* * * * * _Importers_, _Exporters_, _Bleachers & Dyers_ * * * * * _of all kinds of_ _Chinese and Japanese_ _Straw Plaits_ _for_ _Hat Manufacture_ * * * * * Luton, Bedfordshire ENGLAND FOREWORD It will be noticed throughout this book that the author has deviated from the dictionary methods of spelling words illustrative of the action of _plait_. The _Oxford Dictionary_ reads-- “_Plait_ (pleit, ploet, plit) ... _see_ also _plat_.” “_Plat._ To form hats, etc., is now a less usual spelling than _plait_.” “_Plat-ting_, the action of _plat_.” Nuttall gives the pronunciation of _plait_ as plate, and that of the action word _plaited_ as _plated_. In the district where the manufacture is sufficiently ancient to have established a claim to its regular pronunciation, _plait_, as it is invariably spelt, has always been pronounced _plat_, and the action words _plat-ter_, _plat-ted_, and _plat-ting_. That this is not a local solecism of pronunciation is proved by the renderings given under the headings _plat_ and _platting_ in the _Oxford Dictionary_, and further, a literary and ancient example can be found in “A Lover’s Complaint,” where Shakespeare speaks of “a plat-ted hive.” The author thinks it is time some definite method, in proper accord with the custom of the industry, should be adopted, and he proposes a precedent, which he claims to be well founded and sensible, viz., to continue to use the word _plait_ (pronounced _plat_) as the substantive, and to establish the spelling _plait-ter_, _plait-ted_ and _plait-ting_ as designations of the action words properly interpreting the universal pronunciation. I should like to express grateful thanks for assistance and information given me in the course of my work, to Messrs. Murry Barford (Mayor of Luton), of Barford & Sons, Luton; Percy Currant, of Currant & Creak, Luton; Henry George Draper, of Walsh & Sons, Luton; George Field, of Luton; Henry Gregory, of Gregory & Sons, Barbican, London, E.C.; Charles Hubbard, of Luton; Thomas Mann, of Vyse Sons & Co., Luton; James Saunders, F.L.S., of Saunders & Son, Luton; Frank E. Shoosmith, of Luton; John Irving Wright, J.P., of Luton; all of whom have intimate knowledge of the straw trade and its machinery; and to Mr. T. Maw, Librarian Luton Public Library. The help of these gentlemen has materially added to the correctness of many details, of which my knowledge was uncertain. HARRY INWARDS Luton. _31st March, 1922._ CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE