2^ Mechanical Fabrication of Hats. 



telligence, are produ£^ive of wealth, and a very honourable degree of independence and public 

 tftimation. In the folution of a problem of this kind, experiments muft neceffdrily be made ; 

 and as thefe are attended with expence, and require to be frequently repeated, in order to avoid 

 deception, the inventor will naturally be led to invcftigate and e.\aiiiine the general ftock of 

 fails, which, in other branches of manufafture, or departments in natural philofophy, may bear 

 any relation to his own purfuit. Hence it appears to be of the higheft importance that he fhould 

 poflefs an extenfive acquaintance with incidents and evenfs of this kind. In the purfuit before 

 us, for example, he fliould learn all the methods by which wool, fur, and vegetable filaments 

 are manufaflured. The procefTes of beating, bowing, carding, felting, fulling, fpinning, 

 weaving, kr^itting, and knotting, will pafs in review before him. He will confider which may 

 be moft applicable to his purpofe, and what new modific;aions or fuccefUve applications he may 

 make of thefe refpe6tive operations, of the principles on which they are founded, and of the 

 materials, as well as the mechanifm ufed for carrying them into effeift. The certainty of thefe 

 operations, which have been praclifed for ages, will give ftrength and firmnefs to his new 

 combinations, and if he poflefs enough of this kind of knowledge, he will, probably, enjoy the 

 fatisfadion of feeing his attempts anfwer his expedations, inftead of being repeatedly mortified 

 and diftreffed by lofs of time in alterations. In the prefent inftance, on which I have medi- 

 tated but little, I am unwilling to fpeculate in the way of conje6lure. Yet I am inclined to 

 fuggeft the enquiry, whether carding, which is rapidly and mechanically done, be inferior to 

 bowinf, which does not promife much facility for mechanical operation ? Whether a fucceiEon 

 of batts or cardings might be thrown round a fluted cone, which rapidly revolving, in contacSl 

 with three or more cylinders, might perform the hardening, and even the working, with much 

 more prccifion and fpeed than they are now done by hand ? Whether blocking or fliaping 

 be not an operation extremely well calculated for the operation of one or more machines ? 

 Whether loofe weaving and fubfequent felting might not produce a lighter, cheaper, and fironger 

 article ? And how far the mechanical felting, which is not confined merely to the hairs of ani- 

 mals, might be applied to this art ? Thefe, and many other queftions, might be put and illuftrat- 

 cd by incidents in the private hiftory of manufadlurcs which have come to my knowledge ; but 

 fuch a detail could not be of any advantage, unlcfs it were more amply extended than the nature 

 of the prefent publication can allow. 



The moral impediments to the fuccefs of inventions, exclufive of thofe which arlfe from 

 co-partner{hips, are principally fuch as may be excited by rival manufadurers, or may arife 

 from the difficulty of introducing an article which muft: pafs through many hands in its pro- 

 grefs from the manufadlurer to the public. The manufa£ture of hats is, as I underftand, car- 

 ried on with capitals much differing in magnitude, and the manufadurer may either fell to 

 the vender, or vend the article himfelf, though I do not find that this is ufually the cafe. The 

 poflTeflTor of a new invention for making hats might, therefore, ftand alone between the feller of 

 the raw material, and the confumer of the finiflied article, without being neceflarily dependent 

 «n a warehoufe-man or retailer. In this refpea, therefore, the purfuit appears to be liable 

 to no objedion. 



VIL 



