[5]

A TREATISE
ON
HAT-MAKING AND FELTING,
INCLUDING A FULL
EXPOSITION OF THE SINGULAR PROPERTIES
OF FUR, WOOL, AND HAIR.

BY

JOHN THOMSON,
A PRACTICAL HATTER.

PHILADELPHIA:
HENRY CAREY BAIRD,
INDUSTRIAL PUBLISHER,
406 Walnut Street.

LONDON:
E. & F. N. SPON,
48 Charing Cross.

1868.

[6]

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by
HENRY CAREY BAIRD,
in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States
in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

PHILADELPHIA:
COLLINS, PRINTER, 705 JAYNE STREET.

[7]

CONTENTS.

[8]
[9]

TREATISE ON HAT-MAKING AND FELTING.

It is conceded as an axiom, that theory and practice,
in the pursuit of any object, are in their natures essentially
different and distinct. But at the same time
they long for a mutual understanding each to confirm
the assertions of the other, the consummation of all
practical results being the mutual embrace and perfect
reconciliation of these two attributes.

The writer of these pages, being a practical hatter,
desires to describe intelligibly his calling, dispensing
with all technical terms, at the same time conscious
of being liable to receive an unfair criticism from his
brother tradesmen, although perfectly innocent on
their part, resulting from the prejudices engendered
by the many would-be secrets that pertain to the
different work-shops, together with their various
modes and methods of working, all of which most
generally are but trifles merely to gain a name.

The practice of a trade without a knowledge of the
why and the wherefore of certain usages is a sad defect
in any workman, but more especially in certain trades:
Hatting being one of those which depends upon second
causes for its proficiency, we venture here an explanation
with perfect confidence, hoping that the fraternity
of hatters will be indulgent, and that they may profit
by an experience of many years in the trade,
and that for one error or omission in the writing of[10]
these sheets they will find compensation in the new
ideas that will spring from their perusal, which may
be an incentive to further improvements in the business
resulting beneficially to all.

Theory without practice, or practice without theory,
is like groping in the dark, and perfection in no trade
can be attained till every effect can be traced to its
cause, and vice versa.

It is much to be regretted that practical operative
workmen are so diffident in writing and publishing
their experience in their several trades and occupations,
quietly permitting theorists ignorant of the
business to glean as best they can from other parties
the most intricate and complicated particulars of a
trade, and hence the attempt to illustrate the most
useful branches of an art often results in crude and
even erroneous descriptions of things of the greatest
moment, and the dissemination as correct, of that which
is altogether at variance with the truth. In confirmation
of the above, we may instance the manufacture
of hats as described in a work of much merit,
and which is accounted as worthy of all confidence,
wherein the error above spoken of is but too plainly
visible. Thus, in the supplement to the third edition
of that most respectable work the Edinburgh “Encyclopedia
Britannica,” in the article Hat, an apology is
made for the original treatise upon that subject, it
being acknowledged as both defective and erroneous
from the imperfect source of the information. Such
a confession, and from such a source, sufficiently exonerates
any one from egotism in an attempt to write
a more perfect and correct description, coupling theory
with practice; relieving the felting process from its
misty obscurity by a faithful expose of the whole system:[11]
well knowing that an increase of business, like
free trade, will be the result of a right understanding
of a formerly supposed mystery, viz., the True cause
of Felting.

Felt and felted articles being already in use, in
many trades in addition to that of hat-making,
necessitates a general and indeed a very full and
lucid description of the materials of which they are
made.

Descriptions of Furs, Wools, Hair, &c.

Fur, properly speaking, signifies the skins of various
species of animals, dressed in alum or some other
preparation with the hair on, and made into articles
of wearing apparel; but the term fur also signifies the
stuff that is cut from the skin, for the use of the hatter,
and in this sense alone it will be employed in the
following pages.

Hair, wool, fur, and animal down are simply slender
filaments or thread-like fibres issuing out of the pores
of the skins of animals, and all partaking of the same
general nature, such as great ductility, flexibility,
elasticity, and tenacity, differing entirely from the
vegetable wools and downs, such as cotton, &c., which
contain neither of these four great characteristics to
any valuable or appreciable extent.

To characterize in a familiar way these several grades
of material, it may be said that fur is distinguished
from wool by its greater fineness and softness, and
hair from wool by its straightness and stiffness. The
nature of all these bearing some relation to each other,
it will be necessary in this treatise to use the word
hair occasionally to designate one and all of them, that
word being most convenient, and tending to avoid
confusion.

[12]

Simple as the idea may be, and though trifling in
appearance, yet the study of a single hair is particularly
interesting, both to the naturalist and the man
of business, as will be seen when we mention a few
of its many peculiarities; hoping it will prove a source
of enjoyment to the one and a profit to the other.

Hair, wool, fur, &c., form quite an extraneous appendage
to the skin, or body producing them, not at
all directly dependent on the life of the animal for
their own existence, for they have been known to live
and grow for some time after the death of the animal
itself. We also know that they live, grow, and die,
showing all the signs of youth, maturity, and old age.
Hair possesses no sensation at any period of its existence;
of itself it has no feeling of touch, nor has it
the power of voluntary action.

The growth of hair is peculiar as it projects and
grows in length from the root, and not by the top as
with vegetable productions, the lower portion lengthens
out, and the top is merely projected forward; and
when once cut, it never again resumes its tapering
point.

Hair or fur of whatever quality, consists of a single
slender filament, without a branch or knot of any
kind, and that filament is a tube, which is filled with a
fat oil, the color of the hair being derived from this oil.

By the chemical analysis of hair it is found to consist
of nine different substances: 1st, gelatine or animal
matter, which constitutes its greater part; 2d, a white
concrete oil in small quantity; 3d, another oil of a
grayish-green color more abundant, these oils comprising
about one-fourth of the entire weight; 4th, a
few particles of oxide of manganese; 5th, iron, the state
of which in the hair is unknown; 6th, phosphate of lime;[13]
7th, carbonate of lime in very small quantity; 8th,
silex in greater abundance; 9th, and lastly, a considerable
amount of sulphur—such is the constitution of all
furs, wools, hair, &c., most of which may be dissolved
in pure water heated to a temperature above 230° of
Fahrenheit, by which it is partially decomposed. Hair
is likewise soluble in alkalies, with which it forms soap.
Chlorine gas immediately decomposes it, producing a
viscid mass.

It is worthy of particular remark, that of all animal
products, hair is the one least liable to spontaneous
change, evidence of which may be found in the fact that
the Peruvian, Mexican, and Brazilian mummy hair
is still perfect, and is supposed to be from 2500 to
3000 years old, and stands the hygrometric test with
equal firmness. From this we should suppose the
body or substance of hair and wool to be exceedingly
hard and solid, which is really the case, as no pressure
has yet been applied sufficiently powerful to entirely
deprive wool of the water with which it has been washed—the
interstices between the fibres of the assemblage
never having been closed by the power applied, as
the water therein collected may still be drained off
when the pressure is removed.

Although hair is of a tubular construction, yet
all varieties are not of a completely cylindrical form;
a curl is the result of all flat-sided or oval hairs, the
exceeding oval being the unfailing characteristic of
the negro race. A cross section of a hair, if circular,
denotes the long, soft, and lank fibre of a cold northern
animal; but if the cross section shows an extreme
flat-sided hair, that hair will be crisp and frizzled, and
of a tropical extraction. Quite a gradual change in
the form of the fibre of hair is observed in all animals as[14]
we ascend from the equator to the highest latitudes,
other things being equal.

It has long been a desideratum how to discriminate
between the various qualities of hatters’ fine furs, and
no really reliable test has yet been obtained, superior
to the judgment of the human eye, the fineness of fibre
for the hatter being of most essential importance, particularly
that allotted for the flowing nap upon the
outside of the hat. Although the thickness of the
fibre of the finer furs has never been properly gauged,
it will be a source of some satisfaction to know that
the diameter of the human hair varies from the 250th
to the 600th part of an inch, while the fibre of the
coarsest wool is about the 500th and the finest about
the 1500th part of an inch.

Hair may be bleached on the grass like linen, after
previous washing and steeping in a bleaching liquid,
after which it may be dyed of any color.

It is very doubtful whether the growth of hair can
by any artificial means be expedited, or the hair itself
increased in length, in quality, or in density. A fine
field of enterprise would be opened for the fortunate
inventor who could increase the produce of the finer
and more expensive furs. In contradistinction to this,
however, it may be stated that the inhabitants of some
countries, the Malays, for instance, purposely destroy
their hair by using quick-lime.

We come next to describe minutely another peculiarity
appertaining to hair, upon which all felting
or shrinking of a fabric depends; that grand secret
that has been a mystery in all ages, until within a
few years, or at best was only surmised. Upon this
property alone depends the whole art of hatting and
of felt making, whether in sheets or otherwise, as[15]
well as the fulling of cloth and the shrinking of
flannels, and all articles the material of which is made
of wool, hair, or fur.

As many branches of business depend for their success
upon the non-shrinking quality of their goods, a
study of the felting principle becomes quite appropriate
and interesting to those manufacturers, whilst
perusing that of the opposite. Pulled wools, rather
than cut or shorn wools, must always have the preference
with the one class of manufacturers; at the
same time, the other class must adhere tenaciously to
those which have been cut, the roots of the hair causing
all the difference, for that remarkable quality, the
felting principle, is upon all the same whether pulled
or cut.

A few familiar facts dependent upon this inherent
felting quality of hair will aid the illustration.
When a hair is held by the top, it can be severed with
a razor much more readily than if held by the root.
Again, a hair held by the root, and drawn through
between the finger and thumb, feels quite smooth, but
when held by the top, a rough and tremulous motion
is perceived.

