THE HATTER.

Some kind of covering for the head, either for defence or ornament, appears to have been generally worn in all ages and Countries where the inhabitants have made any progress in the arts of civilized life. Herodotus, indeed, states that the Egyptians were accustomed to appear bare-headed, but this assertion must be considered subject to limitation, probably, comprising only some of the poorer classes, as from other documents it appears, they were no strangers to this article of dress ; and it is well known that a crown was the sign of royal authority.

The form, substance, and colour of headdresses have been exceedingly various, according to the different circumstances or humour
of the wearers. The Persians wore turbans, and other nations inhabiting the Indian Peninsula wore a kind of covering for the head,
which, like the thick thatch of a lowly cottage, seemed calculated to divest the building of all proportion. The imperial turban is said to have been composed of almost a whole bale of muslin, variously twisted and formed : the mnisterial turban was smaller, but of superior height. From the Persians the Jews borrowed those large turbans which adorned their elders, doctors, and scribes. The mitre of the priests was their own. Several of their tribes adopted the caps which the Romans were accustomed to give to their slaves on their being given their liberty ; hence, in numerous instances, the cap has been a symbol of liberty.

The ancient helmets were a substitute for hats made of steel, brass, and, sometimes, more costly metals. In our own country,
Stowe informs us that the English used to ride, and go winter and summer in knit caps and cloth hoods ; and the best sort in silk thrummed hats.

Head-dresses, from their variety, simplicity and mutability, had, hitherto, been an object of little regard in a manufacturing or commercial point of view. The introduction of felt hats has occasioned a uniformity and.extent to this article of dress, unknown to former ages, and has proved of considerable importance to the manufacturer and the tradesman. Curiosity is naturally excited to become acquainted with the particulars respecting their invention, but the operation of individual interest in this, as in numerous other instances connected with the arts, seems to have buried it in obscurity, and little information on the subject can now be obtained.

Passing over the story about St. Clement, the fourth bishop of Rome, and some other idle tales of the dark ages, it appears that felt
hats were invented at Paris by a Swiss, about the commencement of the fifteenth century. They were not generally known till Charles the Seventh made his triumphant entry into Rouen, in the year 1449, when from F. Daniel's account of that entry, it appears he astonished the whole city by appearing in a hat lined with red silk and surmounted by a plume of feathers; from this entry their general use is dated.

How far the manufacture of hats was practised on the Continent before they were made in England we cannot say, but we learn, that in the beginning of the reign of Henry the Eighth, Spanish felt hats were made in England, by Spaniards and Dutchmen.

In the second year of James the First, the felt-makers of London obtained a corporation, and hired a hall near Christ-Church, the king granting them various privileges and liberties.

England is now become the grand mart for tbe manufacture of hats; and, hence, the article is exported to the Continent, America,
and various other parts of the globe : our laws prohibit the introduction of foreign hats, to encourage, of course, our domestic manufacture.

The materials in general use for hat-making, are lambs'-wool, rabbits' and hares' fur, beaver, seal-wool, monkey -stuff, or neuter-wool, camels'-hair, goats'-hair, or estridge silk, and cotton. The best fur is from the backs of the different animals ; it decreases in value as it approaches the belly.

As the process is nearly the same in all, it will be sufficient if we describe.the method made use of in the manufacture of bearer
hats.

The skin of the beaver is covered with two kinds hair ; the one, long, stiff, and glossy; the other is short, thick-set, and soft, and
is used alone for hats.

To tear off these kinds of hair and cut the other, women are employed, who make use of two knives : a large one, something like a
shoe- maker's knife, for the long hair, and a smaller one, nearly in the form of a pruning-knife, with which they shave or scrape off the shorter hair.

Experience has shewn that the hair of fur cannot be evenly and well fitted together unless all the fibres be first separated, or put into the same state with regard to each other. This is the object of the first process of hat-making, and is called bowing. The material is laid upon a platform of wood or wire, about four feet square, called a hurdle, which is fixed against the wall of the work-shop, and is enlightened by a small window, and separated by two side partitions from other hurdles which occupy the rest of the space along the wall. The hurdle, if of wood, is made of deal-boards not quite three inches wide, disposed parallel to the Wall, and at the distance of one fortieth of an inch from one another, for the purpose of suffering the dust and other impurities of the stuff to pass through; a purpose still more effectually answered by a hurdle of wire. The.workman is provided with a bow, a bow-pin, and a basket, and several cloths. The bow is a pole of yellow deal, or ash, about seven feet long, to which are fixed two bridges, somewhat like that which receives the hair in the bow of the violin. Over these, is stretched a cat-gut about one-twelfth of an inch in thickness. The bow-pin is a stick with aths are linen. Besides these implements, the workman is also provided with brown paper.

The bowing commences by shovelling the material towards the right-hand partition with the basket upon which the workman, holding the bow horizontally in his left hand and the bow pin in his right, lightly places the bow string, and gives it a pluck with the pin. The string, in its return, strikes upon the fur, and causes it to spring up in the air, and fly partly across the hurdle in a light, open form. By repeated strokes, the whole is thus subjected to the bow ; and this beating is repeated till all the original clots, or filaments, are perfectly opened and dilated, and having thus fallen together in all possible directions, form a thin mass, or substance, for the felt. The quantity thus treated at once, is called a batt and never exceeds half the quantity required to make one hat.

