PROCEEDINGS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 421 



tKc turn-table, with the other g-uides the flat as it smoothes the bonnet, and 

 then, with his portion of tjie work performed upon it, passes it on to under- 

 go the next operation. Opening out of the press room, and separated from 

 it by iron doors, is yet a hotter hicality, the heating room, containing' large 

 furnaces in which numerous cubical pieces of iron are transformed into the 

 red-hot cores used in tlie hollow pressing-flats. 



We will follow the bonnet, now smooth and shining, to the wiring hall. 

 This is the pleasantest ro<*m we have yet visited, not only from its situa- 

 tion, but also on account of its occupants. Heretofore, in our journey 

 through the factory, we have met only with men, but in the wiring hull v/e 

 are to find the other sex. Even before reaching it we know this to be the 

 case, for throv:gh the halls leading to it we hear the music of female voices, 

 and as we draw nearer recognize the patriotic strains of "Hail Columbia" 

 Yes, the "girls" (as the female operatives are always called) are really 

 singing! Let none of our precise crusty old manufacturers be horrified at 

 the idea, and assert that the work cannot be half done when the mind is 

 diverted from it by such "carryings on," Let anyone of them examine 

 the workmanship and see if it is not quite as good in quality as that which- 

 comes from the drudges under his supervision — those rightly-called "poor 

 factory girls," v/ho are by him debarred from thinking of anything from 

 morning till night save the toilsouie labor in which they are engaged. 

 Having found, -as he certainly will, that light heartedness and good work 

 are not mortal enemies, let him relax the oppressive rules wiiich have pre- 

 viously crushed out the vivacious spirit of his operatives, and hereafter act 

 upon the principle that the knight of St. Crispin v/ho whistles will make 

 the best shoe. But this is no place for moralizing. The ''girls" are 

 seated in couples at peculiar work tables, upon which are stands for bon- 

 nets, and in which are drawers for wire, thread, &c. In this room the 

 thread-covered wire is sewn, as a stiffening, around the edge of the bonnetj 

 the paper lining, to prevent the goods from sticking together when packed, 

 is stitched into the cro\x''n; and a fancy ticket for price marks, with "Su- 

 perfine" at the top and the wirer's number at the bottom, is placed upon 

 one side. During these processes, which are rai)idlj gone through with, 

 the bonnet gets much out of shape, and has to be sent to another room for 

 the purpose of receiving the final touch. Here, in the shaping room, it is 

 placed upon a block, by a pinch heji-e and a pull there ha-s its symuietry 

 restored to it, and is finally complete. 



We now" proceed to the packing room. Here it might be supposed that 

 ■considerable assorting would be required before the price could be fixed to 

 the goods, and they be made ready for sale and for shipment; but such is 

 far I'rora tlie truth. During the various processes of manufacture, from 

 the braid to the bonnet, one grade of goods has been kept entirely distinct 

 fron» the other; and as the completf^d bonnets come by hundreds and thou- 

 sands into the packing room, '* Lot 999 " is just as distinct from " Lot 

 lOOQ" as if one ha'd been made in Boston, the other in New York. Every- 

 thing, in fact, with regard to the manufacture of the goods, has been so 

 systematized, through subdivisions of labor and through systems of ac- 

 counts, that not only can the final cost of any class o'f goods be readily 

 'determined, but the cost of each individual bonnet can at once be.ascer- 