Again, place a hair of three or four inches in length
by the middle, between the finger and thumb, and
twirl it a few times, when the hair will be found to
proceed towards one end, as the twirling and rubbing
are continued, and invariably advancing root end foremost,
whichever way the hair is placed between the
fingers. If two hairs are used in this example, lay
the root of the one to the top of the other, their respective
motions will be doubly discernible.

The cause of all these singularities of the hair it is
now designed to explain, which shall be done as explicitly[16]
and concisely as possible, with a few proofs
of its astonishing power in a collective capacity.

The above-mentioned phenomena are the result of
that same long-hidden property, and which is nothing
more than a certain clothing or covering, entirely surrounding
the stem of every hair, in the form of very
minute scales, so very minute, indeed, that it requires
the aid of a very powerful microscope to enable the
beholder to discern them, and even then but faintly.
These scales, which cover thickly every filament of
animal hair, wool, fur, &c., are thin pointed lamina,
quite similar to the scales on a fish, and overlapping each
other as do the shingles or slates upon a house. This
state of the hair being understood, the modus operandi
of the above examples may be thus explained: When
the hair was held by the point, it was easily cut by the
edge of the razor entering under the scales; but when
held by the root, the instrument slipped smoothly
over them; and the hair that was drawn through the
fingers, when held by the point, felt rough and tremulous,
from the jagged points of the scales, but smooth
when drawn in their own direction.

The twirling of the hairs between the finger and
thumb, resulting in their travelling motion, was on
account of the points of the scales catching on the
fingers, in the act of rubbing, similar to the heads of
wheat or barley at harvest time which school-boys
put into the sleeves of their coats, and which are sure
to come out at some other extremity to that at which
they were put in, caused by the working of the boy’s
arm upon the jaggy beard or awn of the barley head.

The task of counting the number of these lamina that
clothe the body of these hairs, must have been both
tedious and difficult, from their very minuteness and[17]
profusion. On a single filament of merino wool, as
many as 2400 barbed scales, like teeth, projecting
from the centre stem, have been counted in the space
of one inch. On Saxony wool there were 2700, while
other wools were as low as 1860, and none were found
to have so few as 1000 to the inch.

No vegetable wools whatever, such as cotton, &c.,
have any such appendage upon their fibres, and, consequently,
cotton or cotton goods never shrink in the
act of washing, as woollen goods do. Cotton, therefore,
never can become a suitable material for felting purposes,
every fibre being smooth from end to end in
either direction, and in contradistinction to fur, which,
though equally smooth as the cotton in one way,
rebels triumphantly when irritated in the contrary
direction, as already described. Mechanically speaking,
cotton is smooth, solid, and triangular, whilst wool
is rough, tubular, and cylindrical.

The grand cause of that mysterious and curious
operation called felting, fulling, shrinking, thickening,
and solidifying of a fabric, whether of original loose
wool, fur, or other stuff, or of that spun into yarn
and woven into cloth, is the presence of these scales.

Till lately, the best operative hatter and the investigating
philosopher were equally at a loss to explain
upon what principle such effects were produced.
Take, for instance, a handful of wet fur or wool, which
is merely an assemblage of hairs; squeeze and press
it, work it a little in the hand, and then observe the
effect; for immediately upon pressing it a certain
locomotion is thereby conferred upon every fibre of
that assemblage, which is increased by every turn of
position that is given to the body of wool. The rolling
and pressing change the position of each fibre.[18]
A friction is produced upon every member composing
the mass; a footing as it were is obtained from the
scales of each, and the fur or wool being all bent or
curled, a progressive motion goes on, interlacing each
other in their travels, resulting in a compact, dense
body, which may well challenge the goddesses of
both patience and perseverance to undo. Every hair
has been travelling in its own individual direction,
boring, warping, grasping, holding, and twisting
amongst its fellows like a collection of live worms.

The power of combination, like the fable of the
bundle of sticks, is strikingly illustrated in the case
of the hair, which when viewed singly seems so very
insignificant, but collectively, and when pressed by
the hand of oppression, hardship, and ill treatment,
they combine and become strong and defiant, clasping
each other in their embrace, tenaciously clinging to
each other the more they are tortured, as if they
were living rational beings, conscious of their innocence,
and free from guilt.

Stockings, for instance, that are knit with soft-spun
wool, for the use of whale fishermen in northern latitudes,
are large enough, when first formed, to hold the
whole man, but are felted down to the required size
in the fulling mill, where they are battered, tossed
about, and tortured to that degree that is required by
their tormentors. The writer has seen a millful of
these stockings whose sides were felted so firmly together,
from a neglect of the workmen to turn them inside
out, in due time, during the felting operation, that
a knife was required to open them, and which actually
failed in several instances, so firmly had their two
sides grown together; common tearing having no
effect whatever, each and every single hair had embraced[19]
its neighbors, and their mutual action defied
all attempts to open these stockings.[A]

There are instances of ruminating animals having
died from the effect of balls of hair having formed
within their stomachs, hair by hair having accumulated
while licking themselves with their tongues. These
balls are all found to be as perfectly felted as the
natural bend of the several hairs composing them
would allow, the felting having been accomplished by
the motions of the intestines of the animals. The
disgorged balls from the stomachs of nocturnal fowls
are all of the same nature.

As has been said, felt may be made of any kind of
animal fur, wool, or hair, provided it be bent, crimped,
or curled, for if straight as a bristle it would work out
of the mass as readily as into it, and lose itself in
the operator’s hands.

All materials intended for felting must be cut from
the pelt or skin, and not pulled, for the obvious reason[20]
that a pulled hair invariably brings with it its root,
in the form of a button or bulb, which would greatly
impede its progressive motion in the act of working,
as each and every hair under the operation of felting
bores into and amongst the other filaments of the fur
composing the mass, root end foremost, a sharp point
therefore is obtained by cutting. This rule is universally
and invariably adopted by all hat furriers.

Wool of any great length of staple, after being
carded, is pressed, and either clipped, cut, or chopped
into shorter lengths, which facilitates the felting
operation, and improves the solidity of the felt that is
produced.[B]

The various materials most used in hat-making are
the furs of the beaver, the otter, the rabbit, the hare,
a species of the muskrat, a species of the monkey, a
species of the seal, and a few others, together with
Saxony and Spanish wools and the hair of camels and
goats. Numerous as are these various names, most
of the animals produce five or six different qualities
of stuff, from particular parts of the same skin, varying
greatly in price or value.

The finest furs all come from those animals that
inhabit the coldest climates, and the season of the
year in which any of them are killed greatly influences
the quality of the fur; a summer skin of some
of these animals being comparatively valueless, however
excellent it might be in the winter season. And
what is particularly worthy of the hatter’s attention[21]
is, that fur that has been kept one or two years, after
being cut from the skin, produces a better working,
and a more solid article of felt, than fur from a
newly-killed animal. The lamina of such fur seem
to rise and erect themselves upon the stem of the hair
by being kept, which may account for its better felting
quality. This would appear to be confirmed by the
well-known fact that the 5 lb. bags in which old fur
stuffs have been kept are generally burst open.

One or two properties peculiar to furs and wools
may still be mentioned, as, for instance, all felting, by
whatever means accomplished, necessitates either a
damp or wet process with the aid of heat, and the
facility of thickening or solidifying is accelerated by
the application of soap to the material under the
operation. Or the water may be acidulated for the
same purpose with a little sulphuric acid, as either of
these acts as a penetrating solvent upon the natural
oil of the animal which still remains between the
stem and lamina or scales of the hair, thus baring the
barbed points of the crusty scales, the better to catch
and hold their grip upon each other.

Oil or grease, on the contrary, when applied directly
upon wool, covers up these lamina or scales, thereby
destroying their felting power, as is well known to all
wool spinners, however little they may understand the
real cause of its being so, further than the fact of giving
to it a smooth gliding effect, so necessary for the object
of their business.

It may be amusing, whether true or not, to know
that the rude Turcomans are said to dwell, even to
this day, in tents covered with felt, which they make
by treading with their feet the raw material of which
it is made, whilst it lies upon the ground, thus favoring[22]
the supposition that felting was invented prior to
weaving.

However, so far as we can learn, a real systematic
method of felting is comparatively of a late date, and
until within a few years felt has been chiefly employed
for hats and hats alone. This is, however, now but a
branch of the felt manufacture, for plaids, coats, vests,
pants, leggings, shoes, gaiters, slippers, mittens, and
caps, the covering of steam cylinders and boilers,
carpets, polishing cushions for jewellers and marble
cutters, covering for the roofs of houses which is
afterwards waterproofed, as also linings of water-tight
compartments in ships and ship sheathing, and the
covering for the blocks of calico and other printing,
&c. &c., are now made of this material. As the nature
of hair and the principle upon which its felting property
depends become better known, the manufacture
of felt will be stimulated and increased, and applied
to many purposes other than those above enumerated,
and not imagined at the present time.

The high price of the finer furs, resulting from the
indiscriminate destruction of the animals which produce
them, forms the only apology for the introduction of an
inferior material into the body of the manufactured
article. Cotton, which is of quite a limber nature, is
too pliable, as indeed are all vegetable products when
mixed with fur. They lie dead within the body of
the mass, and if the labor be continued beyond a certain
time, the active principle of the fur will be seen
to have clung to itself, leaving the cotton quite exposed
on the outside. Even under the most perfect
manipulation, a mixture of cotton, from its want of
elasticity, will give a product which is to a corresponding
degree deteriorated.

[23]

There was a time when beaver skins were bought
from the natives, by the Hudson Bay Company, at
the regular price of 14 skins for a gun, 7 for a pistol,
2 for a shirt or one pair of stockings, 1 for a comb,
or twelve needles, &c. &c., less than the hundredth
part of their real value, and all the other fur-bearing
skins belonging to that country were rated by that
of the beaver.

