however, is common to all systems, and further is a necessity for other purposes such as heating the various work and drying rooms, and also for melting and keeping warm the gelatine used for stiffening, etc. But compared with the Desbordes and Keston models, this system is not so well adapted for men’s boaters work. Up to about 1910, the great bulk of rustic boaters was blocked on presses of the Keston type, and even to-day boater makers still make use of them. The hard-natured straws that are generally utilized for boaters require heavy pressure in varying degrees according to the different varieties of plaits, and in this respect the suction method is not sufficient for the high powers. [Illustration: Fig. 19 MACHINE BLOCKING By Press of “Brochier” Type] About 1910 another French engineer put a blocking machine on the market with special claims for boater work. M. J. B. Brochier, of Lyons, introduced the model now known wherever boaters are made by the name of “Carre Vive,” of which the free translation, “sharp edge,” sufficiently indicates the peculiar claim of the inventor. This machine in structure is a combination of some other blocking presses, but with a special contrivance for creating the extra sharp edge, and of extra lightness and simplicity in working. It has the guillotine frame of the machine mentioned for blocking cotton braids stiffened with shellac stiffening, the pan chamber heated by steam, the india-rubber bag for hydraulic pressure, and the bag-chamber moving vertically on uprights of the “Keston” or “Beresford” type. But it differs from that machine in, first, the bag chamber is really a plate with a hole in the centre to carry the bag, and is only of the most meagre dimensions of the least possible weight. Second, this is caused to descend into the pan chamber by a lever actuated by the operator’s foot, the little weight of it is balanced at the end of a lever with a small counterweight, obviating the overhead chain and pulley. Third, the fixed contact with the pan chamber is made by means of a screw wheel, a small turn of which when the hat and bag are in position, firmly tightens and locks the two portions together. Fourth, the special crown edging action is done by a rising and falling movement made by the bottom of the boater pan, which is actuated by means of a lever working on a ratchet by which the pressure can be retained until the hat is ready for removal. This model is now extensively used for boaters, although at the moment of writing that extreme sharpness, desirable in boaters a few years ago, is not required in the season’s models for the home trade, the crown edges of which are an almost imperceptible bevel. These practically exhaust the machines for blocking, but there are in use throughout the trade blocking presses for the brims of boaters and of some varieties of hats with rolling brims. These consist either of a flat metal plate, or open