677
HAT
H A T
of England. Hastings lies 24 miles E. of Lewis, and 40 of Bright-helmstone.
I1AT, [hat, Saxon; hatt, German, ] a covering for the head,which is generally made of a mixture of Spanish wool with that ofhares, kids, rabbits, beaver, &c. Lately, feathers have been use-fully employed in the manufacture of this article. Hats are saidto have been first used by men, about A. D. 1400, for countrywear, riding, &c. But the hatters have a tradition among them,that the origin of their art, at least of that branch of it called felting,is much more ancient. The tradition is, that while St. Clement,the 4th bishop of Rome , was flying from his persecutors, his feetbecame blistered ; in consequence of which he was induced to putwool between the soles of his feet and the sandals which he wore.The consequence was, that in continuing his journey, the wool,by- the sweat and motion of his feet, became as completely felted asif wrought on purpose. When he afterwards settled at Rome , lieimproved the discovery, and hence the origin of felting and hut-niaking. The hatters in Ireland , as well as in several catholiccountries, still hold a festival on St. Clement’s day.
Hat-making. The materials being sorted out and mixed in va-rious proportions, and of different qualities, according to the valueof the article intended to be made; they' proceed to the first pro-cess, called bowing. The mattrial, without any previous prepa-ration, is laid upon a platform of wood, or of wire, somewhat morethan four feet square, called a hurdle. In the hurdle, if of wood,are longitudinal chinks for the purpose of suffering the dust andother impurities of the stuff, to pass through; a purpose still moreeffectually answered by the hurdle of wire. The workman is pro-vided with a bow, a bow-pin, a basket, and several cloths. Thebow is a pole of yellow deal-wood, between seven and eight feetlong, to which are fixed two bridges, somewhat like that whichreceives the hair in the bow of the violin. Over these is stretcheda catgut, about one-12th of an inch in thickness. The bow-pin isa stick: with a knob, and is used for plucking the bow-string.The basket is a square piece of ozier-work, consisting of openstrait bars with no crossing or interweaving. The cloths are linen.Besides these implements, the workman is also provided withbrown paper. The bowing commences by shovelling the ma-terial towards the right hand partition with the basket, uponwhich, the workman holding the bow horizontally in his left hand,and the bow-pin in his right, lightly places the bow-string, andgives it a pluck with the pin. The string, in its return, strikes partof the fur, and causes it to rise, and 11 v partly across the hurdle ina light open form. By repeated strokes, the whole is thus sub-jected to the bow ; and this beating is repeated, till all the origin-al clots or masses of the filaments are pertectly opened and obliter-ated. The quantity thus treated at once is called a batt, andnever exceeds hall the quantity required to make one hat. Whenthe batt is sufficiently bowed, it is ready for hardening; whichterm denotes the first commencement of felting. The preparedmaterial being evenly disposed on the hurdle, is first pressed downby the convex side of the basket, then covered with a cloth, andpressed successively in its various parts by the hands of the work-man. This pressure brings the hairs against each other, and mul-tiplies their points of contact; the agitation of them gives to eachhair a progressive motion towards the root; by means of this mo-tion the hairs are twisted together, and the lamellae of each hair,by fixing themselves to those of other hairs which happen to bedirected the contrary way, keep the whole in that compact statewhich the pressure makes it acquire. In proportion as the massbecomes compact, the pressure of the hands should be increased ;not only to make it more close, but also to keep up the progressivemotion and twisting of the hairs, which then takes place withgreater difficulty: but throughout the whole of this operation, thehairs fix themselves only to each other, and not to the cloth withwhich they are covered, the fibres of which are smooth, and haveno disposition to felting. See Hair. “In a short time the stud'acquires sufficient firmness to bear careful handling. I he cloth isthen taken off, and a sneet of paper, with its corners doubled in,so as to give it a triangular outline, is laid upon the batt, which lastis folded over the paper as it lies, and its edges, meeting one overfhe other, form aconical cap. The joining is soon made good bypressure with the hands on the cloth. Another batt, ready harden-ed, next lairl on the hurdle, and the cap here mentioned placedupon it, with the joining downwards. 1 his last batt being alsofolded up, will consequently have its place of junction diametri-
VCL, JJ, —NO. 101.
