ORDER XI.—WORKERS IN SKINS AND LEATHER AND MAKERS Of LEATHER OR LEATHER SUBSTITUTE GOODS (NOT BOOTS OR SHOES)

Sub-order 2.—Makers of Leather and Leather Substitute Goods (not Boots and Shoes)

343.—Belt-Makers, Sewers and Repairers

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belt maker, belt man, belt mender, belt piecer, belt repairer, machine belt man

(i) is employed by leather belting manufacturers to fit, repair, finish or rivet leather driving belts;

(ii) is employed in factories where driving belts are used, to examine and repair belts and see to their upkeep, by using hand tools.

carder (leatherbelting) ; rougher

scratches surface of leather after it has been spliced, or scarfed, by hand, with wire brush, to enable cement to hold better.

cementer

(i) applies cement to joints of leather belting, by hand, with brush; folds belts by hand; lays belts in a box screw press, so that twenty or thirty cemented joints lie on top of one another under press, then screws press down, by hand;

(ii) applies cement as above; lays belts in hydraulic press, moving lever, causing press to come down on joints of belting.

finisher

polishes edges of belts or belt lengths, by hand, with a spokeshave, or puts belting into polishing machine; applies size to surface of leather with a brush and "glasses," i.e., finishes with glass hand tool on revolving table.

fitter, fitter-up ; maker-up

trims and "squares" and bevels off spliced ends with guillotine knife; passes end of strip into power-driven scarfing machine to scarf or bevel them; squares them again with knife; finishes with spokeshave and passes strip to carder (q.v.); sometimes cards or roughens ends himself.

jobber

see repairer.

leather band maker ; mill band maker

general term for operative who makes leather belting throughout, as distinguished from one who performs only one operation; splices and joins, stitches and machines, prepared leather bands as received from leather band cutter (842) (q.v.); sometimes also cuts them.

maker-up

see fitter.

mill band, maker

see leather band maker.

preparer ; selecter

prepares or sorts strips of leather for splicing machines; often done by splicer (q.v.).

repairer ; jobber

repairs or remakes parts of broken or worn belting; cf. belt-man.

riveter (leather belting)

punches holes in leather strip, by hand, with punch and mallet; inserts copper rivets and hammers ends fiat.

rougher

see carder.

selecter

see preparer.

sewer ; stitcher

(i) makes holes in belting with hand tool, inserts lace in holes, by hand or machine;

(ii) where leather lace is used, trims edges of lace, by paring with a knife; trims ends after lacing level with belt surface, by hand, with a knife.

sewer, laced

trims laces and stitches laced belt joints, by hand.

sewer, wire

keeps hand on wheel of power-driven wire-sewing machine, thus controlling pressure of foot of machine to suit various leather belting which passes automatically through wire-stitching machine.

splicer

sets gauge of machine, by hand, to required length of splice; fixes strip of leather firmly in position by turning a screw; turns wheel or pulls lever of machine, thereby bringing strip of leather in contact with knife of machine, which cuts a tapered scarf or splice; sometimes also does preparatory sorting, see preparer; sometimes also does fitting, see fitter.

squarer, squarer-up ; straightener

places leather under frame, with metal straight edge, cuts it by hand, with half round knife, or passes leather in to cutting machine, hand-manipulated but having cutter attachment.

stitcher

see sewer.

straightener

see squarer.

strap man, strap mender, strap piecer (machine belts)

as for belt maker, working on small straps for machinery.

strapper (tramways)

removes hanging straps of tramcars, which have been reported as defective by car examiner (714), and replaces them with new ones; rivets fast with small riveting machine hammer.

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From: A Dictionary of Occupational Terms Based on the Classification of Occupations used in the Census of Population, 1921,
Ministry of Labour, 1927. Digitised by Peter Christian, August, 2016.   This text is in the Public Domain.