Silk The body of a silk hat is made up of several layers of cotton fabric cemented together with a solution of shellac in alcohol. It is formed on a block by the pressure of hot irons, and the rim is formed upon a flange on the bottom of the block, and cemented to the body. The whole is then coated with the shellac solution and covered with a specially made silk plush. The cover and the body are unified by hot ironing. The silk is polished with velvet brushes, and the rim is bound and the linings put in. The final process is giving the curl to the rim, and this is done in a heated press where the hat remains until it is cold.
Panama The so-called Panama hats are made in Ecuador, and in a few localities in Colombia and Peru. The material used is the immature unopened leaves of the screw pine (Carludovica palmota). These are slit into shreds of varying degrees of fineness. with a very sharp knife, the shreds being left at tached to the stem and forming a bunch of 25 to 35 "straws" of from 18 to 20 inches in length. The hats are woven upon a block, the finest of them bing of the texture of fine linen, and requiring months to complete. These are not often exported and bring locally the equiva lent of $100 each. Practically all the "Panama hats" in the American market are made in Peru. Before the war a very good imitation was made in Germany from imported Peruvian fibre.
Strj.w Hats are made from straw braids imported from Italy, China and Japan. The finest grades are raised in Tuscany, Italy, where the soil and climate are the most favor able for this industry. The grain sown is a variety of wheat, and the straw is cut when the grain is in the "milks stage. The straw is bleached in sunshine and dew, and then whitened with sulphur fumes. The upper and finer parts of the straw are plaited into braids from one-eighth of an inch to nine-thirty seconds of an inch in width, the braids being of from 9 to 13 strands, and 82 to 131 feet in length These are known as Leghorn braids. The lower and coarser parts of the straw are plaited into widths of one-quarter to one-half of an inch, and are of from five to seven strands. These are known as Milan braids. In making
the hats the braids are lapped and sewed by machinery. In some of the finer grades they are sewed edge to edge by, hand. The plateaux of sewn straw are sized with a waterproof gum and shaped in powerful presses.
Other hats are made of hemp from the Philippines and Japan. The or horsehair hats are made in Switzerland. Chip hats are made of shreds of poplar or willow, sometimes plaited into braids, and coated with colored varnishes. The so-called wool-felt" hats are of wool, which, however, does not felt, and the fibres are held together with cementing substances. Many other hats and caps are made of woolen or cotton cloth or other fabrics, generally stiffened more or less with shellac.
The United States census of manufactures for 1914 showed a total of 983 hat factories in the United States, not including those which made sewed hats and caps out of woolen cloth. These latter were included among the factories making woolen goods, and their output cannot be separated for a clear report.
The felt hat industry was concentrated in Philadelphia, Danbury, Conn., Newark, N. J., New York city and Orange, N. J. It was car ried on in 224 factories employing 21,318 hands, and an aggregate capital of $39,401,429. The year's output was valued at $37,349,744, of which $20,402,686 was the value added by manufacture.
The straw hat industry occupied 149 fac tories, the larger percentage being in New York city. They employed 9,483 hands and a combined capital amounting to $12,588,754. The value of the year's production was $25,443, 501, of which $11,357,715 was the value added by manufacture.
' The wool-felt hat industry occupied 30 factories and the year's output was valued at $1,904,484. Other hats and caps not included above were made in 580 factories, the larger percentages being at and near New York and Philadelphia. Their combined product for the census year was valued at $18,593,221. Con sult Manchester, H. H., 'Sixty Centuries of Hat Making) (New York 1915) ; Mills, D. C., 'The Twentieth Century Hat Factory) (Dan bury, Conn., 1910) ; Smith, W., (Chemistry of Hat Manufacture) (London 1906).