About 1880 straw hat manufacturers, having also started the making of felt hats, for which a small steam jet in an enclosed box or vessel was necessary, found that this same “steam pot” (trade term) provided an easy means of softening the hat, for placing on the wooden block, and since that time the old method of softening has practically died out, with the exception of such plaits as would be injured by steam action. When the crown of the hat is in proper position on the block, it is covered with the “strainer.” This should be in a well wrung-out damp condition, and is held in its place by the left hand of the “blocker,” the ironing operative. With the box iron in his right hand, he evenly and with a slightly circular motion, keeping the iron on the hat, presses out any inequalities that may be left, but with such discretion as not to injure the design of the plait. This process continues until the “strainer” is dry, which indicates that all superfluous moisture is evaporated and that the material will stay permanently in the required form. Some plaits with prominent heads or fancy embellishments require two or more “strainers” or even a thickness of flannel between the iron and the hat to prevent bruising, but plaits such as these are generally “blocked” by being “steamed” (trade term), that is the shaping on the block is entirely done by the hand of the operator after the material has been softened in the “steampot.” When hats are, as they always were till about 1885, of “one piece” make, the crown having been finished, is taken off the wooden block and placed head downward in the “curler” or “brimmer” of wood. Either name sufficiently designates its form and use, and the “one piece” hat is carefully adjusted in the head entry, due regard being made to the contour of the base of the crown, and the arrangement of the first gores of the brim, so as to ensure a perfectly clean line of junction between the crown and the brim. The brim is then adjusted to the exact outline of the edge, and when true is “blocked” in a similar way to the crown. The two piece hats are done in the same way with, of course, the exception that the crown and the brim are blocked apart. It is, of course, obvious that only quite a small portion of some parts of the hats can be ironed at a time, the surface of the iron can only, at most, impinge on that amount which is parallel, and, therefore, the blocking of a crown with rounding top, bevelled edges and perhaps almost “O. G.” sides, is an operation needing considerable skill, for no lines must show, nor must there be any bruise marks, and yet at the same time there must be enough pressure to cause the material to assume and retain the required shape. [Illustration: Fig. 17 HAND BLOCKING With Iron Heated by Electricity]