“The Scientific American” of New York for Dec. 1859
says that, not much more than half a century ago, not
a pound of fine wool was raised in the United States,
in Great Britain, or in any other country except Spain.
In the latter country the flocks were owned exclusively
by the nobility, or by the Crown. In 1794, a
small flock was sent to the Elector of Saxony, as a
present from the King of Spain, whence came the entire
product of Saxony wool now of such immense
value. In 1809, during the second invasion of Spain
by the French, some of the valuable crown flocks were
sold to raise money. The American Consul at Lisbon,
Mr. Jarvis, purchased fourteen hundred head, and
sent them to this country. A portion of the pure unmixed
merino blood of these flocks is to be found in
Vermont at this time. Such was the origin of the
immense flocks of fine woolled sheep in the United
States.

The same authority further adds that the simplest
and most easy method of judging of the quality of
wools, is, to take a lock from a sheep’s back and place
it upon an inch rule; if you can count from 30 to 33
of the spirals or folds in the space of an inch, it equals
in quality the finest Saxony wool grown. Of course
as the number of spirals to the inch diminishes, the
quality of the wool becomes relatively inferior.[24]
Cotswold wool, and some other inferior wools, do not
measure more than nine spirals to the inch.

The Fulling Mill.

Having alluded to the fulling mill as a felting
machine, it is only necessary to remark here, that it
is a rude looking but effective method of condensing
a previously formed article. It consists of a trough
six or eight feet long, and two feet wide, varying in
size according to the kind of goods to be operated on.
The bottom is of a semi-circular form, having a radius
of five or six feet, with sides rising three or four feet
high, a strong solid heading, but no end piece.
There is a heavy wooden battering-ram suspended
from above, at a height answering to the curve of the
trough; its immense head has a flat face fitting the
trough in which it is made to play freely, similar to
the pendulum of a clock. The goods are tumbled
promiscuously into this trough in front of the ram,
with warm water, fuller’s earth, and soap, in sufficient
quantity to saturate and wash the material, a small
stream of water from a boiler being admitted for that
purpose. The power of a water-wheel or steam
engine draws back the ram out of its perpendicular,
to its allotted distance, whence it falls by its own
gravity, with a momentum that sweeps the goods
before it with a fearful crash, upon the solid heading
of the trough. On the withdrawal of this enormous
hammer for a second onset, the goods roll over, resuming
their quiescent state, but differently disposed,
which is no sooner done than back comes the ram,
repeating its dashing blows upon its unoffending and
unresisting victims in the trough, washing, scouring,[25]
and buffeting them about, till they become not only
clean, but completely felted.

All of our broadcloths have been subjected to its
action, in the process of which the hairs of the weft and
those of the warp have become mutually entangled,
and each with one another, as with hatting in the
regular hand process of loose wool or fur felting.
Indeed, every hair composing the whole piece of
cloth has its individual and independent progressive
motions, combining the threads of both warp and
weft together to such an extent that these cloths
never unravel, and no hemming of a garment is required
in the making of our clothes.

Twelve hours in the mill will reduce a piece of
cloth two-fifths of its breadth and one-third of its
length.

The progressive travelling motion of the hair resulting
in the entanglement of the fibres and consequent
felting and shrinking of the cloth, is further
exemplified in the comfortable soft half-dress caps of
the British soldiers, and in the bonnets and caps of
the Scottish peasantry generally, which have all been
first knitted very large with soft spun yarn, and afterwards
felted down to the required size in the fulling
mill. During the fulling of any and all kinds of
goods, they must be frequently taken out of the
trough, to be stretched, turned, the folds straightened,
and generally inspected.

History of Hats and Hatting.

The word hat is of Saxon derivation, being the
name of a well-known piece of dress worn upon the
head by both sexes, but principally by the men, as a[26]
covering from the hot sun of summer, the cold of winter,
a defence from the blows of battle, or for fashion.
Being the most conspicuous article of dress, and surmounting
all the rest, it has often been ornamented
with showy plumes, and jewels, and with bands of
gold, silver, &c. It is generally distinguished from a
cap by its having a brim, which a cap has not, although
there are exceptions even to this rule of distinction,
for there are hats that have no brims, and
there are also caps that are provided with a margin.
Those hats that are made of fur or wool have all been
felted, and felt strictly speaking is a fabric manufactured
by matting the fibres together, without the
preliminary operation of either spinning or of weaving.

We find but little of hat-making recorded in history,
and anything relating to hats is extremely meagre,
although their partial use may be traced back to
the time of ancient Greece amongst the Dorian tribes,
probably as early as the age of Homer, when they
were worn, although only by the better class of citizens
when on a distant journey. The same custom
prevailed among the Athenians, as is evident from
some of the equestrian figures in the Elgin Marbles.

The Romans used a bonnet or cap at their sacrifices
and festivals, but on a journey the hat with a
brim was adopted. In the middle ages the bonnet
or cap with a front was in use among the laity, while
the ecclesiastics wore hoods, or cowls.

Pope Innocent, in the thirteenth century, allowed
the cardinals the use of scarlet hats, and about the
year 1440, the use of hats by persons on a journey
appears to have been introduced into France, and[27]
soon after became common in that country, whence
probably it spread to the other European States.

When Charles VII. of France made his triumphant
entry into Rouen in 1440, he wore a felted hat.

Hatters of the present day most generously ascribe
the honor of the invention of felting, and of its prospective
introduction to that of hat-making, to the old
renowned Monk St. Clement, who when marching
at the head of his pilgrim army obtained some sheep’s
wool to put between the soles of his feet and the sandals
that he wore, which of course became matted
into a solid piece. The old gentleman, philosophizing
upon this circumstance, promulgated the idea of its
future usefulness, and thus it is said arose the systematic
art of felting and of hat-making.

However all this may be, still the invention of
felted fabrics for the use of man may have been, as
some assert, very ancient and of quite uncertain origin.
The simplicity of its make, as compared with that of
woven cloth, shows all speculative assertions to be
rather uncertain.

However obscure the origin may be, we learn that
the first authentic accounts of hatters appeared in the
middle ages, in Nuremburg in 1360, in France in
1380, in Bavaria in 1401, and in London in 1510.

The hatting trade of the United States of America
is noticed first in the representations made by the
London Board of Trade to the House of Commons in
the year 1732, in which they refer to the complaints
of the London hatters, regarding the extent to which
their particular manufacture was being carried at that
time in New York and in the New England States.

[28]

The Fashions.

A look at the fashions and mode of dressing in
ancient times causes amusement. So capricious is
the fancy of man that nothing is immutable, all is
change, and hats have been of all conceivable shapes
and colors, and dressed with the most fanciful decorations,
plumes, jewels, silk-loops, rosettes, badges,
gold and silver bands and loops, &c. &c.

The crowns and brims having been in all possible
styles from the earliest period. It would appear that
nothing is left for the present and all coming time,
but the revival of what has already been, even to
the fantastical peaked crown that rose half a yard
above the wearer’s head.

In the fifteenth century, hats in Great Britain
were called vanities, and were all imported, costing
twenty, thirty, and forty English shillings apiece,
which were large sums of money at that early period.

The most extreme broad brims were worn about
the year 1700, shortly after which the three-cornered
cocked hat came in, and about this time feathers
ceased to be worn, the lingering remains being left
for the badge of servitude to the gentleman’s
attendant. Metal bands and loops were only regarded
as proper for naval and military men of honor.

It is a singular historical fact that the elegant soft
hat of the Spaniard has remained the same from the
earliest period to the present day, while among all
other civilized nations a transformation in the style
of that article has taken place. Comfort in the wear
seems to have given place at all times to fancy and
the demands of fashion.

Queen Elizabeth’s patent grant to the hatters of[29]
London is still recognized in England, and the 23d of
November is the hatters’ annual festival, that being
St. Clement’s day, the patron of the trade.

Preparation of Materials.

Previous to cutting the fur from the various skins,
they must be moistened, straightened, and cleaned;
the projecting long coarse hairs that are interspersed
throughout the fur, removed either by pulling, clipping,
or shearing; those of the rabbit, &c. being
pulled, while those of the hare, &c. are clipped. To
pull these superfluous hairs by the hand, the person
sits with the skin laid over the knee, strapped down
to the foot, and with a dull-edged knife in hand, the
thumb being covered with a soft shield, the obnoxious
guests are dextrously uprooted. If done by machinery,
they are pulled out by being nipped between two revolving
slender rollers. The skin is drawn over a
sharp-edged board, which causes these hairs to project,
and the rollers placed in the proper position and
distance, frees the fur of its deteriorating associates
with great facility, without disturbing the fur.

Furs intended for body-making undergo a process
called carroting or secretage, which is an artificial
method of increasing the felting quality of the fur,
enabling the hatter to work at a kettle with clean
pure water, dispensing with all acids and the like,
and using boilers other than those of lead.

It is only of late years that carroting has been
invented. It is a chemical operation or method of
twisting or bending the natural straight-haired furs,
and possesses also the property of raising or lifting
the points of the scales which clothe the fibres of
the fur, thereby facilitating the operation of felting;[30]
while the fur in its original straight state could be
used with satisfaction only as an outside flowing nap
upon the hat.

The method pursued to accomplish this result is,
to dissolve 32 parts of quicksilver in 500 parts of
common aqua-fortis, and dilute the solution with one
half or two-thirds of its bulk of water according to the
strength of the acid. The skin having been laid upon
a table with the hair uppermost, a stout brush, slightly
moistened with the mercurial solution, is passed over
the smooth surface of the hairs with strong pressure.
This application must be repeated several times in
succession, till every part of the fur is equally touched,
and till about two-thirds of the length of the hairs
are moistened, or a little more should they be rigid.
In order to aid this impregnation, the skins are laid
together in pairs with the hairy sides in contact, and
put in this state into the stove-room, and exposed to
a heat in proportion to the weakness of the mercurial
solution. The drying should be rapidly effected, as
otherwise the concentration of the nitrate of mercury
will not produce its effect in causing the retraction
and curling of the hairs.

