March 27 – Happy Birthday, Shoelaces!

nPostednon March 27, 2014

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Bucklenup your shoes!

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nSlipnon your slippers!

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nButtonnup your boots!

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nTherenhave been all sorts of ways to keep shoes on our feet, all throughnhistory—including ancient and medieval shoelaces—but onnthis date in 1790 an Englishman named Harvey Kennedy introducednsomething that caught on big and has been big ever since:

nModernnshoelaces.

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nThenkind of shoelaces that go through pairs of holes; the laces can benloosened to allow the foot to enter the shoe, and then tightened tonhold the shoe securely on the foot.

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Backnin the day, traditional shoelaces were made of natural materials:njute, leather, hemp, cotton. Now shoelaces tend to be made ofnsynthetic (human made) fibers. The downside of synthetic fibers isnthat they are more slippery, so laces can come undone more easily—butnthe synthetic laces are stronger and last longer. n

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n(Boy,nhave I had problem with “cool” leather laces – they break soneasily!)

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Apparentlynone feature of modern shoelaces, the aglet, was also used by ancientsnto some extent. Aglets are the hard tips on the ends of shoelaces,nwhich prevent the laces from fraying and which make it a lot easiernto thread laces through the lace holes or eyelets. n

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nTherenis some evidence that aglets were used in Roman Empire times to helpnthread ribbons and other clothing closures. They were made fromnmetal, glass, stone, brass, or even silver. These days, our shoelacenaglets tend to be made of metal or plastic. n

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nInread that Harvey Kennedy’s 1790 shoelaces frustrated people becausenthey had no aglets, and so they quickly became difficult to stringnup. The very next year, Kennedy’s updated invention included agletsnmade of tin or stone. n

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nInalso read that Kennedy made a lot of money—millions!—with hisnshoelaces.

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nDidnyou know…?

n Shoelacesn are also called shoestrings or bootlaces.

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n Necessityn is the mother of invention, don’t you know, and many differentn people have reinvented ways to make aglets when a shoelace breaksn and they can’t immediately get another. I know that I have usedn small pieces of adhesive tape in an effort to make a shoelace I cann thread through holes. During the Great Depression, people maden aglets out of paper and glue.

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