is that used for feathers, and in 1878 at the Exposition Universelle, her exhibit in this direction was superior to that shown by any other house. It is now used for dyeing crinoline and those silk plaits which would be spoiled by heated baths. Such are the main features of dyeing, past and present, on the various plaits utilized in hat making, and in this art, for it is no less, England has shown the way to the rest of the world. To-day other countries, such as the United States, Switzerland, Germany, Italy and Japan, have achieved signal success in dyeing, in fact on some fibres a few foreign dyers are more successful than those at home. This is probably due to the careful skill of the dyer, combined with the more favourable nature of the water used. CHAPTER VII BLEACHING The other section of preparatory work for plait is that of Bleaching. The early efforts in this direction were of necessity very crude, and it is probable that imitation of the process used in some other industry, rather than invention for the particular commodity, provided the primary steps in straw bleaching. Naturally, the first thing that would occur to anyone would be to wash with water, and any grower of cereals, knowing the bleaching power of the sun, would probably combine these two elements in the endeavour to produce a better colour on the corn stalks. Then some attempts would be made with a cleanser such as soap, still utilizing the sun’s rays as bleacher after cleaning. As Italy is probably the home of bleaching operations, it is not difficult to imagine that, with the sulphur bleaching effects so easily seen round the Bay of Naples and in Sicily, it was not long before the fumes of sulphur were pressed into the service. And crude as these elements are, although the processes have radically changed, they remain practically the fundamentals of bleaching to-day.