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  A TREATISE

  ON

  HAT-MAKING AND FELTING,

  INCLUDING A FULL

  EXPOSITION OF THE SINGULAR PROPERTIES
  OF FUR, WOOL, AND HAIR.


  BY

  JOHN THOMSON,
  A PRACTICAL HATTER.


  PHILADELPHIA:
  HENRY CAREY BAIRD,
  INDUSTRIAL PUBLISHER,
  406 Walnut Street.

  LONDON:
  E. & F. N. SPON,
  48 Charing Cross.

  1868.




  Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by

  HENRY CAREY BAIRD,

  in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States
  in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.


  PHILADELPHIA:
  COLLINS, PRINTER, 705 JAYNE STREET.




CONTENTS.


  Descriptions of furs, wools, hairs, &c.      11

  The fulling mill                             24

  History of hats and hatting                  25

  The fashions                                 28

  Preparation of materials                     29

  Stiffening and water-proofing materials      31

  The blowing machine                          35

  The manufacture of hats                      36

  Shaving                                      44

  Stiffening process                           44

  Ruffing or napping                           45

  Blocking                                     47

  Dyeing                                       47

  Pumicing or pouncing                         48

  Finishing                                    49

  Silk hatting                                 52

  Forming machines                             56

  Shoes and gaiters of felt                    60

  Printer's sheets                             61

  Cloth hats                                   63

  Conclusion                                   65




TREATISE ON HAT-MAKING AND FELTING.


It is conceded as an axiom, that theory and practice, in the pursuit of
any object, are in their natures essentially different and distinct.
But at the same time they long for a mutual understanding each to
confirm the assertions of the other, the consummation of all practical
results being the mutual embrace and perfect reconciliation of these
two attributes.

The writer of these pages, being a practical hatter, desires to
describe intelligibly his calling, dispensing with all technical
terms, at the same time conscious of being liable to receive an unfair
criticism from his brother tradesmen, although perfectly innocent
on their part, resulting from the prejudices engendered by the many
would-be secrets that pertain to the different work-shops, together
with their various modes and methods of working, all of which most
generally are but trifles merely to gain a name.

The practice of a trade without a knowledge of the why and the
wherefore of certain usages is a sad defect in any workman, but
more especially in certain trades: Hatting being one of those which
depends upon _second_ causes for its proficiency, we venture here an
explanation with perfect confidence, hoping that the fraternity of
hatters will be indulgent, and that they may profit by an experience
of many years in the trade, and that for one error or omission in the
writing of these sheets they will find compensation in the new ideas
that will spring from their perusal, which may be an incentive to
further improvements in the business resulting beneficially to all.

Theory without practice, or practice without theory, is like groping in
the dark, and perfection in no trade can be attained till every effect
can be traced to its cause, and _vice versa_.

It is much to be regretted that practical operative workmen are so
diffident in writing and publishing their experience in their several
trades and occupations, quietly permitting theorists ignorant of
the business to glean as best they can from other parties the most
intricate and complicated particulars of a trade, and hence the attempt
to illustrate the most useful branches of an art often results in crude
and even erroneous descriptions of things of the greatest moment, and
the dissemination as correct, of that which is altogether at variance
with the truth. In confirmation of the above, we may instance the
manufacture of hats as described in a work of much merit, and which is
accounted as worthy of all confidence, wherein the error above spoken
of is but too plainly visible. Thus, in the supplement to the third
edition of that most respectable work the Edinburgh "Encyclopedia
Britannica," in the article Hat, an apology is made for the original
treatise upon that subject, it being acknowledged as both defective
and erroneous from the imperfect source of the information. Such
a confession, and from such a source, sufficiently exonerates any
one from egotism in an attempt to write a more perfect and correct
description, coupling theory with practice; relieving the felting
process from its misty obscurity by a faithful expose of the whole
system: well knowing that an increase of business, like free trade,
will be the result of a right understanding of a formerly supposed
mystery, viz., the True cause of Felting.

Felt and felted articles being already in use, in many trades in
addition to that of hat-making, necessitates a general and indeed a
very full and lucid description of the materials of which they are made.


Descriptions of Furs, Wools, Hair, &c.

Fur, properly speaking, signifies the skins of various species of
animals, dressed in alum or some other preparation with the hair on,
and made into articles of wearing apparel; but the term fur also
signifies the stuff that is cut from the skin, for the use of the
hatter, and in this sense alone it will be employed in the following
pages.

Hair, wool, fur, and animal down are simply slender filaments or
thread-like fibres issuing out of the pores of the skins of animals,
and all partaking of the same general nature, such as great ductility,
flexibility, elasticity, and tenacity, differing entirely from the
vegetable wools and downs, such as cotton, &c., which contain neither
of these four great characteristics to any valuable or appreciable
extent.

To characterize in a familiar way these several grades of material, it
may be said that fur is distinguished from wool by its greater fineness
and softness, and hair from wool by its straightness and stiffness.
The nature of all these bearing some relation to each other, it will
be necessary in this treatise to use the word hair occasionally to
designate one and all of them, that word being most convenient, and
tending to avoid confusion.

