1922—Millinery
by Charlotte Rankin Aiken, B.A.
Chapter VI—FELT HATS
Felting Properties of Wool and Fur
The basal fact upon which the whole process of making felt or articles of felt rests is the felting property peculiar to fur and wool; some kinds possess this felting property in a greater degree than others.
When wool or fur fibers are viewed under a microscope, many tiny scales are seen upon their apparently smooth surface; in fact, some fibers seem to be made up of scales, all pointing in one direction, like the ridges on a pine cone. Human hair is like that; if the fingers are run along a single hair, it will be found that they will slide down more smoothly than they will run up, on account of the scales. When fur fibers are put into hot water the scales expand and do not cling so tightly to the fiber. Then when the water is drained off and the scales close down on the hair again, they catch and interlock with scales on adjacent hairs, matting the fibers together more and more firmly as the process is repeated. This is why woolen goods continue to shrink unless properly handled in washing.
Sources of Felt
The raw material for making felt hats comes from many parts of the world, especially from Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Siberia, and Scotland. Fur is the material used in the better hats, but wool is more common and, in cheap grades, adulterants of cotton are used. Wool waste, or the "noils" as the factories call it, preferably of Australian or Merino wool, is the part of wool used for felt. It is bought in the greasy state from woolen factories.
Most of the fur was originally obtained from beavers, which were formerly found in numbers in the northwestern part of the United States and in Canada. They live in colonies, building dams across small streams by night, and concealing the entrances to their mud houses on the bank by having the opening several feet under water and the passageway sloping upward.
Other prized fur comes from the otter, mink, Russian hare, Saxony hare, Scotch hare, Scotch coney, and French coney (rabbit).
Muskrat and nutria have also been used. The muskrat or musquash, a native of Canada, is a cousin of the beaver, but smaller. He builds houses as does the beaver and is very prolific, The pelt is sold for furs as "River Mink" or "Hudson Seal." The fur of the nutria, or coypu rat, is imported from South America. It is most important to get the fur for hats at the proper season. It is much the best in the winter when it is not being shed for warm weather, and is called "seasoned" fur; at all other times it is known as "unseasoned." The thickest fur is obtained from animals which live in a cold climate.
First Process
Receiving the skins and preparing the fur for the hat-maker is almost a separate manufacturing process, performed by specialized factories.
The skins are first sorted by experts into eight or ten grades according to kind, color, or quality. They are brushed to straighten out the fur, and then, as there are stiff long hairs sticking up throughout the soft, downy fur, as many as possible are removed by plucking, a process which does not harm the fur.
Washing the Skins
The skins are then cleaned of the fatty matter, of which there is a large amount, in beaver and nutria skins especially. This process is known as "carroting," which is washing in a solution of mercury and nitric acid. "Carroting" is so called from the color it imparts.
Drying and Cutting
The skins are carefully dried, brushed, and then cut into narrow strips by a machine which at the same time shears the fur close to the skin. The pelt strips shorn of the fleece in this way are used for by-products such as glue and gelatin.
Sorting and Grading
The fur fleece is then sorted into grades according to quality. The choicest part of the fleece of land animals is the back, and of water animals the belly and cheeks; towards the outer edges of the skin the quality deteriorates. Sometimes the fur is stored to improve with age, and sometimes dyed after it has been carroted and graded. It may be mixed and blended also before being sold, a common mixture being one part uncarroted to two parts carroted. It is put into 5 and 10 pound bags and sold to the hat manufacturer.
The process from here on is identical for both fur and wool, and it should be remembered that the word "wool" may be substituted for "fur" throughout.
Mixing
When the fleeces are received by the manufacturer, the first process is weighing and mixing the grades to make hats of different qualities. This process requires expert knowledge. The short and the long fur are mixed together.
Cleansing the Fur
To mix the fur and to cleanse it two machines are used. The first is called a "devil." The fur is fed through it three times, being tossed and whirled and picked apart by revolving teeth and settling again in order to have the process repeated. The fur still has in it hairs, bits of pelt, coarse particles, and dust, which are next removed by a machine called a "blower." A cylindrical apparatus, inside of which a toothed cylinder revolves several thousand times a minute, tosses the fur upward where it is blown to another machine, while the impurities fall down upon a screen which sifts them. This operation is repeated several times.
Forming
The next process is called "forming." In preparation for it the exact weight of fur for a hat, in the case of a soft hat from three to five or six ounces, is put into a little box. A dozen of these boxes of fur are then put into a case, and from this point on the hats continue to be grouped by dozens.
An operator feeds the fur, box by box, through rollers, into the machine called a "former," which roughly forms or shapes the hat body. This machine, invented in 1846, reduced the cost of labor to about one-tenth that of the slow hand method. A part of the machine whirls and scatters the fur. A cone of thin copper plate, perforated with many tiny holes, is slowly revolved, while a suction fan revolving very swiftly—about 4,000 times a minute—below the cone draws the fur down evenly all over the cone's surface and mats the fibers together. Wet cloths are thrown over the cone, another perforated cone of the same shape is placed over it, and the whole is put into a tank of hot water for a minute and then passed to the next process.
