HAT MANUFACTURE. hats, in the present day, are mostly made of straw, wool and fur, or silk. The first are noticed under STRAW PLAIT. Beaver hats of the finest quality are made with lamb's wool and the fur of English rabbits. To form the body of the hat, the wool and rabbit's fur are separately bowed in the manner employed for freeing cot ton from its seeds. The two substances are next bowed together until they are intimately mixed; after which the mass is spread evenly, covered with an oil-cloth, and pressed to the state of an imperfectly tangled felt. The next process is to cover the felt with a triangular piece of damp brown paper, and then to fold it in a damp cloth and work it well with the hand, pressing and bending, rolling and un rolling it, until the interlacing or felting is much more perfect, and the mass is compact. The felt thus prepared is next taken to the wide brim of a boiler charged with hot water and beer-grounds and a small quantity of sul phuric acid ; it is wetted, rubbed, and rolled, until it no longer contracts. The felt is next stiffened with shell-lac, a solution of which is applied by means of a brush to one or to both sides of the felt ; after which it is heated in a stove, and by this means the whole sub stance becomes duly impregnated with the resin : this renders the hat nearly waterproof. To form the nap of a hat, one-half or three fourths of an ounce of beaver, and some other less costly fur, are bowed together and imper fectly felted in the manner already described, and shaped the same as the body to which it is to be applied ; that body is then softened by immersing it in the boiler, when the nap' is applied and worked as in felting, until the required union is effected between the two bodies.
The felt thus covered is brought to the pro per shape by working it on a wooden block, and is then dyed black. The hat is softened by steam, the crown is strengthened by placing in it a disc of scale-board, and linen is pasted over this. The nap is raised, and a uniform direction given to its fibres by means of warm irons and hair brushes. The last processes are binding and lining, when the hat is ready to be worn. In the low-priced hats of the present day, commoner wool and fur, and smaller quantities of each, are used.
Silk hats consist of a cover or exterior part made of silk plush, which is laid upon a foun dation of chip, stiffened linen, or some other light material, previously blocked into shape. The so-called Velvet hats and Satin hats de serve those titles only so far as the plush re sembles those materials. The plush is mostly woven in the north of England. Paris hats are for the most part made in England, the silk plush being imported from France, where it is made better than our weavers seem able to equal.
The hats exported in 1848 amounted in number only to 8,768 dozens, and in value to 27,4551.: so little demand is there abroad for English hats ; the exports are almost entirely to our own colonies. Silk-plush for covering Paris hats was imported in 1850 to the extent of 138,909 lbs.