Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/524

 510 HAT same author observes : " The hat was, I doubt not, made of various materials, and by no means seems to be a part of dress universally adopted; from its general appearance I have supposed it to have been made of skins with the shaggy part turned downward, and prob- ably it might often be so ; but they had also felt or woollen hats at this period (fellen hcet which their own records testify." About the middle of the 12th century one of the " nobels of the lande mett at Clarendom " is described by Froissart as wearing " a hatte of biever." The hat being the most conspicuous article of dress, and surmounting all the rest, it was natural to give to it special care and attention, to place in it showy plumes and jewels, and surround it with bands of gold and silver. To it were at- tached ornamental rosettes, sometimes designed as badges of honor or of office. Its form and sometimes color were also made to designate the rank and character of the wearer, as the monarch by his crown, the cardinal by his red hat, betokening a readiness .to spill his blood for the sake of Jesus Christ, and the court fool by the cap with a bell. In one form it served to distinguish the military officer, and in an- other the peaceful Quaker. Among the great variety of hats used by the English, the forms of which are preserved in old pictures, none combine the grace, elegance, and comfort of the soft hat of the Spaniards, which the latter have retained while the fashion of the English hat has been continually changing. The manu- facture of hats has been carried to perfection in the United States, where it was introduced .at an early date. The representations made by the London board of trade to the house of commons in 1732 refer to the complaints of the hatters in London at the extent to which the manufacture was carried on in New England and New York. Without including caps and straw hats, the kinds in general use may be classed as those which are felted throughout, and those which are made with a covering, usually of silk plush upon a prepared stiff body. In the former class are included the coarse qualities made entirely of wool mixed with hair and stiffened with glue ; those called plated, which are furnished with an external pile or nap of finer material than the body, and some- times water-proof stiffened before the nap is put on ; and those called short naps, in which some of the better class of fur is worked in the plating or nap, and all are water-proof stiffened. Beaver hats, formerly esteemed the best of all hats, had merely a nap of the fur of the beaver, which was felted into the body ; the best hats being finished with the finest fur taken from the belly and cheeks of the ani- mal, and the inferior qualities with that from the back. The soft genuine beaver hats, now rarely seen, were made upon a body of rabbits' fur. As beavers' fur became scarce, nutria was substituted for it, also the fur of the musquash, hare, and rabbit ; and for the body lambs 1 wool and that of the llama were used instead of rabbits' fur. Furs intended for felting are prepared in different ways. Hare skins are split open, then rubbed with a jagged knife blade called a rake to remove bits of fleshy matter adhering to the pelt. They are next damped on the pelt side with water, and being placed together in pairs, pelt to pelt, are pressed. They are thus made smooth and ready for shearing, by which the long coarse hairs are clipped close down to the fur. The angular projections and edges of the pelt are then trimmed off, a process called rounding. The fur was formerly cut from the skins by hand, and this method is still practised among some of the smaller European manufacturers ; but by the principal manufacturers, and in America by all, it is now cut by machines of American invention. The skin is held hori- zontally with the fur side down, a narrow edge of the pelt being pushed over a horizontal bed knife, which presses back the fur. Behind this bed knife a cylinder, provided with knives set obliquely, revolves with great rapidity. The edge of the pelt is caught between the descending knife and the bed knife, and cut off as by a pair of scissors; the line of fur attached to the strip is thus severed at the roots and falls on a surface placed to receive it. As strip after strip of pelt is thus cut off, the fur continues falling till the whole fleece lies compactly together. Rabbit skins are treated in a similar way, except that the long hairs, instead of being clipped, are pulled by catching each one between a knife blade and the thumb, which is protected by a leather cov- ering. Beaver and nutria skins require more care to remove the fatty and fleshy matters, and to cleanse them from grease, all which must be done before the long hairs are pulled. Nutria skins especially are loaded with fat upon the pelt, and the fur is filled with grease. Scrub- bing with a brush and free use of soap and boiling water are necessary to remove the lat- ter. Attempts have been made to remove the fur by chemical ingredients, but the effect of these has usually been to impair the felting property. But the application of dilute nitric acid to the fur before it is removed from the pelt is found to improve this property, probably by destroying the last traces of the grease. Skins that have been wetted with it are said to be " carroted," from the color it imparts ; they should be immediately dried by exposure to the heat of a fire, or by smoothing with a hot iron and drying in the sun. Rabbit and hare skins by long keeping are very liable to suffer injury from moths and other insects, and the former, especially if kept in large heaps, from the run- ning of the greasy matter among them, and becoming rancid, corroding the pelt itself. In England it is found that the strongest rabbit fur for felting is obtained from animals bred near the sea. The skins taken in the winter are far superior in quality to those obtained at other times, and are distinguished in the trade as seasoned, all others being called unseasoned.