8g6 Information refptBing the ManufaBurt of Hals, 



XL 



On the Art of Hal making. Supplementary Letter. By N. L. 

 To Mr. NICHOLSON. 



S I R, 



^ewcajle, Feb. 14, 1800. 



JL SHALL think myfelf particularly obliged to you if you will allow me, through -the 

 medium of your Journal, to correct a very great error in the arrangement of the laft paper 

 of mine you printed, in your Number for May laft: as it h placed at prefent, it may be 

 produdlive of great miftakes, and as it will take up little room in your Journal, the in- 

 convenience will not be great. The following is the proper arrangements, fee parts of 

 pages 74, 75, 76, vol. iii. The journeymen tell me,- that the dregs are to hold or fill 

 the body, whilft a little vitriol cleanfes it of the dirt, &c. that may be on the rabbit or 

 other wool ; too much vitriol would make the whole that was weighed out to the 

 journeymen work into the hats, but by the mutual a£lion of the vitriol and the dregs, 

 the quantity of the firft being fmall, about a wine glafsfull, the dirt and the ftrong hairs 

 get purged out (the laft from the fhrinking in being flow, as well as their being ftraight ; 

 for was the leflening of the fize at plank rapid, they would, in defiance of their ftraight- 

 nefs, get entangled, and even as it is, they are flightly fo ; but care is taken to get them 

 out by rubbing the body of the hat well with the hand in a circular manner) whilft, at the 

 fame time, the dregs keep the hats plump. Another advantage attending the ufe of dregs, 

 whether of beer, porter, or wine, is that as the boiling in the dregs does not draw out 

 much of the mucilage from each hat, when they come to be ftiffened the dregs form a 

 body within the hat fufficiently ftrong or retentive to keep the glew from coming through 

 amongft the nap: vitriol alone would purge or weaken the hats too much, confequently, 

 half the quantity does better with the addition of dregs, and they difallow the body to be 

 clofcr from its gcttmg more work : many journeymen, however, to hurry this part of the 

 procefs, ufe a quantity of vitriol, and open the body again by throwing in a handfull or 

 two of oatmeal ; by this means they get a great many made, though at the fame time they 

 are left quite gxdXvi-^ JroiH the ivant of labour. This, in handling the dry grey hat, when 

 made, may be in part difcovered, but in part only ; in wearing the effe£i: is fhining fpots, 

 as if of greafe, but is, in reality, the glew lodging upon the grainy parts. This error in 

 arrangement I had not difcovered until I read the account of hat making, extradled from 

 your Journal, in the fupplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica publiflied lately : I would 

 firft beg leave to add, that it was not that Encyclopedia alone that I meant to charge with 



giving 



