a covering for the head, worn by the men throughout the western part of Europe. Hats are said to have been first seen about the year 1400, at which time they became use for country wear, riding, &c. F. Daniel relates, that when Charles II. made his public entry into Rouen, in 1449, he had on a hat lined with red velvet, and surmounted with a plume or tuft of feathers: he adds, that it is from this entry, or at least under this reign, that the use of hats and caps is to be dated, which henceforward began to take place of the chaperoons and hoods that had been worn before. In the process of time, from the laity, the clergy also took this part of the habit; but it was looked on as a great abuse, and several regulations were published, forbidding any priest or religious person to appear abroad in a hat without coronets, and enjoining them to keep to the use of chaperoons, made of black cloth, with decent coronets; if they were poor, they were at least to have coronets fastened to their hats, and this upon penalty of suspension and excommunication. Indeed the use of hats is said to have been of a longer standing among the ecclesiastics of Brittany, by two hundred years, and especially among the canons; but these were no other than a kind of caps, and from hence arose the square caps worn in colleges, &c. Lobeau observes, that a bishop of Dol, in the 12th century, zealous for good order, allowed the canons alone to wear such hats; enjoining, that if any other person come with them to church, divine service should immediately be suspended. Hats make a very considerable article in commerce; the finest, and those most valued, are made of pure hair of an amphibious animal, called the castor or beaver, frequent in Canada and other provinces of North America. See Beaver.
Method of making Hats. Hats are made either of wool, or hair of diverse animals, particularly of the castor, hare, rabbit, camel, &c. The process is much the same in all; for which reason we shall content ourselves to instance in that of castors.
The skin of this animal is covered with two kinds of hair; the one long, stiff, glossy, and pretty thin set; this is what renders the skin or fur of so much value; the other is short, thick, and soft, which alone is used in hats.
To tear off one of these kinds of hair, and cut the other, the hatters, or rather the women employed for that purpose, make use of two knives, a large one like a shoemaker's knife for the long hair; and a smaller, not unlike a vine knife, wherewith they shave or scrape off the shorter hair.
When the hair is off, they mix the stuff; to one third of dry castor putting two-thirds of old coat, i.e., of hair which has been worn some time by the savages, and card the whole with cards, like those used in the woollen manufacture, only finer; this done, they weigh it, and take more or less according to the size or thickness of the hat intended. The stuff is now laid on the hurdle, which is a square table, parallel to the horizon, having longitudinal chinks cut through it; on this hurdle, with an instrument called a bow, much like that of a violin, but larger, whose string is worked with a little bow stick, and thus made to play on the furs, they fly and mix together, the dust and filth at the same time passing through the chinks; this they reckon one of the most difficult operations in the whole, on account of the justness required in the hand to make the stuff fall precisely together, and that it may be every where of the same thickness. In lieu of a bow, some hatters make use of a sieve or screeve of hair, through which they pass the stuff.
After this manner they form gores, or two capades, of an oval form, ending in an acute angle at top; and with what stuff remains, they supply and strengthen them in places where they happen to be slenderer than ordinary; though it is to be remembered, that they designedly make them thicker in the brim, near the crown, than toward the circumference, or in the crown itself.
The capades thus finished, they go on to harden them into closer and more consistent flakes by pressing down a hardening skin or feather thereon; this done, they are carried to the bason, which is a fort of bench with an iron plate fitted therein, and a little fire underneath it; upon which laying one of the hardened capades, sprinkled over with water, and a fort of mould being applied thereon, the heat of the fire, with the water and pressing, imbodies the matter into a flight hairy fort of stuff or felt; after which, turning up the edges all round the mould, they lay it by, and thus proceed to the other: this finished, the two next are joined together, so as to meet in an angle at the top, and only form one conical cap, after the manner of a manica Hippocratis, or flannel bag.