No other acid or metallic solution but the above
has been found to answer the desired purpose of the
hat-maker, although sulphuric acid without the quicksilver
has a limited effect when the skins are treated
as those above described. For other purposes, such as
that of the upholsterer, hair is curled by first boiling
and then baking it in an oven; or it may be spun
into ropes and baked, after which it is teased asunder.

Preparatory to cutting the fur from the pelt, the
skins are dampened and flattened; they are thus made
smooth and ready for the operation, which is performed[31]
by hand, with knives about two inches long by
four wide, having a short upright handle. The skins
are held upon a cutting-board, and the pelt kept
moistened with water; a sheet of tin is laid upon the
skin, pressed down by the left hand, whilst the knife
in the right hand, being guided by the edge of the
tin, is run rapidly forward and backward across the
skin, gradually sliding the tin toward the tail; by
this means the fur is gathered up, and kept in one
fleece.

The pelts are appropriated to the manufacture of
gilder’s cement, or will make excellent glue. Machines
in the form of revolving shears, similar to those used for
dressing cloth, are employed for such skins as are uneven
in the pelt, and which cut the pelt from the fur
in slender shreds, being quite the reverse of the hand
method, which cuts the fur from the pelt.

Stiffening and Water-Proofing Materials.

There is reason to suppose that when hats were
first invented and long subsequently, the quantity of
stuff or material weighed out for a single hat was of
itself considered sufficient to stand unharmed the
drenchings which it was likely to encounter.

However, such a hat in the warm season being
unpleasant, a lighter body was proposed, to contain
some stiffening substance as a substitute, and the
attempt proved quite successful. A search was instituted
for something suitable for the purpose that
would harden the hat sufficiently, without increasing
the weight, but rather diminish it.

In those times chemistry was comparatively unknown,
and glue being at hand, our predecessors in
the hatting trade commenced the stiffening of their[32]
hats with that material, which long continued the
only article likely to succeed. Latterly, however, glue
has become quite obsolete, having been entirely superseded
by the various gums and resins, which, when properly
prepared, enable the manufacturer to put into
the market a much superior hat, and one more pleasant
to wear, weighing 3 oz. which in former times would
have weighed full half a pound.

The solubility of glue in water was its defect, and
the ultimate cause of its rejection. Our spirited predecessors
in the business, by a knowledge superior to
that of their predecessors, coupled with a devoted spirit
and unfailing resolution, after many vexatious trials
but little known to our modern workers, succeeded in
rendering a hat not only stout, light, and water-proof,
but cheaper and more beautiful to look at, ventilated,
and altogether pleasanter to wear.

Upon a retrospective view, and considering the total
of these improvements, we may well excuse the many
secrets and partialities existing in the trade, for before
any new admixture of stiffening materials or
method of applying them, whether before or after
dyeing, &c., could be properly proved, many dozens of
hats were under way. It required a length of time
to enable a proper judgment of the experiment to be
pronounced; thus, if unsuccessful, involving the character
of the manufacturer as a tradesman, and his
pecuniary affairs at the same time.

The result, however, was at last satisfactory, and
now there are several methods of stiffening with a
water-proof stiff, which possesses all the requisite
qualifications.

There is no department in the hatting trade of
more importance than that of stiffening, as the kind,[33]
quality, and quantity of the stiff must be regulated
according to the country in which the hats are to be
worn.

England, for instance, where there is so much
moisture in the atmosphere, requires a much harder
stiff than we do in America. American manufacturers
finding that shellac possesses every requisite
for both stiffening and water-proofing, now for their best
hats use that gum only dissolved in alcohol.

20 lbs. orange shellac being dissolved with 5 gallons alcohol in a
close vessel, cold,

attending carefully to stir it up repeatedly to keep it
from lumping and sticking to the bottom. The
vessel commonly is used in the form of a barrel or
some sort of churn. When fully melted the stiff is
ready for use by being thinned down to the desired
consistency with additional alcohol and put into the
hat with a stiff brush.

A cheaper, called alkali-stiff, and much used for inferior
hats, is—

9 lbs. shellac, dissolved with 18 oz. of sal soda in
3 galls. water in a tin vessel.

The vessel with the water is set into another containing
boiling water, and heated; the soda is introduced
gradually, and is soon dissolved, and the lac is then put
in and stirred occasionally for about an hour, by
which time the lac will be dissolved. The whole is
then left for an hour or two, when it may be taken
out and set to cool. It is better if allowed to remain
a few days after having been made. When used, it
is reduced to the required strength with more water,
a hydrometer being employed as a test.

The bodies are simply immersed in the liquor, and[34]
passed between a pair of rollers one by one, thereby
sweeping off the superfluous compound, but leaving
them completely saturated. The hats with this stiffening
must be immediately and rapidly dried in the
stove.

This stiff is rendered the more popular by adding
3 oz. of common salt to the mixture before using it,
as the salt neutralizes the soda, and the hats may be
blocked immediately after being stiffened, thereby
saving time and dispensing with the use of the stove.

The two following receipts are given as good and
reliable English methods of stiffening hats:—

• 7 lbs. of orange shellac.
• 2 lbs. of gum sandarac.
• 4 ozs. gum mastic.
• ½ lb. of amber resin.
• 1 pint of solution of copal.
• 1 gallon of alcohol or of wood naphtha.

The lac, sandarac, mastic, and resin are dissolved in
the spirit, and the solution of copal is added last.

This is called spirit proof, and like our own is put
into the body with a stiff brush, and, being fully saturated,
is set to dry.

A cheaper stiffening, also like our own called alkali
or water stiffening, is—

• 7 lbs. of common black shellac.
• 1 lb. amber rosin.
• 4 ozs. gum thus.
• 4 ozs. gum mastic.
• 6 ozs. borax.
• ½ pint solution of copal.

The borax is first dissolved in 1 gallon of warm water.

This alkaline liquor is now put into a copper pan[35]
heated by steam, or it may be set into another vessel
containing boiling water, and the shellac, thus, and
mastic added. This is allowed to boil for some time,
more warm water being added occasionally, until it
is of a proper consistence, which is known by a little
practice. When the whole of the gums seem dissolved,
half a pint of wood naphtha must be introduced, and
also the solution of copal, the liquor should be passed
through a fine sieve, when it will be perfectly clear
and ready for use. This stiffening is used hot with
the following preparations.

The hat bodies, before they are stiffened, should be
steeped in a weak solution of soda, to destroy any
acid that may have been left in them. If sulphuric
acid has been used in the making of the bodies, after
they have been steeped in the alkaline solution they
must be perfectly dried in the stove before the stiffening
is applied.

When stiffened and stoved, they should be steeped
all night in water to which a small quantity of sulphuric
acid has been added. This sets the stiffening
in the hat body and finishes the process.

If the proof is required cheaper, more shellac and
rosin may be introduced.

The Blowing Machine.

In the manufacture of the finest kinds of fur hats,
namely, those with a flowing nap, the stuffs of which
they are made must be thoroughly refined.

The clipping and pulling operations, to which the
skins were subjected previous to cutting off the fur,
never free the fur entirely of the coarse hairs that are
intermixed with the finer; and to separate the coarse
from the fine, the fur, as it came off the skin, is placed[36]
under the action of the blowing machine, which consists
of a long, close, narrow, wooden box, divided into a
number of apartments, the divisions between each of
them having an open space at the top or bottom, so
that a blast of wind can be propelled through the whole
length of the trunk. The fur is put into one of these
receptacles at one end, where it is teased and tossed
by revolving brushes set in the bottoms of several of
them, and a revolving fan is placed at the head.
The whole being set in motion by some first power,
the blast of wind from the fan seizes the loose thrown
up fur that is tossed by the revolving breakers and
brushes, and the stream of flying fur is transmitted
from division to division, along the whole length of
the wooden box. In this operation, the fur is graded
as it is blown along and deposited gradually in the
respective places, lodging in the most regular order,
from the one end of the wooden trunk to the other,
the dust and dirt falling down below, the heavier
portion of fur not being blown to the same distance
as that of the finer, which reaches the farther end,
where the finest of all is received entirely refined of
its impurities. But the cutting and blowing of fur
are both independent and distinct branches of business,
although relatively connected with that of
hatting, and the various grades of fur are bought by
the hatters from the professional hat furriers or their
agents.

The Manufacture of Hats.

Before commencing a detail of the processes of the
trade, it will be necessary to bear in mind that hatting
is universally divided into two great divisions,[37]
viz., the making, and the finishing departments, each
of which as a matter of course has its subdivisions.

With the exception of encyclopædias which give
detached and very abridged descriptions of felt
making and of hatting generally, there has been no
specific account published in either pamphlet or book-form,
so far as the writer is aware, of the manner in
which felt hats are made, or of the principle of felting
by which they are produced.

This is considered by the writer a sufficient inducement
to illustrate to the best of his ability a principle
entirely belonging to natural history, viz., the natural
scaly clothing that is upon all hair, and hitherto but
little known, and upon which several important
branches of business depend. Indeed, it seems almost
absurd to think that a hair, puny as it is in itself,
bears upon its sides a something of such importance,
so very minute as to require the utmost attention
with the aid of the best microscopes to be seen at all,
and yet upon that something is based the art of felting
and of course of hat-making, besides several
branches of other trades, some of which have already
been mentioned.

Hat-making was long considered a business to
which machinery never could be applied, but the
inventions of man have at last dispelled this illusion,
and machinery is now employed in several of the
most important departments of the trade.

The reason why this idea obtained such general
credence was, first, on account of the close attention
requisite, while the hat is under the operation of sizing.

Second, the known impossibility of napping or
ruffing a hat by any means with machinery, also, the
acknowledged failures of several attempts to substitute[38]
carding for that of bowing, and various futile
attempts with the irons in the finishing department.

