A most important part of the industry is that which actually forms another trade in itself, viz., that of blockmaking. Every shape requires its individual block of wood, iron or other material, in order that repetitions of the shape may be identical in outline and form. The earliest British “block” was that which undoubtedly gave the name to its successors. It was simply a block of wood formed from the trunk of a suitable sized tree, mounted on legs like a vaulting horse, and with ends bluntly pointed to the desired form, so that two operatives could be at work simultaneously. That primitive method was quite inadequate when fashion began to ask for shape variations of such a character as to be impossible to produce on the tree trunk, and an industry gradually grew up, which has attained quite large proportions, solely for the making of wooden and other blocks for the use of the straw worker. The exact shape having been determined on, models either of drawings to scale, or of templates of suitable material, or of the actual hat produced either by sewing the pattern in some adaptable plait, or by buckram or sparterie duly shaped, or by forms of wire bent to make outlines of the design sufficient for the blockmaker. These are the methods adopted when some novelty evolves, of which there is no previous pattern, but the great bulk of models put into the hands of the blockmaker are the actual hats required, that have been already made by some one else, but which the manufacturer desires to copy. As the Patent or Registration Laws do not afford sufficient protection to the creator of the shape or design, it will be understood that the finished hat is most often the model for the blockmaker.