When the batt is sufficiently bowed, it is ready for hardening, which is the term for the commencement of the felting. The prepared material being evenly disposed on the hurdle, is covered with a linen cloth, and pressed backwards and forwards in its various parts by the hands of the workman. The pressure is gentle, and the hands are very slightly moved backwards and forwards, at the same time, through a space of perhaps a quarter of an inch, to favour the hardening entangling of the fibres. In a very short time, the stuff acquires sufficient firmness to bear carefully handling. The cloth is then taken off, and a sheet of paper, with its corners doubled in, so as to give it a triangular outline, is laid upon the batt, which last is folded over the paper as it lies, and its edges, meeting one over the other, form a conical cap. The joining is soon made good, by pressure with the hands on the cloth. Another batt ready hardened is in the next place laid on the hurdle, and the cap here mentioned placed upon it with the joining downwards. This last batt being also folded up, will have its place of junction diametrically opposite that of the inner felt, which it must therefore greatly help to strengthen. The principal part of the intended hat is thus put together and now requires to be worked with the hands a considerable time upon the hurdle, the cloth being also occasionally sprinkled with clear water. During the whole of this operation, which is called basoning, the felt becomes firmer and firmer, and contracts in its dimensions. The use of the paper is to prevent the sides from felting together. The basoning is followed by a 'stall more effectual continuation of felting, called working, which consists in plunging them into a cauldron containing water slightly acidulated with sulphuric acid, and then working them upon some planks forming the frustrum of a cone, meeting in the cauldron at the middle. The imperfections of the felting now appear; and the workman picks out the knots and other hard substances with a bodkin and adds more fur upon all such parts as require strengthening. This added fur is patted down with a wet brush, and soon incorporates with the rest. Towards the close of this working, the beaver for the nap is laid on. By these means, the substance of the hat is formed into a felt of close texture, pliable, and capable of extension (although with difficulty), in every direction, but the figure is still conical; the next thing to be done, therefore, is to give it the required shape. For this purpose the workman turns up the edge or brim to the depth of about an inch and a half, and then returns the point back again through the centre or axis of the cap, so far as not to take out this fold, but to produce another inner fold of the same depth. The point being returned again produces a third fold, and thus the workman proceeds until the whole has acquired the appearance of a flat circular piece, consisting of a number of concentric folds or undulations with the point in the centre : this is laid upon the plank, where the workman, keeping the piece wet with the liquor, pulls out the point with his fingers, and presses it down with his hands, at the same time turning it round on its centre in contact with the plank until he has by this means rubbed out a flat portion equal to the intended crown of the hat. In the next place he takes a block, to the crown of which he applies the flat central portion of the felt, and by forcing a string down the sides of the block, causes the next part to assume the figure of the crown, which he continues to wet and work until it has properly disposed itself around the block. The brim now appears like a puckered or flounced appendage round the edge of the crown ; but the block being set upright on the plank, the requisite figure is soon given by working, rubbing, and extending this part. Water only is used in this operation of blocking or fashioning; at the conclusion of which it is pressed out by the blunt edge of a copper implement called a stamper. Previous to the dying, the nap of the hat is raised or loosened out with a wire-brush or carding instrument. The fibres are too rotten after. the dying to bear this operation. The dying materials are logwood, a little oak bark, and a mixture of the sulphate of iron and of copper, known in the marts by the common name of green copperas and blue vitriol. The hats are boiled with the logwood, and afterwards immerged in the same solution. The dyed hate are, in the next place, taken to the stiffening shop. One workman, assisted by a boy, does this part of the business ; he has two vessels or boilers, one containing the grounds of strong beer, and the other containing melted glue, a little thinner than what is used by carpenters. The beer grounds are applied in the inside of the crown to prevent the glue from coming through to the face, and also to give the requisite firmness, at a less expense than could be produced by glue alone. The glue stiffening is therefore applied after the beer grounds are dried, and then only upon the lower face of the brim and the inside of the crown. The dry hat, after this operation, is always rigid, and its figure irregular. The last dressing is given by application of moisture and heat, and the use of the brush, and a hot iron, as before mentioned, somewhat in the shape of that used by tailors, but shorter and broader on the face. The hat being softened by exposure to steam, is drawn upon a block, to which it is securely applied by the former method of forcing a string down from the crown to the commencement of the brim. The judgment of the workman is employed in moistening, brushing, and ironing the hat, in order to give and preserve the proper figure. Before the hat is quite finished, the brims are cut by a knife att4ched to a radius rod so as to describe a circle ; the cut is not carried entirely through, so that one of the last operations consists in tearing of the redundant part, which, by that means, leaves an edging of beaver round the external face of the brim. When the hat is thus finished, the crown is tied
up in gauze paper, which is neatly ironed down, and it is then ready for the subsequent operations of lining, &c. for sale.