The innovations of machinery, however, have now
obtained a sure footing in all large factories, and some
of them will come under observation in their proper
places.

In the mean time we shall confine our observations
to the old system, which still prevails in most small
factories and all small towns.

Our honest forefathers, the manufacturers in former
times, would insist upon making hats to wear not for
a season, as with us, but for many years, being afraid
of damaging the trade to do otherwise, but now a
hat for city wear, of scarcely three ounces weight, and
lasting two or it may be three months, is quite a
common thing.

The usual quantity of stuff given out for a regular
felt hat, modified of course to a very great extent by
the market, we shall suppose to be three ounces of fur.
It may or may not be a mixture of different kinds
and qualities of stuff previously prepared by carroting,
and may or may not be refined by the winnowing
machine, which separates the different qualities of fur.
These three ounces, however, are sometimes increased
by unprincipled men to four and a quarter or four
and a half ounces, by the addition of other and cheaper
ingredients, which are all laid upon a platform of
boards about five feet square, called a hurdle, over
which a large bow of about six feet long strung with
cat-gut, Fig. 1, is suspended. This bow is held by the
left hand of the hatter, and with the right he holds
a small piece of wood with a head or knot upon it,
Fig. 2, with which he tugs the string of the bow
and makes it vibrate upon the stuff, and into it, with[39]
great dexterity and with the nicest judgment. This
operation has always been considered a beautiful sight
to a stranger, as the performer goes on plucking the
string, and the string playing upon the top of the fur,
which lies upon the left hand side of the platform.
The fur touched by the string is made to fly from one
side of the boards to the other with the greatest regularity.
So nicely is this bowing performed, the stuff
flying from the bow-string hair by hair, and flake by
flake, that a hat in this loose state may measure
several inches in thickness.

In this operation, the different materials are tossed
about to-and-fro repeatedly, and mixed with a much
greater regularity and change of position of the
various filaments than if drawn by carding machinery.
One half of the intended hat, called a bat, is bowed
at a time, and both in nearly a triangular shape, which
being gathered up, and pressed with a flat square piece
of wicker-work, Fig. 3, and afterwards with a smooth
skin or cloth, is pressed and gently rubbed with the
hands backward and forward so as to create a friction[40]
on the surface fibres, thereby interlacing the outside
filaments, by which means the simply safe-lifting of
these two half-solidified portions of the future hat
is secured. The one-half being laid upon the other,
with a triangular piece of paper or cloth between,
they are joined together by overlapping two of the
three sides, thereby giving to the intended hat the
form and figure of a hollow cone or great bag, but
so tender that none but an experienced hatter could
handle it.

This operation of bowing is the same, with but
little variation, whether it be for coarse or fine hats.

If wholly of wool, they are now swaddled carefully
in an outer cloth, and sprinkled with water, and laid
upon a warm plate of metal which sends the steam
up through the hat which is to be pressed, and
slightly rubbed, sprinkled again, and turned over.
Continuing the pressing and rubbing, and by repeating
these operations for some time, the motions are
transmitted to all the inclosed fibres of wool with an
irritating feeling, as it were, exciting their propensity
for travelling, till the outer hairs, in their motions,
warp themselves with each other and the surface
appears skin-like and becomes smooth.

[41]

During these actions, the hat inside of the cloth
must be several times changed in position and kept
in proper form, when its swaddling envelope and the
paper within which kept the inside open and free
may be removed. These operations concluded, the
tender hat must now be subjected to a much more
laborious operation, where, properly speaking, the
grand practical art of felting takes place, where
thousands of thousands of filaments are all in active
though slow motion, all travelling on their own individual
course, independent of, and at the same time
dependent upon, each other for their mutual support,
being carefully guided collectively, by the hatter’s
good judgment.

This stage of the operation is a wet one requiring
an open boiler surrounded by planks, which slope towards
the centre, called a battery, Fig. 4, suitable for
six or eight men to work at. Each man is provided
with a rolling-pin, cloths, brushes, &c. The soft and
tender hat is laid upon one of these planks or benches,
wrapped in a damp cloth, and carefully wetted, squeezed,
folded, rolled and unrolled, keeping it constantly
moistened by dipping it in the hot water of the[42]
boiler, folding and unfolding with every variety of
crossings, rolling it as a scroll, pressing, shaking,
dipping and rolling it again and again, the hatter all
the while bending over his work in front of the
almost boiling caldron, and surrounded by steam. He
labors hard, ever changing the position of the hat
under his hands, so as to make it an evenly felted
and perfect piece of work, which these oft-repeated
motions ultimately accomplish.

This is the grand felting operation; the cause of
which was so long considered a mystery, and now
ascertained to result from the peculiar natural construction
of the animal fibre, as already explained.

In this planking or sizing of the hat, sometimes with
half a dozen under hands at the same time, the enveloping
cloth is soon thrown aside as the hat grows in
solidity. The hands of the hatter are defended from
the scalding water by thick leather shields upon the
palms, and as the hat approaches its proper size, it
is scalded and belabored with determined importunity,
coiled, rolled, pressed, and pinned, backward
and forward till the size of the hat is reduced to
nearly half of its original dimensions, and the tension
of the several fibres becomes so great that the hat
will felt no farther. At this stage it is impossible for
it to be torn asunder, and is still in its original form
of a hollow cone.

Such is the making department of the trade, the
felting process, where a firm piece of cloth (for such
is the body of a hat) is manufactured from loose
wool or fur, independent of either spinning or weaving.

We have now explained the making of the bare[43]
body, as it is called, of a plain hat, in as concise a
manner as the subject will permit.

There are yet a variety of qualities and kinds of
hats requiring a variation more or less in the manipulation
of the article, so as to suit a fanciful and
fastidious people. For instance, the quantity and
quality of fur, or an entire change of materials, produce
quite a different appearance both in the look,
the wear, and the price of the hat, while the form of
the cone must be changed to admit of a high or low
crown, or of a broad or narrow brim, &c. &c.

All FELT hats, of whatever texture, nature, or name,
must have undergone the above described operations,
and many have to go back a second time to the plank
kettle, and there undergo an additional teasing and
ducking in the scalding water. For instance, all those
destined to receive a coat of fur upon the outside
finer than that of which the body is made, and constituting
the flowing nap of the hat, which is merely
a kind of veneering or outside plating, which will
shortly be described.

A very good hat is made having a flowing nap
that is raised directly from the body itself. Thus
when the body of such a hat as has been described
is about half wrought up at the kettle, it undergoes
in another department the operation of shaving, by
which means the projecting coarse hairs are all cut off,
after which, on being returned to the kettle, the hatter,
with his stiff brush, card, and comb, raises a nap
upon the half solidified body, which is constantly improved
as he continues to manipulate with the brush.
The hat is, at the same time, reduced in its dimensions
by the operation of felting until at the conclusion
when it appears of the desired size, fully felted, and[44]
adorned on the outside with its rough and flowing
nap, which otherwise would have been smooth and
cloth-like. This is called the brush hat.

Shaving.

In the process of fur felting there is a constant tendency
for the strong straight hairs of the body to
work to the outside, so that whether the hat is designed
to receive a BARE finish afterwards, or to get
a plated cover of beaver for a nap, those bodies must
all undergo the operation of shaving. A workman sits
in another apartment with one of them, when dry,
spread over his knee, and with a long bladed sharp
knife in hand, sweeps rapidly over the surface, cutting
off and depriving it of those deteriorating superfluous
intruders, after which the hats are forwarded to the
stiffening department.

Stiffening Process.

The bodies of the hats now made, dried and shaved,
and the spirit water-proofing already prepared, being
thinned, or reduced to the proper consistence, the hat
is laid upon a flat sloping board, and the stiffening is
put into it with a stout brush, and soaked to that degree
of saturation known only by experience, the
brims receiving a double portion for extra stoutness,
and are then set aside to dry.

The alkali or inferior kind of stiffening, when used,
is likewise diluted, and applied by immersing the body
fully into the prepared ingredients already described,
and either wrung out with the hands, or passed a
couple of times between a pair of rollers set at a proper
width, which determines the quantity of proofing
absorbed by the hat.

[45]

It should be observed, regarding this stiffening of
hats, that it is simply a varnishing of the several fibres
of the fur of which the hat is made, each hair
individually has got a coat of water-proofing varnish,
for when dry it will be found that the interstices
between each and every fibre are quite open and free,
and therefore susceptible of ventilation; thus differing
entirely from what would have been the case had it
been stiffened with any kind of paste.

Ruffing or Napping.

Very little of this is done at present in the United
States. After the bare body of the hat is stiffened, if
a flowing nap of beaver, otter, neutra, or other fine fur
is desired, finer than that of which the body is made,
half an ounce more or less of the superior uncarroted
stuff is weighed out, sufficient to cover the whole outside
surface of the hat. The hatter lays this precious
morsel with perhaps one-eighth ounce of cotton on the
hurdle, under the bow, as he did with the stuff for the
body, and with a similar but lighter instrument, these
two stuffs are completely mixed and spread upon the
boards, as evenly as his experienced hands can do it;
the cotton being used merely to enable him to handle
the fur, which otherwise would be so thinly spread,
and so attenuated of itself, as to endanger the simple
act of lifting it. This mixture of fur and cotton is
next spread upon the wet bare body of the hat as it
lies upon the plank at the kettle, a little water is
sprinkled over it and beat down with a brush. The
hat with this surface covering is wrapped very carefully
in a piece of cloth or coarse hair-cloth, and operated
on very lightly, and nearly in the same manner
as when felting the body. The object to be attained[46]
is to get the fibres of the fine fur to penetrate the body,
and take root as it were therein—great care and
watchfulness being demanded of the workman at every
motion of his hands, in this manner of working. The
points of the fibres of the beaver fur penetrate the
body of the hat, and having once got a footing, it constantly
advances, as the active careful rolling, folding
and unfolding, shaking and tossing go on, until the
fur has separated itself from the cotton; by its boring,
having obtained a firm lodgment in the solid felt
of the hat body root end foremost. The cotton with
which it was mixed is left behind loose and useless,
for want of the little rough scaly property that the
other possessed. An inexperienced workman in thus
ruffing a hat is liable to continue his work too long,
until the beaver napping has burrowed quite through
to the inside of the hat, where it is lost.[C]

In the various operations of the hatter with hot
water, whether in body-making, napping, or dyeing,
&c., the water should not be allowed to boil, for
independent of the damage to some kinds of stiffening,
as hair contains a large portion of gelatine in its substance
(to which alone it owes its suppleness and toughness),
this gelatine will be separated from the hair.
This is particularly the case with napped hats, for
when thus treated the fibre becomes much more[47]
brittle than before, and the nap soon breaks off round
the square.

