A Treatise on Hat-Making and Felting: Including a Full Exposition of the Singular Properties of Fur, Wool, and HairThomson, John, hatter
History
A Treatise on Hat-Making and Felting: Including a Full Exposition of the Singular Properties of Fur, Wool, and Hair
Thomson, John, hatter
Hats
A given quantity of wool calculated for one pair of shoes is weighed
out, which is divided into four equal portions, two of them for each
shoe. One at a time is laid upon the hurdle, and with the proper bow
it is bowed as if for a hat, and disposed of in exactly an equilateral
triangle, which being gathered together with the basket, is pressed,
and temporarily solidified, laid aside, and the other portion treated
in the same manner. A piece of coarse brown paper is now folded into a
triangular shape, a little smaller than the bats just bowed; all the
three edges are to be folded together with the paper inclosed. The use
of the inclosed paper is to prevent the inner surfaces from felting
together, and to keep the inside open. The intended shoe is next
lapped in a sheet of cloth, and hardened at the hot basin (the basin
is a disk of solid iron with a fire beneath). Water sprinkled on the
sheet when turned upon the basin, sends steam all through the mass, and
when rubbed slightly by hand, friction is communicated to the surface
fibres, which in a short time become smooth, when the position of the
triangular wool should be changed and the rubbing continued. A few
crossings and rubbings give it a consistence sufficient for handling at
the plank kettle, where we shall suppose both shoes to have arrived.
The felting operation at the kettle is performed in quite the same
manner as that of a hat, by pressing, rolling, folding, and unfolding,
&c., with its dippings into the hot water, until the material has
assumed a hardness and solidity quite astonishing to the casual
observer.
This operation finished, the shoe still in the triangular shape, one
corner is now to be cut off to make an opening, and the confined paper
taken out, which is quite a soggy spongy lump of pulp. The mate to
this shoe having been advanced to the same forwardness, they are to be
pulled upon their respective lasts and dried, and perhaps dyed, after
which they are pounced, and finally trimmed.
Printers' Sheets.
The making of _sheet_ felt for calico and other printers is a business
that fell into the hands of the hatters at the introduction of the
water-proofing of hats, as previous to that time the thick stout old
hats of former times were quite sufficiently thick for the fittings of
their blocks, so that when no more of them could be gotten, recourse
was had to the new article, although it should be at a slight sacrifice.
Felt is employed in this business because of the facility with which
it lifts and carries from the color sieve, the colors that are to be
applied to the cloth. Wood and Copper blocks or rollers require two
different thicknesses of felt, and though various qualities are made,
a solid body and clear smooth surface and edge when cut and pounced by
the block-cutter, are absolutely necessary, as otherwise, a ragged edge
to the printed figures on the cloth will be the result.
The following makes a very good article:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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