Simple as the idea may be, and though trifling in appearance, yet
the study of a single hair is particularly interesting, both to the
naturalist and the man of business, as will be seen when we mention
a few of its many peculiarities; hoping it will prove a source of
enjoyment to the one and a profit to the other.

Hair, wool, fur, &c., form quite an extraneous appendage to the skin,
or body producing them, not at all directly dependent on the life of
the animal for their own existence, for they have been known to live
and grow for some time after the death of the animal itself. We also
know that they live, grow, and die, showing all the signs of youth,
maturity, and old age. Hair possesses no sensation at any period of its
existence; of itself it has no feeling of touch, nor has it the power
of voluntary action.

The growth of hair is peculiar as it projects and grows in length from
the root, and not by the top as with vegetable productions, the lower
portion lengthens out, and the top is merely projected forward; and
when once cut, it never again resumes its tapering point.

Hair or fur of whatever quality, consists of a single slender filament,
without a branch or knot of any kind, and that filament is a tube,
which is filled with a fat oil, the color of the hair being derived
from this oil.

By the chemical analysis of hair it is found to consist of nine
different substances: 1st, gelatine or animal matter, which constitutes
its greater part; 2d, a white concrete oil in small quantity; 3d,
another oil of a grayish-green color more abundant, these oils
comprising about one-fourth of the entire weight; 4th, a few particles
of oxide of manganese; 5th, iron, the state of which in the hair is
unknown; 6th, phosphate of lime; 7th, carbonate of lime in very
small quantity; 8th, silex in greater abundance; 9th, and lastly, a
considerable amount of sulphur--such is the constitution of all furs,
wools, hair, &c., most of which may be dissolved in pure water heated
to a temperature above 230 deg. of Fahrenheit, by which it is partially
decomposed. Hair is likewise soluble in alkalies, with which it forms
soap. Chlorine gas immediately decomposes it, producing a viscid mass.

It is worthy of particular remark, that of all animal products, hair
is the one least liable to spontaneous change, evidence of which may
be found in the fact that the Peruvian, Mexican, and Brazilian mummy
hair is still perfect, and is supposed to be from 2500 to 3000 years
old, and stands the hygrometric test with equal firmness. From this we
should suppose the body or substance of hair and wool to be exceedingly
hard and solid, which is really the case, as no pressure has yet been
applied sufficiently powerful to entirely deprive wool of the water
with which it has been washed--the interstices between the fibres of
the assemblage never having been closed by the power applied, as the
water therein collected may still be drained off when the pressure is
removed.

Although hair is of a tubular construction, yet all varieties are
not of a completely cylindrical form; a curl is the result of all
flat-sided or oval hairs, the exceeding oval being the unfailing
characteristic of the <DW64> race. A cross section of a hair, if
circular, denotes the long, soft, and lank fibre of a cold northern
animal; but if the cross section shows an extreme flat-sided hair, that
hair will be crisp and frizzled, and of a tropical extraction. Quite
a gradual change in the form of the fibre of hair is observed in all
animals as we ascend from the equator to the highest latitudes, other
things being equal.

It has long been a desideratum how to discriminate between the various
qualities of hatters' _fine_ furs, and no really reliable test has
yet been obtained, superior to the judgment of the human eye, the
fineness of fibre for the hatter being of most essential importance,
particularly that allotted for the flowing nap upon the outside of the
hat. Although the thickness of the fibre of the finer furs has never
been properly gauged, it will be a source of some satisfaction to know
that the diameter of the human hair varies from the 250th to the 600th
part of an inch, while the fibre of the coarsest wool is about the
500th and the finest about the 1500th part of an inch.

Hair may be bleached on the grass like linen, after previous washing
and steeping in a bleaching liquid, after which it may be dyed of any
color.

It is very doubtful whether the growth of hair can by any artificial
means be expedited, or the hair itself increased in length, in quality,
or in density. A fine field of enterprise would be opened for the
fortunate inventor who could increase the produce of the finer and more
expensive furs. In contradistinction to this, however, it may be stated
that the inhabitants of some countries, the Malays, for instance,
purposely destroy their hair by using quick-lime.

We come next to describe minutely another peculiarity appertaining
to hair, upon which all felting or shrinking of a fabric depends;
that grand secret that has been a mystery in all ages, until within
a few years, or at best was only surmised. Upon this property alone
depends the whole art of hatting and of felt making, whether in sheets
or otherwise, as well as the fulling of cloth and the shrinking of
flannels, and all articles the material of which is made of wool, hair,
or fur.

As many branches of business depend for their success upon the
_non-shrinking_ quality of their goods, a study of the felting
principle becomes quite appropriate and interesting to those
manufacturers, whilst perusing that of the opposite. Pulled wools,
rather than cut or shorn wools, must always have the preference with
the one class of manufacturers; at the same time, the other class must
adhere tenaciously to those which have been cut, the roots of the hair
causing all the difference, for that remarkable quality, the felting
principle, is upon all the same whether pulled or cut.

