The most recent development for ensuring the comfortable wear of the hardest boater is that of an American inventor. Although the making of straw hats from plait has been an established industry in the United States for at least half a century, and the amazing increase of the trade has been phenomenal, yet up to the present the name of an American has not been written very prominently on the pages of straw trade industry. It is true that the first machine to sew plait was the product of an American firm, but, it was not really successful until it had been altered and adapted by a Luton engineer; it is also true that Mr. Bodsworth, an American, introduced a straw sewing machine, but as previously stated, this was not a striking success, and although at the present time the principal machine in the trade is made by an American firm, it is the result of a Briton’s invention. And, therefore, it is with pleasure that in this record of the trade a real invention, which promises to be of the highest value to the boater trade, can be laid to the credit of a citizen of the United States. Mr. Herbert L. Moses, of Baltimore, has patented a device for attachment just inside the head entry of a boater which consists of a floating, flexible band, held in position about 1/8 of an inch from the hat by a series of stitches at about half an inch intervals all round the crown. The principle is that the stitches of cotton take the place of the spokes of a wheel running inside another wheel, where a thrust in one part is compensated for by a relaxation of the other parts. Over this is sewn the leather sweat-band, or head lining of any other nature, attached to the hat in the usual manner. The necessary machinery for the insertion of this flexible _conformateur_, for that is actually what it amounts to, is provided by means of mechanical attachments to any suitable sewing machine. These attachments form the subject of another patent by the same inventor, who has assigned his rights to Messrs. M. S. Levy & Sons, of Baltimore, U.S.A. The peculiar features of this patent are, first, the ease of fit conveyed to the wearer of the hat, and, second, the great yield given by the device obviates to the utmost extent the need for small intermediate sizes of the hats, for fitting the many-shaped heads of customers. Co-eval with the boater, and perhaps even a little earlier, was the “Galatea” or “Jack Tar” for boys. This hat was founded on the shape of the “Sinnett” rustic hat worn by sailors in the Navy for so many years. The model was in use at the end of the eighteenth century (as pictures of Lord Nelson’s sea fights clearly demonstrate) made both in straw and in tarpaulin. It was quickly adopted for boy’s wear, and for many years formed their summer hat. No boy could go to the seaside without one.