HASTINGS, BATTLE OF. See ENGLAND.
HAT, is the name of a piece of dress worn upon the head by both sexes, but principally by the men. The use of hats seems to have been first introduced among the ecclesiastics in the 12th century, and it was not till the year 1400 that they seem to have been pretty generally adopted.
As the art of making common hats does not involve the description of any curious machinery, or any very interest ing processes, we shall not enter into minute details upon the subject. It will be sufficient to convey to our readers a very general idea of the method which is employed.
The materials employed in making hats, are the fur of hares and rabbits freed from the hair, together with wool and beaver. The beaver is reserved for the finest hats.
The fur is first laid upon a hurdle made of wood or wire, with longitudinal openings ; and the operator, by means of an instrument called the bow, (which is a piece of elastic ash, six or seven feet long, with a catgut stretched between its two extremities, and made to vibrate by a bowstick,) makes the vibrating string strike and play upon the fur, so as to throw the fibres together, while the dust and filth de scend through the chinks of the hurdle. A sieve or scarce has sometimes been used for the same purpose.
After the fur is thus driven by the bow from one end of the hurdle to the other, it forms a mass called a butt, which is only half the quantity sufficient for a hat. The bait or ranade, thus formed, is rendered compact by pressing it clown with a hardening skin, (a piece of half tanned leather,) and the union of the fibres is increased by covering it with a cloth, and allowing the workman to press it together re peatedly with his hands. The cloth being taken off, a piece of paper, with its corners doubled in, so as to give it a triangular outline, is laid above the batt. The oppo site edges of the batt are then folded over the paper, and being brought together and pressed with the hands, they form a conical cap. This cap is next laid upon another batt, ready hardened, so that the joined edges of the first batt rest upon the new batt. This new batt is folded
over the other, and its edges joined by pressure as before ; so that the joining of the first conical cap is opposite that of the second. This compound batt is now wrought with the hands for a considerable time upon the hurdle, being occasionally sprinkled with clear water till the hat is ba soned, or rendered tolerably firm.
The cap is now taken to a wooden receiver, like a very flat mill-hopper, consisting of eight wooden planes, sloping gently to the centre, which contains a kettle filled with water acidulated with sulphuric acid. In this liquor the hat is occasionally dipped, and wrought by the hands, and sometimes with a roller, upon the sloping planks. The hat is thus fulled or thickened fur four or five hours ; knots or hard substances are picked out by the workman, and felt is added by means of a wet brush to those parts that require it. The beaver is laid on at the end of this operation, and in the case of beaver hats, the grounds of beer are added to the liquor in the kettle.
The hat is now to receive its proper shape. For this purpose the workman turns up the edge or rim to the depth of about inch, and then returns the point of the cone back again through the axis of the cap, so as to produce another inner fold of the same depth. A third fold is pro duced by returning the point of the cone again, and so on till the whole 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 flat crown is now placed upon a block, and by forcing a string, called a commander, down the sides of the block, he forces the parts adjacent to the crown to assume a cylindrical figure. The rim now appears like a puckered appendage round the cylindrical cone; but the proper figure is now given to it by working and rub bing it.