapers.com.
873:– via Newspapers.com.
807:Morgan, Stuart (May 2020),
254:were able to stitch shoes'
170:in the early 20th century.
112:Businessman, philanthropist
947:
792:(September–October 2007),
767:"Gordon McKay (1821-1903)"
364:Nathaniel Southgate Shaler
358:By this time, living near
282:had begun in 1861 and the
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755:, Evidence Study, No. 2,
334:automated lasting machine
198:Pittsfield, Massachusetts
121:
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827:, Montreal: Herald Press
662:Patten & al. (1926)
301:Gardiner Greene Hubbard
405:
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305:Bell Telephone Company
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464:Charles William Eliot
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383:Newport, Rhode Island
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242:. With modification,
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424:in 1905 and used as
410:Indian Mound Cottage
402:Indian Mound Cottage
344:Jan Ernst Matzeliger
422:William Rockefeller
387:Pittsfield Cemetery
338:Surinamese-American
240:putting-out systems
135:(1821–1903) was an
103:Pittsfield Cemetery
783:on August 19, 2007
714:GlobeBurial (1903)
437:Harvard University
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372:Harvard University
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319:Harvard University
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160:Harvard University
847:: CTW Photography
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16:(Redirected from
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889:. Retrieved
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781:the original
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741:the original
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723:Bibliography
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650:Jones (2001)
629:Lewis (2007)
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408:McKay built
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248:Isaac Singer
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133:Gordon McKay
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99:Burial place
85:(1903-10-19)
43:Gordon McKay
36:
18:Gordon Mckay
916:1903 deaths
911:1821 births
573:SEAS (2013)
450:life trusts
315:N.S. Shaler
68:May 4, 1821
905:Categories
757:Washington
527:References
455:Florentine
426:his family
244:Elias Howe
214:Erie Canal
210:apprentice
156:mistresses
72:Pittsfield
64:1821-05-04
840:Shoe Blog
777:Cambridge
737:Cambridge
532:Citations
341:immigrant
296:royalties
280:Civil War
250:'s early
164:engineers
117:Signature
891:July 11,
869:July 11,
507:codicils
349:Goodyear
236:industry
218:Lawrence
137:American
487:mother.
441:Montana
431:In his
418:Georgia
404:in 2011
368:geology
326:lasting
288:brogans
284:US Army
91:Newport
845:Carver
393:Legacy
366:, the
268:patent
256:uppers
229:Boston
202:violin
191:(1892)
152:cartel
474:Notes
292:lease
260:soles
145:lease
893:2023
871:2023
433:will
278:The
246:and
233:shoe
225:Lynn
176:Life
80:Died
58:Born
412:on
307:.
168:MIT
907::
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