A machine, the principle of which was intended to apply to the making of buckram shapes, was also adopted by the straw trade. Its first adoption was due to the introduction of the felt hat manufacture into the districts hitherto peculiar to the straw hat making, but it was found to possess points of advantage in the blocking of certain materials. This machine has a “female” pan of metal into which a properly fitted “male” block, with the accurate amount of space for the material to be used, may enter, forming with the pan and the hat one solid piece. This “male” block is also of metal. They were first of iron and afterwards were generally of spelter or aluminium. In the particular case for which they were most extensively used, the hat was made of a cotton braid, the stiffening of which was effected by a shellac and methylated spirit mixture, as gelatine was not found entirely satisfactory. Both the “male” and the “female” blocks were heated by gas jets, and when the hat was still wet with the highly inflammable stiffening it was placed in position on the lower block, the other was adjusted to it, and when in proper place the heat of the blocks, or the light of the gas jets, fired the stiffening, which rapidly burned the spirit out, leaving the shellac or other resinous material in the fibres of the braid in sufficient quantity to render the hat hard enough for its purpose, and at the same time creating an almost waterproof fabric, that enabled the cotton to withstand the softening influences of damp weather. The operation was completed by releasing the movable block and taking out the hat.