The hat is now ready to receive its pro per shape. For this purpose the work man turns up the edge or brim to the depth of about 1* inch, and then returns the point of the cone back again through the axis of the cap, so as to produce ano ther inner fold of the same depth. A third fold is produced by returning the point of the cone, and so on till the point resembles a flat circular piece having a number of concentric folds. In this state it is laid upon the plank, and wetted with the liquor. The workman pulls out the point with his fingers, and presses it down with his hand, turning it at the same time round on its centre upon the plank, till a flat portion, equal to the crown of the hat, is rubbed out. This fiat crown is now placed upon a block, and, by pressing a string called a commander, down the shies of the block, he forces the parts adjacent to the crown, to ANSE= a cylindrical figure. The brim now appears like a puckered appendage round the cy lindrical cone ; but the proper figure is next given to it, by working and rubbing it. The body is rendered waterproof and stiff by being imbued with a varnish composed of shellac, sandarach, mastic, and other resins dissolved in alcohol or naptha.
The hat being dried, its nap is raised or loosened with a wire brush or card, and sometimes it is previously pounced or rubbed with pumice, to take off the coarser parts, and afterwards rubbed over with seal-skin. The hat is now tied with pack-thread upon its block, and is afterwards dyed. See HAT-DYEING.
The dyed hats are now removed to the stiffening shop. Beer grounds are next applied on the inside of the crown, for the purpose of preventing the glue from coming through ; and when the beer grounds are dried, glue (gum Senegal is sometimes used) a little thinner than that used by carpenters, is laid with a brush on the inside of the crown, and the lower surface of the brim.
The hat is then softened by exposure to steam, on the steaming basin, and is brushed and ironed till it receives the proper gloss. It is lastly cut round at the brim by a knife fixed at the end of a gauge, which rests against the crown. The brim, however, is not cut entirely through, but is torn off so as to leave an edging of beaver round the external rim of the hat. The crown being tied up in a gauze paper, which is neatly ironed down, is then ready for the last opera tions of lining and binding.
The furs and wools of which hats are manufactured contain, in their early stage of preparation, hemp and hairs, which must be removed in order to produce a material for the better description of hats. This separation is effected by a sort of winnowing machine, which wafts away the finer and lighter parts of the furs and wools from the coarser.
Silk hats, for several years after they were manufactured, were liable to two objections; first, the body or shell over which the silk covering is laid, was, from its hardness, apt to hurt the head ; se cond, the edge of the crown being much exposed to blows, the silk nap soon got abraded, so as to lay bare the cotton foun dation, which is not capable of taking so fine a black dve as the silk ; whence the hat assumed a shabby appearance.
Messrs. Mayhew and White, of London, hat-manufacturers, remedied these de fects, by making, the hat body of stuff or wool, and relieving the stiffness of the in ner part round the brim, by attaching a coating of beaver upon the under side of the brim, so as to render the hat pliable. Retina the edge of the tip or crown, a quantity of what is called stop wool is to be attached by the ordinary operation of bowing, which will render the edge soft and elastic. The hat is to be afterwards dyed of a good black color, both outside and inside ,• and being then properly stiffened and blocked, is ready for the co vering of silk.
The plush employed for covering silk hats, is a raised nap or pile woven usu ally upon a cotton foundation ; and the cotton, being incapable of receiving the same brilliant black dye as the silk, ren ders the hat apt to turn brown whenever the silk nap is partially worn off. The way to counteract this evil is by making the foundation of the plush entirely of silk. To these two improvements, now pretty generally introduced, the present excellence of the silk hats may be, in a good measure, ascribed.
In a great hat factory women are em ployed, at respectable wages, in plucking the beaver skins, cropping off the fur, various qualities of wool, pluck ing and cutting rabbit's fur, shearing the nap of the blocked hat, picking out un seemly filaments of fur, and in trimming the hats ; that is, lining and binding them.
With regard to the stiffening of hats, Dr. Ure gives the following receipts as furnished by a skilful operator with the following valuable information : All the solutions of gums which I have hitherto seen prepared by hatters, have not been perfect, but, in a certain degree, a mixture, more or less, of the gums, which are merely suspended, owing to the consistency of the composition. When this is thinned by the addition of spirit, and allowed to stand, it lets fall a curdy looking sediment, and to this cir cumstance may be ascribed the frequent breaking of hats. My method of pro• ceeding is, first, to dissolve the gums by agitation in twice the due quantity of spirits, whether of wood or wine, and they after complete solution, draw off one half the spirits in a still, so as to bring the stiffening to a proper consisten oy. No sediment subsequently appears on diluting this solution, however much it may be done.
Both the spirit and alkali stiffenings for hats made by the following two re ceipts, have been tried by some of the first houses in the trade, and have been much approved of:— Spirit Stiffening.
7 pounds of fine orange shellac.
2 pounds of gum sandarac.
4 ounces of gum mastic.
Half a pound of amber resin.
1 pint of solution of copal. • 1 gallon of spirit of wine or wood naptha.
The shellac sandarac, mastic, and re sin, are dissolved in the spirit, and the solution of copal is added last.
Alkali SVening.
7 pounds of common black shellac. 1 pound of amber resin.
4 ounces of gum rims.
6 ounces of borax.
Half a pint of solution of copal.