Other machinery used for making straw hats consists of a variety of “Blocking” machines. As will be shown hereafter, the most primitive means were adopted at first, but when the hydraulic type made its appearance it soon left no room for any other method. The appliances of Messrs Desbordes, Desireau, Légat, Beresford, Keston, Brochier and Stoffel (described in Chapter XII) have now rendered possible the blocking of all kinds of shapes and materials by machine. The plait mill, made of both wood and iron, completes the list of mechanical appliances used in making a straw hat. But at the present time all hat sewing machines, which for at least twenty-five years were driven by the foot power of the operator, are worked by mechanical power, either from a gas or steam engine, or by electrical dynamos. CHAPTER III STRAW PLAIT--METHOD OF PREPARING THE STRAWS The foregoing details, mainly devoted to the classical and historical side of straw hat manufacture, have demonstrated that the word “straw” is very elastic in its meaning when applied to its use for making hats. All classes of vegetable fibres have been included at some time or other in its embrace, and to-day the range of materials technically known as “straws” is larger than at any previous time. But as the industry of straw hat making centred itself in the locality of South Bedfordshire on account of the superior straw, and because the process of splitting and subsequent manipulation effected a total revolution in straw hat working, a description of the processes common in that district will, with a few minor exceptions, serve as an example for all plait making. The straws used in England are principally those of wheat, the exceptions are very small. They are specially grown by careful methods of tillage, and at the proper period are cut either with the sickle or with the scythe, the mowing machine being likely to bruise the stalks. They are tied into suitable bundles, considerably smaller than the usual sheaf, with the ears of corn as nearly level as possible; these are then cut off and used for grain purposes. The bundles of straw are carefully “combed” with a coarse wooden comb to rid the stalks of all the loose portions and thin blades. They are then cut into the standard lengths, about 10 ins. long, and are ready for sizing. This is effected by working through a series of sieves, with somewhat deep sides. As the straws have been carefully gathered with ears uppermost, it naturally follows that all the similar thicknesses of stalk are together, and therefore the process of sorting becomes a fairly speedy one. The cut lengths now become _straw pipes_, and they are first placed on the largest end in the largest grade sieve, the pipes smaller than the mesh fall through, leaving only those of the coarsest dimensions. This process is repeated until all the varying thicknesses of straw have been sorted into their respective sizes. They