Tewksbury residents help identify "mystery machine" at Cummings Center

Cummings Properties lease administrator and Tewksbury resident Mary Beth Soskin knew exactly who to enlist to help solve the mystery machine conundrum posted to the commercial real estate firm’s Facebook page last December.

The machine is part of a significant collection of artifacts from “The Shoe,” the former headquarters of United Shoe Machinery Corporation in Beverly, which is now home to Cummings Center. Cummings’ design team was stumped as to what the machine was for, so it took to the Internet to enlist the public’s help.

After seeing that there were a few good, but incorrect, guesses, Mary Beth reached out to her husband, Steve Soskin, who works for Canton-based shoe manufacturer KBG. It was a perfect fit, or so she thought.

Although he is a veteran of the shoe business, Steve couldn’t identify the machine; but he was confident that he knew who could. He called a KBG colleague, Bob Johnson, in China—no luck, but Bob knew who would know. He sent a picture of the machine to an old colleague, Craig Crumblehome, in the United Kingdom, who sent it to a friend who was on his way to Australia, who took time out of his travels to suggest contacting Frank Rossi.

Steve Googled Frank and discovered he is the president of USM-Americas, the company that owns the blueprints and manufactures the replacement parts for all the original United Shoe Machinery Corporation machines.

Steve emailed some pictures and a brief description to Frank, who in turn forwarded them to three USM colleagues, including Charlie Williams, who lives in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Charlie reached out to Cummings Properties project architect Dave Harriss—the mastermind behind the contest—and decided the only way to identify the machine was to see it in person.

After involving 10 people across four continents, the quest to identify this artifact from The Shoe ended right where it began—at Cummings Center.

Dave and Charlie looked through catalogues and determined it is a modified “Goodyear insole channeling and lip setting machine, Model A,” used to create Goodyear welt insoles, which are the most durable type of insole. The two have plans to meet again so Dave can show Charlie more artifacts from The Shoe.

Cummings Center, a thriving office and technology park, has become a defacto museum for artifacts and memorabilia of The Shoe in its heyday. It is also the future home of Woburn-based Cummings Properties’ latest project, 73 luxury residences known as Elliott Landing by Cummings.

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PHOTO: Cummings Properties leasing administrator Mary Beth Soskin with Cummings Center’s “mystery machine”—a “Goodyear insole channeling and lip setting machine, Model A” that has been modified.