508 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



any coarse hairs tliat may exist, and the hat is smoothed with seal-skin, 

 and dyed, after which it is made stiff with gum-senegal or glue, which is 

 prevented from passing through the surface by the use of beer grounds 

 placed on the inside. If it is desirable to prevent the hat from becoming 

 softened when exposed to a rain storm, gum-shellac, mastic or sanderach, 

 dissolved in naptha, may be used, or India rubber will answer the purpose. 

 Steam is then brought to bear upon the hat which softens it slightly, and 

 it is then ironed and brushed until the required polish is produced ; lining 

 and binding complete the operation. 



The skin taken from an animal known as the Neutria, a South American 

 water-rat, is much used now for hat-making. The number imported last 

 year amounted to nearly one million. 



Silk hats, so much worn in the United States and France, are made by 

 attaching silk plush to any suitable substance, such as felt, cotton, paste- 

 board or chip — the annual value in England is 615,000,000. When these 

 bats become wet with rain, they should be wiped dry with a silk handker- 

 and then brushed smooth ; if this not done, the nap will become rough, and 

 brushing will have no effect upon it. 



Straw hats are generally worn in summer by men and women. Dun- 

 stable has been celebrated for their manufacture for more than cue hundred 

 and sixty years ; they were first made of whole straw, platted in strips ; 

 but, after one hundred years, they learned how to divide the straw. When 

 wheat or rye straw is used, it is cut at the joint, and the outer covering is 

 removed, after which it is split by a very simple instrument. When it is 

 ready to be platted, the plats are sewed together, blocked, pressed, wired, 

 lined, and formed into bonnets and hats of every desired fashion. 



W^hen it becomes necessary to clean a straw hat, light a few matches in 

 the bottom of a barrel, and hang it up therein ; when taken out it will look 

 like new. Or you may dissolve chloride of lime in rain water, and dip the 

 hat in it. when the same effect will be produced. 



Of all straw hats, known, those manufactured at Tuscany are probably 

 the finest in the universe. The straw is produced from a small variety of 

 wheat, -grown upon an arid soil, which is bleached on the grass as we bleach 

 flax; it is naturally white, exceedingly strong, and is never split. I saw a 

 bat, made of wheat straw, at Florence, valued at $300. 



Chip hats are made from thin strips of wood, cut by a plane. Willow 

 bats, from strips of willow, woven in a loom, and afterwards whitened by 

 bleaching. 



Mr. Veeder proposed a committee to obtain accurate information on the 

 methods, machinery and statistics of this branch of manufacture. Messrs. 

 Garbanati, Johnson and Howe, were so appointed; and, at the suggestion 

 of Mr. Tillman, Mr. Bebee, curator of the Cooper Institute, who has been 

 an extensive hat manufacturer, is to be requested to read a paper on the 

 subject, to take another aspect of it, different from that which Mr. Pell has 

 taken in this evening's paper. 