A few familiar facts dependent upon this inherent felting quality of
hair will aid the illustration. When a hair is held by the top, it can
be severed with a razor much more readily than if held by the root.
Again, a hair held by the root, and drawn through between the finger
and thumb, feels quite smooth, but when held by the top, a rough and
tremulous motion is perceived.

Again, place a hair of three or four inches in length by the middle,
between the finger and thumb, and twirl it a few times, when the hair
will be found to proceed towards one end, as the twirling and rubbing
are continued, and invariably advancing root end foremost, whichever
way the hair is placed between the fingers. If two hairs are used in
this example, lay the root of the one to the top of the other, their
respective motions will be doubly discernible.

The cause of all these singularities of the hair it is now designed to
explain, which shall be done as explicitly and concisely as possible,
with a few proofs of its astonishing power in a collective capacity.

The above-mentioned phenomena are the result of that same long-hidden
property, and which is nothing more than a certain clothing or
covering, entirely surrounding the stem of every hair, in the form of
very minute scales, so very minute, indeed, that it requires the aid of
a very powerful microscope to enable the beholder to discern them, and
even then but faintly. These scales, which cover thickly every filament
of animal hair, wool, fur, &c., are thin pointed lamina, quite similar
to the scales on a fish, and overlapping each other as do the shingles
or slates upon a house. This state of the hair being understood, the
_modus operandi_ of the above examples may be thus explained: When the
hair was held by the point, it was easily cut by the edge of the razor
entering under the scales; but when held by the root, the instrument
slipped smoothly over them; and the hair that was drawn through the
fingers, when held by the point, felt rough and tremulous, from the
jagged points of the scales, but smooth when drawn in their own
direction.

The twirling of the hairs between the finger and thumb, resulting in
their travelling motion, was on account of the points of the scales
catching on the fingers, in the act of rubbing, similar to the heads of
wheat or barley at harvest time which school-boys put into the sleeves
of their coats, and which are sure to come out at some other extremity
to that at which they were put in, caused by the working of the boy's
arm upon the jaggy beard or awn of the barley head.

The task of counting the number of these lamina that clothe the body
of these hairs, must have been both tedious and difficult, from their
very minuteness and profusion. On a single filament of merino wool,
as many as 2400 barbed scales, like teeth, projecting from the centre
stem, have been counted in the space of one inch. On Saxony wool there
were 2700, while other wools were as low as 1860, and none were found
to have so few as 1000 to the inch.

No vegetable wools whatever, such as cotton, &c., have any such
appendage upon their fibres, and, consequently, cotton or cotton goods
never shrink in the act of washing, as woollen goods do. Cotton,
therefore, never can become a suitable material for felting purposes,
every fibre being smooth from end to end in either direction, and in
contradistinction to fur, which, though equally smooth as the cotton in
one way, rebels triumphantly when irritated in the contrary direction,
as already described. Mechanically speaking, cotton is smooth, solid,
and triangular, whilst wool is rough, tubular, and cylindrical.

The grand cause of that mysterious and curious operation called
felting, fulling, shrinking, thickening, and solidifying of a fabric,
whether of original loose wool, fur, or other stuff, or of that spun
into yarn and woven into cloth, is the presence of these scales.

Till lately, the best operative hatter and the investigating
philosopher were equally at a loss to explain upon what principle
such effects were produced. Take, for instance, a handful of wet fur
or wool, which is merely an assemblage of hairs; squeeze and press
it, work it a little in the hand, and then observe the effect; for
immediately upon pressing it a certain locomotion is thereby conferred
upon every fibre of that assemblage, which is increased by every turn
of position that is given to the body of wool. The rolling and pressing
change the position of each fibre. A friction is produced upon every
member composing the mass; a footing as it were is obtained from
the scales of each, and the fur or wool being all bent or curled, a
progressive motion goes on, interlacing each other in their travels,
resulting in a compact, dense body, which may well challenge the
goddesses of both patience and perseverance to undo. Every hair has
been travelling in its own individual direction, boring, warping,
grasping, holding, and twisting amongst its fellows like a collection
of live worms.

The power of combination, like the fable of the bundle of sticks, is
strikingly illustrated in the case of the hair, which when viewed
singly seems so very insignificant, but collectively, and when pressed
by the hand of oppression, hardship, and ill treatment, they combine
and become strong and defiant, clasping each other in their embrace,
tenaciously clinging to each other the more they are tortured, as if
they were living rational beings, conscious of their innocence, and
free from guilt.

Stockings, for instance, that are knit with soft-spun wool, for the use
of whale fishermen in northern latitudes, are large enough, when first
formed, to hold the whole man, but are felted down to the required
size in the fulling mill, where they are battered, tossed about, and
tortured to that degree that is required by their tormentors. The
writer has seen a millful of these stockings whose sides were felted so
firmly together, from a neglect of the workmen to turn them inside out,
in due time, during the felting operation, that a knife was required to
open them, and which actually failed in several instances, so firmly
had