When the butt is sufficiently bowed, it is ready for hardening ; which term denotes the first commencement of felting. The prepared material, being evenly disposed on the hurdle, is first pressed down by the convexs side of the basket, then covered with a cloth and pressed backwards and forwards successively in its various parts by the hand of the workman. By this process the hairs are twisted together and the lamllae of each]of the inner felt, which it must therefore greatly tend to for rinsing out, and eight planks of wood joined together in the form of a frustrum of a cone, and meethig in the kettle at the middle. The outer or upper edge of each plank is about two feet broad, and rises a little more than two feet and a half above the ground ; the slope towards the kettle is considerably rapid, so that the whole battery is little more than six feet in diameter. The quantity of sulphuric acid added to the liquor, is not sufficient give a sour taste to the tongue. In this liquor heated rather higher than unpractised hands could bear, the felt is dipped from time to time, and worked on the planks ; before which, it is plunged gently into the boiling kettle till fully saturated with the liquor, which is called soaking. The im perfections of the felt present themselves in the course of this part of the work to the eye of the workman, who picks out knots and other hard substances with a bodkin, and gdds more fur upon all such parts as required strengthening. The added fur is patted down with a wet brush, and soon incorporates with the rest. Many Hatters, to hurry this work use a quantity of sulphuric acid and then to make the nap rise and flow, they kill or neutralize the acid and open the body again by throwing in a handful of oatmeal; by this means they expedite their work, but at the same time they leave it quite grainy from the want of labour. This, in handling the dry grey hat when made, may be in part discovered. The beaver for the nap is laid on towards the conclusion of this kind of working. The hat now possesses the form of a cone, and the several actions which it has undergone, have converted it into a soft flexible felt, capable of being extended, though with some difficulty, in any or every direction, therefore, the next thing to be doae is to give it the form required by the. wearer. 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 baqk again through the centre or axis of the cap, so far as not to take out this fold of the same depth. The point being returned back again in the same manner, 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 undulations, rings, or folds, with the point in the centre. This is laid upon the plank, where the workman, keeping it wet with the liquor, pulls out the point with his fingers and presses it down with his hand, at the same time turning it round on its centre in contact with the plank till 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 be applies the flat, central portion of the felt, and by forcing down a string from 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 flounced or puckered appendage round the edge of the crown ; but the block being set upright on the plank, the requisite form is soon gfven by working, rubbing, and extending this part. Water only is used in the operation of fashioning or blocking ; at the conclusion of whieh, it is pressed out by the blunt eof the copper implement used for that purpose, called a stamper.

Previous to the dyeing, the nap of the hat be raised or loosened out with a wire-brush, or carding instrument. The fibres are too rotten after the dyeing to bear the operation. The dyeing materials are logwood, a little oak bark, and a mixture of the sulphates of iron and of copper, commonly known under the names of green copperas, and blue vitriol. The hats we boiled with logwood in water, and afterwards immersed in the saline solution. The dyed hats 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 glue dissolved in water, a little thinner than that which 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 expence than could be produced by the glue alone. Were the gllue to pass through the hat in different places, it would be more difficult to produce an even gloss upon the face in the subsequent finishing. The glue 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. For this purpose the hat is put into another hat, called a stiffening hat, the crown of which is notched, or slit open in various directions. These are then placed in a hole in a deal-board which supports the brim, and the glue is applied with a brush. In France, however, they use wine-lees instead of beer grounds, and gum-water instead of glue.

The dry hat after this operation, is always rgid, and its figure irregular. The last dressing is given by the application of moisture and beat, 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 scurely 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.When the brim of the hat is not intended to be of an equal width throughout, as is sometimes the case for military hats, it is cut by means of a wooden or metallic pattern. The contrivance for cutting them round, is very ingenious and simple. A number .of notches are made in one edge of. a flat piece of wood, for the purpse of inserting the point of a knife, and f rom one side, or edge of this piece of wood, there proceeds a straight handle which lies parallel to the notched side, forming an angle somewhat like that of a carpenter's square. When the legs of this angle are applied to the outside of the crown, and the board lies flat on the brim of the hat, the notched edge will lie nearly in the direction of the radius, or line jointing to the centre of the hat. A knife being therefore inserted in one of the notches, it is easy to draw it round by leaning the tool against the crown, and it will cut the brim very regular and true. This cut is made before the. hat is quite finished, and is carried entirely through; so that one of the last operations consists in tearing off the redundant part, which by that means leaves an edging of beaver round the external face. When the hat is completely finished, the crown is tied up in gauze paper, which is neatly ironed down. It is then ready for the subsequent operations of lining, &c. for sale.

These hats are, in the trade, commonly called stuffy-hats; another kind much in wear, but of course inferior in quality, are called
plate-hats: they consist, in the interior, of wool, and are merely covered with a better material on the outside. The commonest
hats of all, are called cordies; they are made wholly of wool, or some such coarse material. Another kind of hats is latterly got up in the trade, called castor-hats, but we believe this only a name adopted to set off the article, rather than as conveying the quality absolutely designed by the term, castor being merely the Latin word for the beaver.

Silk hats have also within these few years come into wear. They are formed of a stout oil case, and the fine pile of the silk is fixed
by some process of glueing, or gumming, on the outside. They are very neat, and have the advantage of being water-proof, but the
silk, without great care, soon wears off, and the hat immediately loses its beauty.

Hats of the finest quality, are made in large quantities in London, and also at some of our provincial towns : but the cordies are made in vast quantities at, and in the' neighbourhood of Bristol, as well as plate and castor hats. The cordies form a regular article of exchange with the London manufacturers for their stuff goods.

Hats are worn of various colours, but those most in use at present, am black, drab, and white. The white have a nap of rabbits' fur
selected from the skins. Drab hats are made of stuffs of a natural colour selected for the purpose.

The master Hat-Maker employs frequently a large capital and numerous hands. The journeyman's earnings are good ; but we fear,
as in numerous other trades, that his habits are not calculated to induce him to make the most of them.