Manujaclure efUaUy Cj'c-. joj^ 



Tkis copper being afiayed, afforded no indications of gold or filvep. 



Another piece of virgin copper was found at the fame place, but much fmaller than the 

 {orcgoing. A mafs of copper, of the magnitude here dcfcribed, has very rarely beea met 

 with, as Mr. Monnet remarks*. 



XL 



On the MtuiufaBure of Hats, and other OhjeEls. By a Correfpondent. 



ToMr.-NICHOLSON. 



SIR, Newcaftle, 9th January, i75f. 



H E obliging manner in which you have noticed my enquiries, refpe£i:ing the hatting 

 bufinefs, induce me to fend you others on another bufinefs, equally productive of mifchief, 

 to the morals and the health of a clafs of induftrious, but depraved, fellow men — I mean the 

 journeymen flax-dreflers j thofe and the journeymen hat-makers, are almoft proverbially 

 vicious, and I confefs I look with fangulne expe£lations of reform, to the period that will 

 exhibit machinery for each. 



Is it poffible to conftruft a machine, for the purpofe of drefling flax? There are machines, 

 I underftand, in Scotland, invented about 40 years ago (vide Englilh Encyclopedia, article 

 Flax Dreffmg), for the breaking and fcutching of that article : might thefe not be extended to 

 the further procefs of the heckles ? Perhaps the claim is equally upon humanity as ingenuity, 

 for I have been told (and I have, from my own knowledge in that bufinefs, fcarce any doubt 

 of its truth), that the journeymen are obliged to give it over, about the age of 40, from an ap. 

 proach oi conjumptwn ^ and one, whom I am told was lately opened at his death, had his lungs 

 covered with a thick crujl, compofed of the dirt received upon them from his bufinefs. 



Accept the following information, as the beft I can yet afford you, on the fubje£l of my 

 queries in your laft (p. 467) ; they have been obtained fince my writing to you (on the fub- 

 je£l. Hats were invented at Paris, A.D. 1404, by what circumftance I am yet ignorant. 

 Firft made in London, 1 5 10. The above, though an anonymous communication ,to me, I be- 

 lieve will not be found far from the truth. There is a houfe in Derbylhire, name Cooper Bibby 

 and Downal, at Lea Wood, near Cromford, in that county, who, I underftand, ufe machines 

 in the making of hats, but how far in the procefs I am not yet able to difcover: perhaps 

 fome of your correfpondents may have informed you, in confequence of my queries. The 

 common accoimt amongft the journeymen is, that the property of wool to felt was firft difcovcred 

 by a (hepherd, who had wool in his ftioes; his name was Clement, and they keep the 25th of 

 November, as a A'iyj facred to dffipation and an old fhepherd faint. Saint Catherine, I under- 

 ftand, is the patronefs of the journeymen flax-dreffers. It is probable, they will celebrate the 

 25th of November. 



* Nouveau Syftcme ae Mineralogie, page 314, Mines de Cuivrc. The Cabinet of Mines at Frcyberg'pof- 

 feflcs a fpecimen of this kind, weighing ten pounds, which is the fineft and largeft fpecimen of native copper 

 hitherto known. 



Vol. II.— Feb. 1799. 3U Thefe 



