The importation of straw hats from Germany and Italy is very considerable. They have the reputation of produc ing the hest articles of that kind at Leghorn, from whence more than 12,000 dozen have been imported in one year. Mr Corstoul, in a memoir to the Society of Arts, has shewn the practicability of producing an adequate substitute for this article in England, by plaiting the straw of rye, which he cultivated on a poor sandy soil in Norfolk, sown at the rate of two bushels per acre. He found that the produce of four square yards, when manufactured, was ten yards of Leghorn plait, of four different qualities, and weighing one ounce.
Chips or shavings of wood are also used for making hats ; and some hats of this substance are woven altogether in one piece, or they are woven in wide pieces, which are afterwards made up into the figure of the hat. Sometimes the chips are only used as the fabric of the hat, and are woven in with silk, which also covers the chips, and forms the exterior surface. A patent was granted in 1808 to Mr Thomas, of London, for an ingenious machine which weaves the whole hat in this way, and of the intended figure, with out any scams. PLATE CCLXXXVIII. Fig. 7. is an ele vation, and Fig. 8. a section of this machine, in which A is the block or mould, upon which the hat is to be formed, and so put together in pieces as to separate for the pur pose of taking off' the hat. It is fixed upon a square stein B, which rises and falls into a square tube D, by the ac tion of a pinion a upon a rack which is fixed to the stem. The tube D is supported upon a pivot at the lower end, and is embraced at about half its length by a collar E, in the frame or pedestal EFF, which sustains the whole ma chine, but permits it to turn round upon the pivot, that the workman who sits with the machine before him, may bring every part of the block towards him. He can turn it round by applying his foot to the circular board or wheel e e, which projects from the axle or tube D at the lower end. The top of the tube D carries a cylindrical wooden box G, large enough to contain the block A without touching it ; and upon the upper edge of this cylinder is fixed a project ing flannel) or circular plate. Around the circumference of the plate, a circle is described, and a row of holes pierc ed at equal distances, so as to divide the circle into 72 parts, and each hole receives a wire h. Immediately within the row another circle is made, and divided into the same num ber of holes; but the wires i which pass through these lat ter holes are interspaced between the former. Each wire has an eye formed through its upper end, for the reception of a slip of chip, marked k I, of which there will be 144 in number, radiating from the centre of the block, to which they are all made fast by a plug ; and after passing through the eyes of the wires k and 1, the slips hang down, and have small leaden plumbets in, in appended to them, to stretch them straight.
The lower ends of the w'res i are all jointed to a circu lar ring of wood o o, which fits upon the external surface of the cylindrical box G, and slides freely up and down thereupon; in like manner the interior wires k are jointed at the lower ends to a similar ring i i, which is connected with the former ring o o by two small cords, which pass over pulleya fixed in the Haunch g, and consequently when either the rings i or a are pulled clown the other must be rais de up, and vice versa. To draw down the lower ring o, it has
two wires p, p (Fig. 7.) joined to it at the opposite sides, and these descend to the treadle r, upon which the work man places his foot ; and the action of this pressure is to divide the Whole number of shreds of chip into two sett k and /, one of which is depressed, and the other elevated. The weaving is performed by passing a knitting needle filled with silk in the space or angle between k and 1, until it has made a whole circuit round the block or crown of the hat ; then, relieving the pressure upon the treadle r, the weights m cause the wire h and ring i to descend, and the other set of wires i, and their ring o, to ascend, by which means the situation of the chips k and I become reversed, / being the uppermost, and k the lowest. In this situation the needle is again passed round in the opening between them. This done, the treadle r is depressed to restore them to the position of the Figure, and the needle is again passed; and thus the operation is continued until the whole is woven together ; the chips radiating from the centre forming the warp, and the silk the weft, running in circu lar or rather spiral lines, and passing alternately over and under every chip. In some cases two needles of silk are employed, one preceding in one direction, and the other in the opposite direction, or one passing over any chip whilst the other passes under it; and in this way the whole surface of the hat is of silk, the chips being all covered. When the crown of the hat is finished in this way, the cy lindrical part is done by raising up the block by its rack and pinion ; and at last the block is taken to pieces to get the hat off.
For farther information on this subject, see Nollet, Art du Chapellier, or Mem. Acad. Par. 1765 ; Hist. p. 132; Gerard, Mem. Acad. 1770; Hist. p. 116; Trousier, in Roz ier's Journal, vol. xxvii. p. 71 ; Monge on Felting, in the Annales de Chimie, vi. p. 300, or in the Repertory of Arts, vol. iii. p. 351 ; Chaussier, in the Journal Polytechnique, or in Nicholson's Journal, vol. i. p. 399, or in theRepertory of Arts, vol. x. p. 275 ; Tilstone's patent for making hats of kids' hair, in the Repertory, vol. i. p. 1; Dunnage's pa tent for water proof hats in imitation of beaver, consisting of silk, mohair, cotton, inkle or wool, in the Repertory, vol. iv. p. 302. Burn's patent for a new material for hats, in the Repertory, vol. ix. p. 167; Dunnage's patent for venti lating the crowns of hats, Id. vol. ix. p. 167; Boileau's pa tent for straw hats, Id. vol. xi. p. 97; Chapman's patent for taking off the fur or wool from skins for hats, Id. vol. vi. p. 374 ; Messrs Ovey and Jepson's patent for hats, Id. vol. xiii. p. 373; Messrs Walker and Alphey's patent for water proof hats, Id. vol. xvi. p. 217; Transactions of the Society of Arts, vol. i. p. 29, vol. xxiii. p. 226, vol. xvi. p. 237, and 1'01. xxv. p. 154 ; Nicholson's Journal, vol. ii. p. 467, 509, vol. iii. p. 22, 23. 73, vol. iv. p. 236; Sarazin, Mecanigue propre a carder et melanger les lathes et polls servant a la fabrication des chapeaux, in the Archives des Decouvertes, pour 1812, vol. v. p. 189; Guichardiere sur un nouveau moyen de fouler les chapeaux, in the Archives des Decou verses, &c. tour 1815, p. 198. See also our article ENG LAND, vol. ix. p. 11. for an account of the hat manufacture in England.