STRAW-PLAT MANUFACTURE. It is not known when the manufacture of hats or bonnets of platted straw first became im portant in Italy, where it has long formed one of the leading pursuits of the agricultural population ; but it does not appear to have been followed in England more than seventy or eighty years.
The large size of the wheat-straw used in this country for platting prevented the home manufacture from entering into competition with that of Italy in articles of fine quality ; the straw grown for the purpose in Tuscany being much smaller, as well as superior in colour. This difficulty was in some degree overcome by the expedient adopted in England towards the end of the last century, of split ting the straw, and using the narrow Splints, or slips of straw, in lieu of whole straws. The operation of splitting is performed by small cutting instruments called machines, which have a number of sharp edges so fixed as to divide the straw, by a motion in the direction of its length, into four, five,six, or more equal parts. Before machines were invented, straws were occasionally split with knives by hand. But greatly as the British straw-plat manu facture had been encouraged by the use of split straw, by improvements in bleaching, and by increased care in the selection of straws of uniform size and colour, it was found, when the re-establishment of peace allowed the free importation of Italian straw bonnets, that the home manufacture was un able to compete with the foreign, notwith standing the heavy protecting duty levied upon hats or bonnets of straw imported from other countries. The Society of Arts there fore, for a long series of years, offered en, couragemeut to attempts for the improvement of the British straw manufacture, which called forth many interesting communications, and led to great improvement.
In plat made of split straw, unless two splints are laid together, with their inside surfaces towards each other, as in the plat called Patent Dunstable, it necessarily happens that the face of the plat exhibits alternately the outer and inner surfaces of the straw, which differ from each other in colour and gloss. Articles made of split straw are also
inferior to those of whole straw of equal fineness, in pliability and durability. Another circumstance which greatly increases the beauty of Leghorn plat is tho mode of joining it, so as to form, by the combination of several narrow strips, an extended sheet of platted work. British plat is usually joined by malting the several rows of plat overlap each other a little, and then stitching through the over lapping with a needle and thread. The sur face of a hat or bonnet formed in this manner consists of a series of ridges; and part of each row of plat is concealed by that next above it, so that an unnecessarily large quantity of plat is required to form a given extent of sur face. Leghorn plat is formed in such a manner that it may be joined without this loss; the edge of one row of plat being, as it were, knitted into the edge of the other, in such a way that the patterns may appear un interrupted, and the line of junction may be almost invisible.
The Society of Arts has encouraged the growing of straw similar to that of Leghorn, the platting of the Leghorn straw in England, and every other device which might seem likely to increase the home manufacture. Mr. Parry in 1822 received the Society's large silver medal for his method of manufacturing Leghorn plat from straw imported from Italy. In this method the ears are cut off with a knife, and the straws are then carefully sorted to obtain uniformity in length, thickness, and colour. Thirteen straws are tied together at one end, and then divided into two portions ; six straws being towards the left side, and seven to the right, so that the two portions of straw may form a right angle. These are platted over and under each other, so as to form a platted band, about three-eighths of an inch in width. Several of these bands are adjusted in spiral coils, with their adjacent edges knitted together, so as to form the large circular pieces of plat which, under the name of hats, or fiats, are so extensively ex ported from the north of Italy.