cally opposite to that of the inner felt, which it must thereforegreatly tend to strengthen. The principal part of the hat is thusput together, and now requires to be worked with the hands a con-siderable time upon the hurdle, the cloth being also occasionallysprinkled with clear water. During the whole of this operation,which is called basoning, the article becomes firmer and firmer,and contracts in its dimensions. It may easily be understood, thatthe chief use of the paper is to prevent the sides from felting to-gether. The hat thus basoned, they remove it to a large kind ofreceiver or trough, resembling a mill-hopper, going sloping ornarrowing down from the edge or rim to the bottom, which is acopper-kettle filled with water and grounds, kept hot for that pur-pose. On the descent or sloping side, called the plank, thebasoned hat, being first dipped in the kettle, is laid; and herethey proceed to work it, by rolling and unrolling it again andagain, one part after another, first with the hand, and then with alittle wooden roller, taking care to dip it from time to time, till atlength, by thus fulling and thickening it four or five hours, it isreduced to the extent or dimensions of the hat intended. The hat.thus wrought, they proceed to give it the proper form, which isdone by laying the conical cap on a wooden block, of the intend-ed size of the crown of the hat, and then tying it round with apackthread: after which, with a piece of iron or copper bent forthat purpose, and called a stamper, they gradually beat or driveit down all round, till it has reached the bottom of the block, andthus is the crown formed; what remains at bottom below the stringbeing the brim. The hat being now set to dry, they proceed tosinge it, by holding it over a flare of straw or the like; then it ispounced, or rubbed over with pumice, to take off the coarserknap ; then rubbed over afresh with seal-skin to lay the knap alittle finer; and lastly, carded with a fine card to raise the finecotton, with which the hat is afterwards to appear. Things thusfar advanced, the hat is thus sent, upon its block, and tied aboutwith a packthread as before, to be dyed. The dye being com-pleted, the hat is returned to the hatter, who proceeds to dry it,by hanging it in the top or roof of a stove or oven, at the bottomof which is a charcoal-fire: when dry, it is to be stiffened, whichis done with melted glue, or gum, Senegal applied thereon by firstsmearing it,- and beating it over with a brush, and then rubbingit with the hand. The next thing is to steam it on the steaming-bason, which is a little hearth or fire-place. When steamed suf-ficiently, and dried, they put it again on the block, and brushand iron it on a table or bench for the purpose, called the stall-board; this they perform with a sort of irons like those commonlyused in ironing linen, and heated like them, which being rubbedover and over each part of the hat with the assistance of the brush,smooths and gives it a gloss, which is the last operation ; nothingnow remains blit to clip the edges even with scissars, and sew a lin-ing to the crown.
Hats, Method of Dyeing. According to Dr. Lewis, thebest proportion of ingredients for dyeing hats is as follows: 100 lb.oflogwood, 121b. of gum, and 61b. of galls, are boiled in aproper quantity of water for some hours; after which, about 61b.of verdigris and 10 of green vitriol are added, and the liquor kept-just simmering, or of a heat a little below boiling: JO or 12 doz.of hats are immediately put in, eacli on its block, and kept downby cross-bars for about an hour and an half: they are then takenout and aired, and the same number of others put in their room.The two sets of hats are thus dipped and aired alternately, eighttimes eacli; the liquor being refreshed each time witli more of theingredients, but in less quantity than at first. This process (saysDr. Lewis) affords a very good black on woollen and silk stuffs aswell as on hats, as we may see in the small pieces of both kindswhich are sometimes dyed by the hatters.
Hats are also made for women’s wear, not only of the abovestuffs, but of chips, straw, or cane, by plaiting, and sewing thg,plaits together; beginning with the centre of the crown, and work-ing round till tiie whole is finished. They are also wove andmade of horse-hair, silk, &c.
HAT A, a large river of S. America, in Chili.
HATCHEL , or IIITCH EL, a tool with which flax and hempare combed into fine hairs. It consists of long iron-pins, or teeth,regularly set in a piece of board. There are several sorts of hatch-els, eacli finer than the other, with which flax and hemp are pre-pared for spinning.
HATCHES, in a ship, a kind of trap-doors between the main-8 K mast