Fur hats having a flowing nap are sometimes clipped
very short with revolving shears similar to those
used in dressing cloth, and which is done previous to
blocking or dyeing.

Blocking.

Previous to dyeing, all hats must be blocked, using
such blocks as approach the intended shape of the hat,
and as soon as possible after the making department
is concluded. It is a laborious operation, though simple,
as the nature of felt allows it to be stretched to a
great extent in any direction when it is wet and hot.

In the act of blocking, the conical form of the hat
is lost for the first time. The hat is now immersed in
the boiling water of the kettle, and while wet and hot
the tip is stretched wide, and the whole thing simply
drawn down over the block, a tight cord is run down
to where the band is to be and the brim flattened
out.

Dyeing.

The next operation is that of dyeing or coloring,
and if convenient, and the hats fine, each hat should
be upon its respective block when in the color kettle,[48]
great care being observed to keep the square from
abrasion, as the least rub may deprive a napped hat
of its fur at that exposed and important part. Most
generally, however, the hats are colored without a
block, the blocking being performed as soon after the
dyeing and washing as possible in boiling water.

The ordinary ingredients for black are, for 12 dozen,

• 144 lbs. of logwood, chipped, or its value in extract.
• 12 lbs. of green sulphate of iron or copperas.
• 7½ lbs. of French verdigris.

The kettle should never boil nor exceed 190 degrees,
and during the operation the hats must be repeatedly
taken out and exposed to the action of the oxygen of
the air, so as to strike a deeper color, and during the
necessary exposure to these airings, the time is improved
by having two suits of hats going on at the
same time.

From six to twelve hours are required to complete
the operation. The shorter the time the hats are
in the dye, compatible with the deepness of the
color, the better will be the goods, as boiling extracts
the gelatine of the hair and makes the nap brittle,
which is seen by comparing dyed articles with those
that are of a native color.

Pumicing or Pouncing.

Pouncing is a term for rubbing down the outside
of a hat with a piece of pumice stone, sand paper, or
emery paper, whereby the hat is made entirely bare,
smooth, and fine, resembling a piece of very fine
cloth. These are generally called cassimere hats.
This operation is usually performed after dyeing, and
previous to finishing. Some makers, however, prefer
to singe the hats instead of pouncing, but such[49]
hats never feel so fine as the others, as the singeing
of any hair invariably produces a hard crisp burnt
knob upon the end.

Finishing.[D]

When a hat arrives at that state of forwardness
ready for finishing, it is a very unsightly object to
any person but a hatter. Most of its processes have
been wet ones, but now it is to assume a genteel and
prepossessing appearance, under the artistic appliances
of brushes, cloths, hot irons, and labored exercise.
If a plain soft hat, it is pulled over such a
block as is required, a cord is run round the hat to
keep it tight upon the block; the tip and brim are
then flattened with the hot iron, wet sponge, brushes,
and hair-cloth cushion or velure, several wettings
being necessary in finishing.

The brim is next cut to the required width, and
the cord run down to the depth of the block. The[50]
side-crown is now to be finished, along with the tip
and upper and under sides of the brim, the hatter
exercising his best judgment. The block is then
withdrawn, the brim curled and set, and the finished
hat sent off to the trimmer to get lined and bound; it
is then tipped off and packed for market.

The finishing of this kind of hat is a simple operation
when compared to that of a napped hat; requiring
only the assuming of the proper shape and form,
the solidifying of the body, and giving it such a
lustre and finish as the quality of the material will
allow.

The stiff cassimere hat being less flexible, is subjected
to hot steam preparatory to blocking, whereby
it is made soft and pliable. When in this state it is
drawn down over the block, and the block withdrawn,
to insert a prepared disk of pasteboard into the crown
for strength, after which it is finished much in the
same way as that already described, but with the difference,
that a cloth must always intervene between
the hot iron and the hat when finishing.

The finishing of a napped hat, whether it be brush
or beaver, is a very different process from that for
either of those just described, requiring the nicest
attention and patient perseverance by the best
workmen. The hats are given out by the half
dozen, which are sorted for the different sizes and
steamed one by one; the hot steam softens the stiffening,
and when pliable, the hat is drawn down over
the respective finishing blocks, the nap of each hat
straightened with a wet brush, and a half finish given
to it with the water, brush, and bare hot iron. The
block is then withdrawn and the hat given to be
shaved with a razor. This seems a singular operation;[51]
but a few passes with that instrument over the hat
effectually cut off all those projecting coarse hairs
that have eluded all previous attempts at removal,
and without in the smallest degree endangering the
finer fur of the nap. The hat is now returned to the
finisher to complete the process.

These coarse hairs, when left in the hat depreciating
very materially its value, were formerly plucked out
by hand with a pair of pickers, hair by hair, often to
the injury of the hat. The advantage of the razor
will be obvious to all.

A pasteboard disk, well spread with dissolved
shellac, is now inserted into the tip, and the block
reset. The workman with his hot iron, wet and dry
brushes, &c., lays down the nap in its proper direction,
and the hat by continuous labor becomes solidified
and more elastic, the tip is rendered stout by the
adhesion of the prepared inside disk; and by the
repeated wettings, and careful ironings and brushings,
all the ripply appearance of the fur is destroyed,
and the whole surface becomes smooth and shining.

The crown being finished is then papered up, and
the same operations that were bestowed upon the
crown are now to be repeated on the brim, both on
the upper and under side, which having been accomplished,
a gauge is applied and the brim cut to the
required width ready for the trimming.

There is a beautiful invention for preserving the
form of all hats having flat or soft supple brims by
means of a flattened wire, upon which two small
twists are made, and when joined as a hoop, the
proper concave is produced. This hoop is attached
to the outer edge of the brim, and covered with the
binding, and thus the unsightly slouch that often[52]
deformed, particularly the soft brimmed hat, is permanently
prevented, and the graceful curve completely
secured.

Silk Hatting.

The art of silk hatting is comparatively of modern
invention, consisting simply of a cover of silk plush
over a body of some other material. As much sleight
of hand is required in this department, it naturally
follows that a good workman is a valuable and appreciated
artisan.

The bodies used for this kind of hat have been so
various, that a full, or even succinct, description of
them would be quite superfluous. Wool and fur
bodies, straw and leghorn, cork, whalebone and
muslin, &c., even stretchers similar to umbrellas without
a body at all have been adopted, and all of them
have had their day. At present, however, the trade
seems to have settled down to the two kinds—fur and
muslin.

The fur body of a silk hat, called a shell previous
to coming into the hands of the silk finisher, is made
much in the same manner as that of a plain soft hat,
by felting and sizing it down to the proper dimensions
in the plank kettle. It is quite light and thin,
and when blocked or otherwise, and dried, is then
ready for stiffening by the finisher.

The different substances for this purpose, and the
various methods of doing it, have been as numerous
as the varieties of bodies that have been adopted.
The whole of them, however, now have been abandoned
for shellac.

The most simple and the best stiffening for any hat
is shellac dissolved in alcohol, and thinned down to[53]
a proper consistence. A cheaper, however, and at the
same time good stiffening, is the ammonia stiff already
described. Either of these is applied in a like manner
and with the like operations. The soft body or shell,
as it is often called, is immersed in the liquid in a basin,
then wrung out and pulled upon a block, the brim
being flattened, a brush is dipped into another vessel
containing a thicker lac, and applied to the square
and brim for extra strength; after this the block is
withdrawn, and the body set to dry.

These felted bodies or shells, as they are called,
when dry are steamed generally over the hatter’s hot
iron, and pulled when warm and soft over the finishing
block. A cord is then run tight round the shell,
and the block withdrawn; the prepared pasteboard
tip is inserted into the crown, and the block reset;
after which the body receives a regular hot ironing
all over. In this operation the inserted tip adheres
to the felt, and the whole body assumes the exact
counterpart of the block, both crown and brim. The
rough hairs are now to be removed by sand or emery
paper and the block withdrawn. The body next
receives a coat of the best size, and when dry two coats
of seed-lac, or copal varnish which finishes the making
of this kind of body.

Those bodies that are made of muslin, when first
invented, were called gossamer, from their extreme
lightness, and though they have increased in weight,
they still retain the name of gossamer hats.

In preparing for the body, a few yards of muslin
are extended upon a frame, and saturated with liquefied
shellac, or water stiff, which when dry is cut
bias into strips for sides, tips, and brims. One side
of these side and tip pieces of muslin is overlaid with[54]
the silk intended for the inside lining of the hat, and
pressed to adhesion; or this may be done while in the
web before being cut into strips. The block being
set upon the bottom-board, one of these extra prepared
sides is wound tight round the side-crown of
it, and the two ends stuck together by overlapping.
A piece of the prepared tips is next laid on, and
made to adhere to the side-crown.