Felting Process Begun
This matted fur, even as it comes from the hot water, is the beginning of the hat body. It is about three times larger, however, than the finished shape—some 32 inches deep and 36 inches in diameter.
The cone might be discarded at this point, for the process of felting has really begun. In order to harden the fur bodies enough to prevent breakage in later handling they are wrapped in a woolen cloth still attached to their cones, rolled gently by hand, squeezed, and pressed.
Sizing
The sizing process now begins; after it has been repeated the cones are reduced to one-third the original size. Three or four cones are dipped together into a tank of water kept at the boiling point by steam, and then rolled upon a sloping table, which is called a "battery."
The hats are taken out of the boiling water quickly, wrapped in burlap, and again rolled gently by hand on the table to dry them. As the process is repeated the hats may be treated less gently, since the felt continues to knit more closely together. The rolling tends to mat the fibers closely as they press together and spring back.
In cheaper grade hats this process is done by machine, but the hand method is considered better. The reduction in size and thickness must be uniform, and this is secured by shaking and turning the cones. By this method any imperfections are discovered and should be corrected at this point. Foreign particles which have escaped removal by previous cleansings must be taken out. The selvage is trimmed, and the size in which the hat is to be finished is marked on the edge by a notch.
Dyeing
The mixture of the different colors of the raw material results in a gray shade in the body, and if the hats are to be dyed, they are boiled several hours at this stage in a solution of the desired color. The dye is in large vats and is constantly stirred to give uniform color. In the drying room the hats are dried thoroughly at a high temperature. Coal tar products are generally employed for dyeing.
Stiffening
After dyeing, the hats are soaked in a solution of shellac in alcohol to stiffen them. A cheaper solution is of shellac and alkali, and since 80 per cent of the alkali may be recovered for use again, it is generally used. The hats are dipped again and again in the solution and rolled, and when thoroughly soaked the alcohol is allowed to evaporate or the alkali is counteracted by an acid. They are dried at a high temperature and steamed to draw the shellac into the interior of the fabric.
Stretching
The stretching department receives the hats next and places them on machines; here they begin to resemble the finished shape. The felt cone is worked slowly and gently onto a revolving block, shaped like the crown of a hat and called a "tip," and is forced down until it conforms to this shape. The tip-stretching shapes the crown only; after this the brim must be stretched. The hydraulic presses which then block the hats into shape often exert 500 pounds' pressure. These presses use metal dies of the exact shape of the finished hat.
Finishing Processes
Until this stage the process has been the same for both soft and stiff hats, but from now on the treatment is different. The soft hats are dried after the machine blocking, softened again by steam, shaped and stretched by hand over a die of the desired shape, ironed by hand with a hot iron, and put to cool in a cold water press. If the surface of the hats is too rough, all or part of the nap is removed by a machine with a sharp knife blade. The hat may be polished and rubbed to bring out the best effect of the dyes and to give a gloss. Some colors have a more glossy effect than others. The finishing includes trimming the brim. After an inspection the hats are packed in bandboxes and put in cases ready for shipment.
Different Grades of Felt
The largest business in felt hats is in men's wear, as there is a staple demand for men's felt hats. The amount of felt used in women's headgear varies in different years. There are many different grades and finishes of felt. Besides wool hats and fur hats there are mixtures in which the wool is usually underneath. Hats of shoddy, a combination of the cheapest wool and cotton, are made only when felt hats are so popular that a very low-priced felt is demanded by a part of the trade. The finish may be thick and downy, or like a velour with little nap. Long hairs are characteristic of the scratch or mohair finish.
Recently there has been shown a felt of a beautiful lustrous finish, sometimes called charmeuse. The distinguishing features are the slightly loose nap, and the polished surface, of the flat nap. The velour finish is dense and erect.
History of Felt Hats
Felt hat manufacture is a very old industry. According to one story it was originated by St. Clement, and the festival of the trade used to be held on his day, the twenty-third of November. Of course, until recent years all the operations were performed by hand, but modern machinery has usurped every process, although it is still believed that the hand process makes a somewhat better hat.
As a matter of fact felt hats date back to a time even earlier than the legend just referred to. One of the types of ancient Roman hats, called the "petasus," worn on a journey, was much like the felt hats now used.
Many traditions are connected with caps and hats. Among the Romans the cap was a symbol of liberty. Wearing a hat in medieval times also was a mark of distinction.
Hatters began to flourish in Nuremberg, Germany, as early as 1369. In 1453 the French had adopted headcovering generally. In colonial days the hatters of England complained of the competition of the American colonies, and ever since America has been very proficient in hat-making, although soft felt hats were not worn here until 1850.
Today some of the finest hats in the world are made in America. Centers of the industry are Philadelphia and Reading, Pa.; Orange and Newark, N. J.; Danbury, Bethel, and Norwalk, Conn., and Yonkers and Brooklyn, N. Y. At the present time many hats are exported from the United States.
