revolving shears, similar to those used for dressing cloth, are employed for such skins as are uneven in the pelt, and which cut the pelt from the fur in slender shreds, being quite the reverse of the hand method, which cuts the fur from the pelt.

Stiffening and Water-Proofing Materials.

There is reason to suppose that when hats were first invented and long subsequently, the quantity of stuff or material weighed out for a single hat was of itself considered sufficient to stand unharmed the drenchings which it was likely to encounter.

However, such a hat in the warm season being unpleasant, a lighter body was proposed, to contain some stiffening substance as a substitute, and the attempt proved quite successful. A search was instituted for something suitable for the purpose that would harden the hat sufficiently, without increasing the weight, but rather diminish it.

In those times chemistry was comparatively unknown, and glue being at hand, our predecessors in the hatting trade commenced the stiffening of their hats with that material, which long continued the only article likely to succeed. Latterly, however, glue has become quite obsolete, having been entirely superseded by the various gums and resins, which, when properly prepared, enable the manufacturer to put into the market a much superior hat, and one more pleasant to wear, weighing 3 oz. which in former times would have weighed full half a pound.

The solubility of glue in water was its defect, and the ultimate cause of its rejection. Our spirited predecessors in the business, by a knowledge superior to that of their predecessors, coupled with a devoted spirit and unfailing resolution, after many vexatious trials but little known to our modern workers, succeeded in rendering a hat not only stout, light, and water-proof, but cheaper and more beautiful to look at, ventilated, and altogether pleasanter to wear.

Upon a retrospective view, and considering the total of these improvements, we may well excuse the many secrets and partialities existing in the trade, for before any new admixture of stiffening materials or method of applying them, whether before or after dyeing, &c., could be properly proved, many dozens of hats were under way. It required a length of time to enable a proper judgment of the experiment to be pronounced; thus, if unsuccessful, involving the character of the manufacturer as a tradesman, and his pecuniary affairs at the same time.

The result, however, was at last satisfactory, and now there are several methods of stiffening with a water-proof stiff, which possesses all the requisite qualifications.

There is no department in the hatting trade of more importance than that of stiffening, as the kind, quality, and quantity of the stiff must be regulated according to the country in which the hats are to be worn.

England, for instance, where there is so much moisture in the atmosphere, requires a much harder stiff than we do in America. American manufacturers finding that shellac possesses every requisite for both stiffening and water-proofing, now for their best hats use that gum only dissolved in alcohol.

20 lbs. orange shellac being dissolved with 5 gallons alcohol in a close vessel, cold,

attending carefully to stir it up repeatedly to keep it from lumping and sticking to the bottom. The vessel commonly is used in the form of a barrel or some sort of churn. When fully melted the stiff is ready for use by being thinned down to the desired consistency with additional alcohol and put into the hat with a stiff brush.

A cheaper, called alkali-stiff, and much used for inferior hats, is—

9 lbs. shellac, dissolved with 18 oz. of sal soda in 3 galls. water in a tin vessel.

The vessel with the water is set into another containing boiling water, and heated; the soda is introduced gradually, and is soon dissolved, and the lac is then put in and stirred occasionally for about an hour, by which time the lac will be dissolved. The whole is then left for an hour or two, when it may be taken out and set to cool. It is better if allowed to remain a few days after having been made. When used, it is reduced to the required strength with more water, a hydrometer being employed as a test.

The bodies are simply immersed in the liquor, and passed between a pair of rollers one by one, thereby sweeping off the superfluous compound, but leaving them completely saturated. The hats with this stiffening must be immediately and rapidly dried in the stove.

This stiff is rendered the more popular by adding 3 oz. of common salt to the mixture before using it, as the salt neutralizes the soda, and the hats may be blocked immediately after being stiffened, thereby saving time and dispensing with the use of the stove.

The two following receipts are given as good and reliable English methods of stiffening hats:—

• 7 lbs. of orange shellac.
• 2 lbs. of gum sandarac.
• 4 ozs. gum mastic.
• ½ lb. of amber resin.
• 1 pint of solution of copal.
• 1 gallon of alcohol or of wood naphtha.

The lac, sandarac, mastic, and resin are dissolved in the spirit, and the solution of copal is added last.

This is called spirit proof, and like our own is put into the body with a stiff brush, and, being fully saturated, is set to dry.

A cheaper stiffening, also like our own called alkali or water stiffening, is—

• 7 lbs. of common black shellac.
• 1 lb. amber rosin.
• 4 ozs. gum thus.
• 4 ozs. gum mastic.
• 6 ozs. borax.
• ½ pint solution of copal.

The borax is first dissolved in 1 gallon of warm water.

This alkaline liquor is now put into a copper pan heated by steam, or it may be set into another vessel containing boiling water, and the shellac, thus, and mastic added. This is allowed to boil for some time, more warm water being added occasionally, until it is of a proper consistence, which is known by a little practice. When the whole of the gums seem dissolved, half a pint of wood naphtha must be introduced, and also the solution of copal, the liquor should be passed through a fine sieve, when it will be perfectly clear and ready for use. This stiffening is used hot with the following preparations.

The hat bodies, before they are stiffened, should be steeped in a weak solution of soda, to destroy any acid that may have been left in them. If sulphuric acid has been used in the making of the bodies, after they have been steeped in the alkaline solution they must be perfectly dried in the stove before the stiffening is applied.

When stiffened and stoved, they should be steeped all night in water to which a small quantity of sulphuric acid has been added. This sets the stiffening in the hat body and finishes the process.

If the proof is required cheaper, more shellac and rosin may be introduced.

The Blowing Machine.

In the manufacture of the finest kinds of fur hats, namely, those with a flowing nap, the stuffs of which they are made must be thoroughly refined.

The clipping and pulling operations, to which the skins were subjected previous to cutting off the fur, never free the fur entirely of the coarse hairs that are intermixed with the finer; and to separate the coarse from the fine, the fur, as it came off the skin, is placed under the action of the blowing machine, which consists of a long,