The brim consists of three thicknesses of stout muslin
of a circular form, each with a hole in the centre,
all of which are slipped over the crown down to their
place of destination with a quarter of an inch of
the edge rising up on the side. A second side-crown
and another tip are now applied, covering the others,
and the whole of these cemented together with
the hot iron, the shellac with which they were
stiffened acting as a cement. After receiving a coat
of size and one of varnish, this body will be ready,
like the other FUR body, for the finisher. In preparing
these bodies, cover the block with a soft shell.

Before commencing the finishing, however, we will
describe the sewing of the silk plush cover, which is
quite a nice and particular piece of work. The strip
of plush for the side-crown is cut from the web bias and
of a width the depth of the intended hat; the tip piece
which is to mate this side-crown is of course circular,
and a quarter of an inch larger all round than the
tip of the hat. These two pieces are to be sewed
together by hand face to face, the edges being folded
back, and the plush put well through to the proper
side with the needle as the sewers proceed, so that
the seam when the hat is finished may not appear
bare for want of plush.

In finishing, whether the hat body be of fur or[55]
gossamer, the first thing is the putting on of the under
brim, which we shall suppose to be plush, satin,
or merino. A strip is cut from the web or piece at
about an angle of forty-five degrees, and having the
length reduced to suit the size of the hat; the two ends
are then sewed together, and having been laid on the
hat, one of the edges is made fast to the edge of the
brim with the iron, all round, and smoothly laid down,
the bias allowing this to be done by stretching. It is
next to be steamed with a damp cloth under the hot
iron and the inner edge stuck inside of the hat with
the nose of the iron.

The upper brim is next in order. A strip of silk
plush the requisite width is run on, slightly, in much
the same manner as with the under brim, but dispensing
with both the cloth-steaming and often with
the sewing. The one end of this upper brim being
cut with the scissors and the other with the knife, a
good invisible seam may be made.

The brims being now on, the tip of the hat is wetted
inside, and the block put in. The silk plush cover,
having been previously spread with gum tragacanth,
about where the side seam is likely to be, and now
dry, is carefully drawn over the crown and fitted to
the hat; the two ends of the cover being folded
back and marked for the seam. The cover is then
removed, the plush brushed back at the folding, and
the cloth cut for the seam with a pair of sharp scissors;
the top of the seam is cleaned or dressed off and
the cover replaced on the hat body. The tip and
side crown are now to be stuck with the hot iron to
the body with particular care, so as to make a good
joining at the seam, and not to draw through the[56]
varnish. The making of a good seam is the test of a
good workman.

The dressing and polishing of the hat now commence;
and while it remains upon the block, this is
done by means of brushes, wettings, ironings, &c.,
once, twice, or three times in succession, after which
it is fixed on the veluring machine where it is revolved
rapidly, for the purpose of freeing the nap of
all impurities by means of the hair-cloth velures that
are applied.

The hat is next taken back to the bench, where it
receives its final dry-ironing, veluring, &c., and the
crown is papered up.

The brim is yet to be finished, which is done by
hand, with the brushes, sponge, iron, &c., and made
to shine like the crown; after this it is given to the
trimmer to be trimmed and bound, when it comes
back to be curled and properly shaped in the brim,
suiting the taste of the wearer. The workman who
gives the hat its final touches makes use of a number
of tools, which, though of seemingly trifling appearance,
are nevertheless necessary for his department,
which requires a refined taste.

Forming Machines.

Such is hat-making, but we cannot conclude without
remarking that there have been many patents
granted in this and other countries for improvements
in hatting, that we cannot notice. Nevertheless
there are two, of decided merit, claiming attention,
as having entirely revolutionized one-half of the
making department, and which may be modified and
extended to answer many purposes, in addition to
that of hat-making.

[57]

[58]

The first and most ingenious is called the pneumatic
process of forming the bodies, hence in all large
cities the bowing operation is not employed. It is
as follows: A cone of sheet copper punched full of
small holes, and set upright, revolves slowly upon
its axis; beneath this or attached to it an exhausting
fan is placed, causing by its rotation a current of air
to draw through the holes from the outside. A trunk
or box with an opening facing against this revolving
cone, discharges the fur which is fed into it at
the other end by a feeding apron, in quantity just
sufficient for one hat-body. It is drawn into this
trunk between two rollers that are covered with
leather or felt, and immediately seized by a cylinder
revolving about four hundred times in a minute, furnished
with a number of stiff brushes. This generates
a current of air which scatters the fur and blows
it out of the mouth of the trunk, where floating in the
air it is speedily drawn upon the perforated cone, and
evenly spread over the top and sides of the same, in
quantity enough for one hat-body in so many revolutions.
The discharging trunk is so adjusted that any
desired quantity of fur can be deposited on any particular
portion of the cone. When the cone has got the
fur for one hat-body, the workman wraps over it a wet
cloth and slips a metallic cover over the whole, which
he removes into a tank of hot water. A new cone
is immediately set in its place to receive another
coating of fur. The hot water into which it has been
dipped tends to make the mat more tenacious, which
is next slipped off the cone, taken to a table, gently
worked by hand-rolling in a piece of blanket, squeezed
and pressed, and folded into a convenient shape and[59]
sent to the regular hatter to be felted at the ordinary
plank kettle.

The cost of hat-bodies is reduced, it is computed,
by this process as five or six to one of the old bowing
system, and the rapidity of production is as thirty to
one.

It will not have escaped observation that this ingenious
piece of machinery is applicable only for fur,
the filaments of which are short and less inclined to
tangle than those of wool, but another and no less
useful piece of mechanism has been invented for
forming the bodies of wool hats, and like the other
has entirely superseded the use of the bow in all
large factories where wool hats are made. It consists
of a modified common carding machine, the sliver
from which is conducted to a set of double conical
blocks that are placed base to base, and which slowly
revolve upon their axes in front of the carding
machine, and the sliver is received and wound upon
these combined blocks to the required thickness,
sufficient for one hat, both blocks being covered at
the same time. This machine which carries the
blocks has a horizontal vibratory motion, or swaying
backwards and forwards, that enables the sliver to[60]
be wound in a systematic manner on the cones, with
a varied thickness of material for brims and crowns,
and causing also the fibres of the wool to lie in a
diagonal position, as layer upon layer covers the
blocks. The bodies of the two hats, each of a conical
figure, are thus made over the surface of a double
cone which are separated by cutting them along their
middle or base line, and slipping them off at the end.
They are now ready to be wetted, shrunk, and felted
in the usual manner by the regular hatter.

Shoes and Gaiters of Felt.

We will here describe the making of felted gaiters
and shoes, which is similar to the art of hatting.
There may be other and better methods, as the expansive
stretching nature of felt may admit of other
modes.

The wearer of these gaiters may walk upon the
slippery pavement with comfort and full confidence,
and if furnished with a leather or rubber under-sole,
they are a neat, easy, comfortable cover for the feet.

A given quantity of wool calculated for one pair of
shoes is weighed out, which is divided into four equal
portions, two of them for each shoe. One at a time
is laid upon the hurdle, and with the proper bow it is
bowed as if for a hat, and disposed of in exactly an
equilateral triangle, which being gathered together
with the basket, is pressed, and temporarily solidified,
laid aside, and the other portion treated in the same
manner. A piece of coarse brown paper is now folded
into a triangular shape, a little smaller than the bats
just bowed; all the three edges are to be folded together
with the paper inclosed. The use of the inclosed
paper is to prevent the inner surfaces from felting together,[61]
and to keep the inside open. The intended
shoe is next lapped in a sheet of cloth, and hardened
at the hot basin (the basin is a disk of solid iron with
a fire beneath). Water sprinkled on the sheet when
turned upon the basin, sends steam all through the
mass, and when rubbed slightly by hand, friction is
communicated to the surface fibres, which in a short
time become smooth, when the position of the triangular
wool should be changed and the rubbing continued.
A few crossings and rubbings give it a consistence
sufficient for handling at the plank kettle,
where we shall suppose both shoes to have arrived.

The felting operation at the kettle is performed in
quite the same manner as that of a hat, by pressing,
rolling, folding, and unfolding, &c., with its dippings
into the hot water, until the material has assumed a
hardness and solidity quite astonishing to the casual
observer.

This operation finished, the shoe still in the triangular
shape, one corner is now to be cut off to make an
opening, and the confined paper taken out, which is
quite a soggy spongy lump of pulp. The mate to this
shoe having been advanced to the same forwardness,
they are to be pulled upon their respective lasts and
dried, and perhaps dyed, after which they are pounced,
and finally trimmed.

Printers’ Sheets.

The making of sheet felt for calico and other printers
is a business that fell into the hands of the hatters at
the introduction of the water-proofing of hats, as previous
to that time the thick stout old hats of former
times were quite sufficiently thick for the fittings of
their blocks, so that when no more of them could be[62]
gotten, recourse was had to the new article, although
it should be at a slight sacrifice.

Felt is employed in this business because of the facility
with which it lifts and carries from the color
sieve, the colors that are to be applied to the cloth.
Wood and Copper blocks or rollers require two different
thicknesses of felt, and though various qualities
are made, a solid body and clear smooth surface and
edge when cut and pounced by the block-cutter, are
absolutely necessary, as otherwise, a ragged edge to
the printed figures on the cloth will be the result.

The following makes a very good article:—

• 7 ozs. best backs of coney wool, and
• 6 ozs. of Saxony lamb’s wool.

The coney is first well broken over with a light bow,
upon the hurdle, and then by means of the heavier
wool bow, the well-carded Saxony is intimately mixed
with it. This thoroughly accomplished, the whole is
to be divided into two portions; the one a little heavier
than the other, which is laid upon the hurdle, and with
the same wool bow, strung with stouter cat-gut, the hatter
disposes of the mixture in a perfectly even flat
form, of an oblong square, which when gathered by the
hatter’s basket, measures 18 inches wide by 3 feet
long. A cloth is then spread over it, and the whole
turned upside down; the sides and ends of the cloth
are lapped over, so that this bat as it is called is completely
enveloped. A stiff skin is now thrown over
it, and pressed and rubbed for some time in an even
manner, to reduce its thickness. The skin having
been removed, the sheet with its bat is rolled and
pressed still more, then laid aside while the other
half undergoes exactly the same operation, but is made
three inches shorter in length.

