HAT MANUFACTURE. 



HAT MANUFACTURE 



been carefully prepared. It U cut from the pelt or akin by a beautiful 

 machine adverted to in the article FfBRiERT, and ahown in .';; 2 ; 



Fig. 1. Fur (hearing machine. 



after which it U sorted by the machine ahown in Jig. 3, described in 

 the nine article. When ready, the fur is bowed and imperfectly felted 



Fig. 3. Far Kparnting machine. 



in the manner Already described, and shaped the game AS the body to 

 which it U to be applied, but a little larger. The body is softened by 

 immersing it in the boiler ; after this the nap is applied and worked 

 an in felting, until the required union is effected between the two 

 bodies. A narrow strip of bearer U felted round the inside of the cap, 

 to form the underside of the brim. During the felting, the fibres of 

 for become driven in between the fibres of the felt body, and firmly 

 interlocked. 



The felt thus covered is in the form of a cone, and must be brought 

 to the cylindrical shape in which it is worn by means of a wooden block 

 of the requisite form. This operation, which is called blocking, is per- 

 formed by working it with the band on the block to which it is tied. 

 The hat is then combed and sheared ; after which it is dyed in a bath 

 composed of water, logwood, sulphate of iron, verdigris, and gall-nuts, 

 in which the hat is boiled during some hours ; it is then drained and 

 dried. After this it is softened by steam, the crown is strengthened by 

 placing in it a disc of scale-board, and linen is pasted over this. The 

 nap is raised, and a uniform direction given to its fibres by means of 

 warm irons and hair brushes. The last processes are binding and 

 lining ; when the hat is ready to be worn. A good beaver hat passes 

 through the hands of not fewer than twenty or twenty-five workmen 

 during the process of manufacture. 



Plaited and Ptlt #o/j. The beaver hata, just described, although the 

 beet resulU of the hatter's art, are very little worn at the present day ; 

 their commercial importance is therefore miall. In every way the use 

 nf them has lessened. Originally the foundation, as well as the napping, 

 was made of bearer fur ; then there wan a substitution of fine wool 



and coarse fur for the foundation ; then a mixture of cheek beaver and 

 common beaver for the best fur, as a napping; and lastly, a com- 

 bination of a very small portion of beaver with neutria, musquash, hare's 

 fur, and wool. About the year 1880 it was estimated that a million 

 beavers were annually killed to supply the hat-trade in Europe ; but in 

 1860 it is believed that little more than one-twentieth of this quantity 

 is thus used. The plaited bate, in which eoarse and cheap fur are 

 employed instead of costly beaver, are made nearly in the same way, 

 and have been equally affected by change of fashion. The revival of 

 the old f fit hats, or the use of such haU by persons who would formerly 

 have scorned to wear them, has given a great impetus to this particular 

 branch of the manufacture. Here no fur is employed. Wool, of a 

 greater or leas degree of fineness, according to the price to be charged, 

 is felted into a compact body ; and this body is either blocked into the 

 regular hat shape, or is made to assume one of the many varieties or 

 slouch or ' wide-awake ' forms. It may be mentioned here that in 

 America felt hats are now made by machinery. 



Silk Hat*. These have become by far the most important art !<!< in 

 the manufacture, so far as concerns extent of production. Silk is 

 wholly incapable of fitting, and therefore cannot be applied to a hat in 

 the same way as wool or fur. A silk hat consists of a non-felted body 

 covered with a non-felted hood of silk plush. Willow, cane, chip, 

 stiffened cambric, horsehair, mohair, and many other substances are 

 employed for the body or foundation. The body is made by shaping 

 round a block, and using a substance of extra thickness for the brim. A 

 varnish cement is used to join the various part* ; and a resinous stiffen- 

 ing composition is laid over the outer surface. To aid the adhesion of 

 the silk plush to the body, the latter is coated with a peculiar varnish, 

 which, being softened by a heated iron after the plush is laid on, causes 

 the two to adhere closely. The fixing of the plush is the most difficult 

 part of the manufacture. The silken fabric must not only be made to 

 adhere in every part, but the seam or joining up the side of the hat 

 must be rendered as imperceptible as possible. The plush is in the first 

 instance sewn by women into the form of a hood or covering for the 

 hat ; but there is no sewing at the meeting-edges up the aide ; they are 

 brought together, pressed down with a heated iron, and the silk shag 

 brushed over the joint. Their junction con always be seen in a silk 

 hat, however cleverly made. The large increase in the manufacture of 

 silk hate within the last few years, has resulted chiefly from the use of 

 a waterproofing composition previous to the application of the pltuh ; 

 the elastic gums, when dissolved in naphtha, impart a body or substance 

 to the foundation, which enables the makers greatly to reduce the 

 quantity of material employed in making it, thus at once cheapening 

 the hat and making it more light and elastic. The same quantity will 

 now work up into more than twice as many hat-bodies as were pro- 

 ducible by it twenty years ago. Plush is largely mode in England for 

 covering silk hats ; but the best, for the so-called ' Paris hats,' comes 

 from France, whence nearly 200,000 Ibs. of black silk plush are yearly 

 imported for this purpose. 



Cork llatt, <tc. The novelties introduced or proposed within the 

 last few years in the hat-manufacture ore very numerous ; but wo can 

 only glance slightly at some of them. The lightest hate made are those 

 in which the foundation is of cork, cut into very thin sheeU by a sort 

 of veneer-cutting machine ; but though light, they ore not yielding, 

 and not well suited to maintain their shape. One novelty in felt hats 

 consists in producing the shape by a kind of die and counter-die, one of 

 which forms the convex and the other the concave side ; the dies are 

 heated by steam, and the combined heat ami pressure force the felt to 

 assume the desired form. A somewhat similar method is that of 

 forming a hat in one piece without joining; the felt, cloth, or other 

 material, after being dressed with on adhesive solution, U stamped into 

 form between a heated mould and a heated plunger ; the hat might 

 even receive a pattern or device on its surface, if the mould W<T>> 

 engraved or embossed ; and a waterproofing solution might be applied 

 either before or after the stamping. One inventor proposes to employ 

 a former or core of perforated metal; this former rotates in front ..fa 

 trough containing wool or hair ; a revolving fan sucks the air out of 

 the former, and draws the fibre* from the trough until they are 

 deposited in a layer on the perforated metal, where subsequent pro- 

 cesses cause them to felt together into a hat-body. Some hata are 

 made with a complicated system of springs in the foundation, to facili- 

 tate the folding up of the hat into a flat form for placing under the 

 arm or on a seat. A contrivance having a similar object in view has 

 been introduced, consisting in cutting the body quite through, 

 lines intended for the creasing ; the edges are then cemented by 

 ing them with a thin strip of India-rubber, leaving the edges a little 

 way apart. A suggestion has been made for using palm-leaf, or the 

 Brazilian grass-plait, as the foundation for a hat ; the material to be 

 plaited to something like the necessary form, then shaped on a block 

 while moistened by hot water, then strengthened with tapes at the 

 edges, and then stiffened and rendered waterproof ; it is conceived that 

 such a hat, coated with silk plush, would be light, soft, easy, and 

 durable. Some hats art; rendered ' ventilating ' by cutting a circular 

 hole in the foundation, and hiding it with the silk pltuh ; while others 

 exhibit a complicated structure of the brim and sides for the attainment 

 of this end. 



The,export of hats now amount" to about 130,000 dozens annually, 

 nearly all to the British colonies. 



