However, such a hat in the warm season being unpleasant, a lighter body was proposed, to contain some stiffening substance as a substitute, and the attempt proved quite successful. A search was instituted for something suitable for the purpose that would harden the hat sufficiently, without increasing the weight, but rather diminish it. In those times chemistry was comparatively unknown, and glue being at hand, our predecessors in the hatting trade commenced the stiffening of their hats with that material, which long continued the only article likely to succeed. Latterly, however, glue has become quite obsolete, having been entirely superseded by the various gums and resins, which, when properly prepared, enable the manufacturer to put into the market a much superior hat, and one more pleasant to wear, weighing 3 oz. which in former times would have weighed full half a pound. The solubility of glue in water was its defect, and the ultimate cause of its rejection. Our spirited predecessors in the business, by a knowledge superior to that of their predecessors, coupled with a devoted spirit and unfailing resolution, after many vexatious trials but little known to our modern workers, succeeded in rendering a hat not only stout, light, and water-proof, but cheaper and more beautiful to look at, ventilated, and altogether pleasanter to wear. Upon a retrospective view, and considering the total of these improvements, we may well excuse the many secrets and partialities existing in the trade, for before any new admixture of stiffening materials or method of applying them, whether before or after dyeing, &c., could be properly proved, many dozens of hats were under way. It required a length of time to enable a proper judgment of the experiment to be pronounced; thus, if unsuccessful, involving the character of the manufacturer as a tradesman, and his pecuniary affairs at the same time. The result, however, was at last satisfactory, and now there are several methods of stiffening with a water-proof stiff, which possesses all the requisite qualifications. There is no department in the hatting trade of more importance than that of stiffening, as the kind, quality, and quantity of the stiff must be regulated according to the country in which the hats are to be worn. England, for instance, where there is so much moisture in the atmosphere, requires a much harder stiff than we do in America. American manufacturers finding that shellac possesses every requisite for both stiffening and water-proofing, now for their best hats use that gum only dissolved in alcohol. 20 lbs. orange shellac being dissolved with 5 gallons alcohol in a close vessel, _cold_,