[63]

These two sheets, which are destined to form but
one, are connected thus. The shorter is first folded
over upon itself, and the two ends joined by overlapping
with a proper inlayer of paper; then the larger
bat is laid upon this one, and the whole turned upside
down, so that the joinings of the two bats will be
upon opposite sides of the sheet of felt. After these
joinings are carefully made, the would-be sheet appears
exactly like a lady’s muff, and is again to be
enveloped in the cloth, for the hardening process, at
the hot basin, where it receives a partial steaming,
rubbing, re-folding, &c., till finally it is carried to the
plank kettle, where the severest labor must be applied;
the object being to condense the materials of which it
is made to the utmost degree of tension. It is then
cut open, dried, and receives an application of a weak
solution of size; when again dry it is well pounced
with pumice stone, and the edges cut straight, which
finishes a first class printers’ sheet of felt, the size being
33 or 33½ inches long by 12 inches wide. Sheets for
copper blocks or rollers require a thickness of a quarter
of an inch, and those for wood three-sixteenths of
an inch. Some prefer a sheet altogether of Saxony
wool.

Cloth Hats.

After the introduction of gutta-percha into the arts,
and the manufacture of it into thin sheeting, a new
kind of hat was introduced, made of gutta-percha
cloth, and from the variety of shades, &c. seemed for
some time to supersede the soft low-crowned FELT
article. But the cupidity of some of the manufacturers
destroyed the business almost entirely when in its
infancy, some say purposely, by making them so very[64]
inferior and at the same time so perfect a counterfeit,
that the really good and perfectly made hat became
universally distrusted, and hence the result.

We shall refrain from all notice of the methods employed
tending to this deterioration of the new article,
and merely describe the making of the honest, sound,
and valid hat, the revival or resuscitation of which
is well worthy of consideration.

A dry, thin, and soft fur or wool body is to be drawn
upon the proper block, generally 3 or 4 inches deep
with either a square or round crown, and the brim
spread out upon the bench or bottom board. A circular
piece of gutta-percha gum the size of the intended
brim, having its centre cut out, is to be slipped
over the crown down on to the felt brim; a
similar piece of good cloth is likewise slipped over
in the same manner to cover the gum, and now the
extreme outer edges of the felt and cloth are to be
carefully cemented together by means of the gum,
by passing round a hot iron. The usual stirrup or
bridle is then thrown over the hat, girding the inner
edge of the cloth to the block, and stuck with the
heel of the iron. This partially stuck brim is finally
overlaid with a wet loose brim-cloth and properly
ironed, the heat of the steam from the damp cloth
softens the gutta-percha gum and effects the adhesion
of the cloth to the fur body. About half an inch of
cloth will project up on the side crown, which is also
made to adhere to the felt body by the heated iron.

The block is now to be withdrawn, and the hat
turned inside out, which reverses this would-be upper
brim to the under side. The hat is next to be re-blocked,
a repetition of the gum and cloth is to be
applied to this side of the brim exactly as with the[65]
other, and then succeeds the covering of the crown,
which is to be wholly laid over first with the gutta-percha
and then with the previously prepared cloth
cover as a crown piece, these being held tight by means
of the blocking-cord. The whole crown, both tip and
sides, is to be cemented and finished, never omitting
the wet finishing-cloth between the hat and the hot
iron, and the hat is now complete and ready for
lining and trimming.

The above makes a good soft pliable cloth hat.
But if a stiffer and firmer hat is wanted of the same
material, the felt body is to be put through the process
of the alkaline bath, similar to that of fur hats,
and when dry, proceeded with as above.

Another method of making these cloth hats is to
dispense with the fur body entirely, the block being
covered with two thicknesses of cloth and having a
ply of gutta-percha gum between, which are cemented
together by steaming and pressing, using at all times
a wet cloth under the hot iron. The brim is separate
and distinct from the crown when made, and consists
of a piece of thick wool padding, which is to be covered
on both sides with the proper cloth, cemented
together with the gum, first one side and then the
other, after which the crown and brim are sewed together.

In all these cases, the gutta-percha gum acts not
only as a cement but also a water-proofing to the hat.

Conclusion.

In this treatise upon the history of hats and hat-making,
of furs, wools, &c., and the manufacture of
felt, we are well aware of the impossibility of illustrating
in full the hatting trade of America, as this country[66]
stands alone as compared with others, on account
of the mixed population that is here collected. As
we have representatives in this, as in every other line of
business, from every civilized nation upon earth, with
all their various methods of working in their own accustomed
ways, the prejudices naturally engendered
and entertained through habit being hard to combat,
so that the judges of this work may be numerous and
various, and no doubt profusely severe in some of their
criticisms.

But there is going on a rapid amalgamation of all
that is best in the trade of hatting, resulting from the
continued flow of immigration, and heightened greatly
by the wanderings of hatters generally, from shop to
shop, and from town to town, that must ultimately
bring together in this our beloved land, a perfection
in the trade that cannot be attained by any other
nation.

[67]

INDEX.

• Acid aids fulling, 21

• Alkali stiff, 33

• Analysis of hair, 12

• Ancient hats, 26

• Basket, hat, 40

• Battery for sizing, 41

• Bleaching of hair, 14

• Block for hats, 47

• Blocking, 47

• Blowing machine, 35

• Body making, 41

• Bowing, 39

• Bow-pin, 39

• Broadcloth, properties of, 19

• Cardinal’s hats, 26

• Carroting, 29

• Cassimere hats, 48

• Chemical analysis of hair, 12

• Cloth hats, 63

• Coloring, 47

• Conclusion, 65

• Construction of hair, 16

• Cotton, why it does not felt, 17

• Description of furs, wools, hair, &c., 11

• Dressing, 56

• Dyeing, 47

• Dyes, 48

• Elizabeth, Queen, patent, 28

• Familiar proofs of felting, 17

• Fashions, 28

• Felting, 14

  • familiar proofs of, 17

  • inventor of, 27

  • when invented, 22

• Felt made by Turcomans, 21

  • uses of, 22

• Festival of hatters, 29

• Fine wool, introduction into the United States, 23

• Finishing, 49

• First account of hatters, 27

• Flowing nap, 43

• Forming, 56

  • machines, 57–59

• Fulling, 14

  • acid aids, 21

  • mill, 24

  • oil prevents, 21

  • process of, 25

  • soap aids, 21

• Fur, kinds of, 20

  • qualities of, 14

• Furs, description of, 11

  • how prepared, 29

  • inferior articles employed with, 22

  • low prices of in early times, 23

• Gaiters of felt, 60

• Glue, pelts used for, 31

• Goods, shrinking of, 15

• Gordian knot, 19

• Gossamer hats, 53

• Grease prevents fulling, 21

• Hair balls in the stomach, 19

  • bleaching of, 14

  • chemical analysis of, 12

  • construction of, 16

  • description of, 11

  • how it grows, 12

  • peculiar properties of, 15

  • why it felts, 14

• Hairs, number of, 17

• Hat basket, 40

  • block, 47

  • bow, 39

  • iron, 49

• Hats, ancient, 26

  • cardinal’s, 26

  • cassimere, 48

  • cloth, 63

  • history of, 25

  • manufacture of, 36

  • scarlet, 26

  • Spanish, 28

• Hatters’ festival, 29

  • first account of, 27

  • [68]

    kettles, 46

• Hatting, history of, 25

  • in the United States, 27

  • silk, 52

• History of hats and hatting, 25

• How hair felts, 14

  • hair grows, 12

  • to judge of the quality of wool, 23

• Inferior articles employed with furs, 22

• Introductory remarks, 9

• Introduction of fine wool into the United States, 23

• Invention of felting, 22

• Inventor of felting, 27

• Kettles, 46

• Kinds of fur, 20

• Manufacture of hats, 36

• Materials, preparation of, 29

  • for hats, 20

• Nap, flowing, 43

• Napping, 45

• Number of hairs, 17

• Oil prevents fulling, 21

• Patent, Queen Elizabeth’s, 28

• Peculiar properties of hair, 15

• Pelts used for glue, &c., 31

• Planking, 42

• Pneumatic process, 58

• Polishing, 56

• Pouncing, 48

• Preparation of materials, 29

• Prices of furs in early times, 23

• Printers’ sheets, 61

• Process of fulling, 25

• Properties of broadcloth, 19

• Pulling, 29

• Pumicing, 48

• Qualities of fur, 14

• Quality of wool, how judged, 23

• Quantity of stuff for a hat, 38

• Queen Elizabeth’s patent, 28

• Receipts for stiffs, 34

• Ruffing, 45

• Scarlet hats, 26

• Secretage, 29

• Shaving, 44

• Shellac-stiff, 33

• Shoes of felt, 60

• Shrinking of goods, 15

• Silk hatting, 52

• Sizing, 42

• Soap aids fulling, 21

• Spanish hats, 28

• Stiffening, 31

  • process, 44

• Stiffs, 31, 33, 34

• Stockings, wool, 18

• Stomach, hair balls in, 19

• Stuff, quantity of for a hat, 38

• Turcomans, felt made by, 21

• United States, hatting in, 27

• Uses of felt, 22

• Water-proofing materials, 31

• When felting was invented, 22

• When fine wool was introduced into the United States, 23

• Why cotton does not felt, 17

  • hair felts, 14

• Wire hoop for brims, 51

• Wool, fine, introduction into the United States, 23

• Wool, how to judge of the quality, 23

• Wools, description of, 11

• Wool stockings, 18