In that ably conducted work, Nicholson's Journal, Vol. IV. 4to, are several suggestions for effecting many of the foregoing operations by machinery. Amongst other subjects proposed for inquiry are the followin*:—whether carding, which is rapidly and mechanically done, be inferior to bowing; whether a succession of hafts or carding might be thrown on a fluted cone, which rapidly revolving in contact with three or more cylinders, might perform the hardening and even the working with much more precision and speed than they are now done by hand ; and whether blocking or shaping be not a process extremely well calculated for the operation of one or more machines. These ingenious suggestions have recently been in some measure acted upon.
In 1826 Mr. G. Borradaile obtained a patent for an apparatus for the making or setting up of hat bodies, as it is termed, in which several cones or frustrums of cones are made to revolve upon their axes ; and the frames in which these cones act being made to vibrate horizontally on a fixed pivot and swivel, the filaments of wool are caused to traverse each other diagonally, as they are wound upon a double cone, and by that means to produce a matted substance, which is afterwards to be wetted, shrunk, and felted together in the usual manner. The bodies of two hats, each of a conical figure, are thus made over the surface of a double cone, which are separated by cutting them along their middle or base line, and slipping them off at the end. a a in the diagram, represents this double conical block, and b b two conical rollers, of which there are two more on the opposite side of the machine, not seen in this view. The axes of these four rollers are placed in such an inclined position as to admit the double cone a a to bear equally upon them. The two front cones b b have fixed upon their bases two bevelled toothed wheels, which gear into one another as shown ; and rotary motion is given to both by the teeth of one of them taking into a bevelled tooth and pinion that revolves upon a vertical spindle, to which motion is communicated by a band and rigger. The large double cone aa, therefore, is made to revolve slowly by the friction of its surface against the four conical rollers underneath. The sliver of wool being conducted from the doffer of a carding engine, placed behind the machine, to the upper side of the double cone a a, and the cones b b being made to revolve as before described, causes the sliver of wool to be wound round the periphery of a a in an uniform layer. In order to give a diagonal crossing to the filaments, as they are wound upon the double cone, the machine is made to turn partly round horizontally upon the pivot k in front, and upon a swivel joint 1 at top, to which the back part of the machine is attached by a bent rod nt al, the form of which bent rod is explained by the separate Fig. 2. The gearing, by which the vibrating motion of the machine is effected, is not brought into view in the figure, as it could not be distinctly exhibited ; but it may be easily ,compre hended that a rotary crank and lever will effect this movement. The plan above described, it will be seen, very closely resembles that suggested by Mr. Nicholson for preparing the bodies of hats ; that which we are about to describe as nearly resembles his plan for finishing them.
Mr. 011erenshaw, of Manchester, about the year 1824, took out a patent for a machine for assisting in the dressing and finishing of beaver or felt hats, by which the ordinary labour in those operations is materially reduced, and the work is completed in much less time. It is constructed on the principle of the lathe, and the apparatus consists of principal parts or lathes, which are all fixed in one strong frame, and motion is given to them by means of a band passing from any first mover, (as a steam-engine, water-wheel, &c. &c.) The first of these lathes is constructed the same as the common wood-turner's lathe, and is used for the purpose of ironing or dressing the sides of the crown ; the block upon which the hat is fixed is made to fit on the chuck of the lathe, and as the hat revolves, the hot iron is applied to the surface by the workman, which quickly smooths the hat, giving it the usual glossy appearance ; the velvet cushion, and the various brushes hatters use, are likewise applied, as may be required, while it is thus revolving, till that part of the hat is finished, when it is removed and placed upon the block of the next lathe. This second lathe is constructed with a vertical shaft, so as to produce a horizontal rotary motion to the hat, which is better suited for operating upon the flat part of the crown, and the upper side of the brim, than a vertical motion. The hat having undergone the usual manipulations in the second lathe, is removed to the third, where it is introduced, m an inverted position, into a frame made to receive it, which turns round very slowly in a horizontal direction (the axis being vertical) ; here the workmen smooth the under aide of the brim, by drawing the iron across it from the centre outwards. The hat next undergoes the usual examinations, and pickings-out of the extraneous and coarse hairs; after this, it is again subjected to the former operations of ironing and brushing, which finishes it.