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The hat thus basoned, they remove it to a large kind of receiver or trough, resembling a mill-hopper, going sloping or narrowing down from the edge or rim to the bottom, which is a copper kettle filled with water and grounds, kept hot for that purpose. On the descent or sloping side, called the plank, the basoned hat, being first dipped in the kettle, is laid; and here they proceed to work it, by rolling and unrolling it again and again, one part after another, first with the hand, and then with a little wooden roller, taking care to dip it from time to time, till at length by thus fulling and thickening it four or five hours, it is reduced to the extent or dimensions of the hat intended. To secure the hands from being injured by this frequent rolling, &c., they usually guard them with a sort of thick gloves.
The hat thus wrought, they proceed to give it the proper form, which is done by laying the conical cap on a wooden block, of the intended size of the crown of the hat, and thus tying it round with a packthread, called a commander: after which, with a piece of iron, or copper bent for that purpose, and called a flamber, they gradually beat or drive down the commander all round, till it has reached the bottom of the block, and thus is the crown formed; what remains at bottom below the string being the brim.
The hat being now fet to dry, they proceed to stinge it, by holding it over a flare of straw or the like; then it is pounded, or rubbed over with pumice, to take off the coarser knap; then rubbed over afresh with scalfskin to lay the knap a little finer; and lastly, carded with a fine card to raise the fine cotton, with which the hat is afterwards to appear.
Things thus far advanced, the hat is thus sent, upon its block, and tied about with a packthread as before, to be dyed. The dye being completed, the hat is returned to the hatter, who proceeds to dry it, by hanging it in the top or roof of a stove or oven, at the bottom of which is a charcoal fire; when dry, it is to be stiffened, which is done with melted glue or gum senegal, applied thereon by first smearing it, and beating it over with a brush, and then rubbing it with the hand. The next thing is to steam it on the steaming bason, which is a little hearth or fire-place, raised three feet high with an iron-plate laid over it, exactly covering the hearth; on this plate they first spread cloths, which being sprinkled over with water to secure the hat from burning, the hat is placed brim downwards thereon; when moderately hot, the workman strikes gently on the brim with the flat of his hand, to make the joinings incorporate and bind so as not to appear; turning it from time to time, this way and that way, and at last overturning and setting it in the crown. When steamed sufficiently, and dried, they put it again on the block, and brush and iron it on a table or bench for the purpose, called the flat-board; this they perform with a fort of irons like those commonly used in ironing linen, and heated like them; which being rubbed over and over each part of the hat, with the assistance of the brush, smooths and gives it a glois, which is the last operation; nothing now remaining but to clip the edges even with scissors, and sew a lining to the crown.
Dyeing Dyeing of Hats. The instructions of Mr Colbert direct hats to be first strongly galled, by boiling them a long time in a decoction of galls with a little logwood, that the dye may penetrate the better into their substance; after which a proper quantity of vitriol, and decoction of logwood, with a little verdigris, are added, and the hats continued in this mixture also for a considerable time. They are afterwards to be put into a fresh liquor of logwood, galls, vitriol, and verdigris; and where the hats are of great price, or of a hair which difficulty takes the dye, the same process is to be repeated a third time. For obtaining the most perfect colour, the hair or wool is to be dyed blue previously to its being formed into hats.—The present practice is more compendious, and affords, as we may daily see, a very good black. According to Dr Lewis, it does not materially differ from that of the Encyclopædia, which is as follows.
An hundred pounds of logwood, 12 pounds of gum, and five pounds of galls, are boiled in a proper quantity of water for some hours; after which, about five pounds of verdigris and ten of green vitriol are added, and the liquor kept just simmering, or of a heat a little below boiling. Ten or twelve dozen of hats are immediately put in, each on its block, and kept down by cross bars for about an hour and a half; they are then taken out and aired, and the same number of others put in their room. The two sets of hats are thus dipped and aired alternately, eight times each; the liquor being refreshed each time with more of the ingredients, but in less quantity than at first.
This process (says Dr Lewis) affords a very good black on woollen and silk stuffs as well as on hats, as we may see in the small pieces of both kinds which are sometimes dyed by the hatters. The workmen lay great stress upon the verdigris, and affirm that they cannot dye a black hat without it; it were to be wished that the use of this ingredient were more common in the other branches of the black dye; for the hatters dye, both on silk and woollen, is reckoned a finer black than what is commonly produced by the woollen and silk dyer.
Hats are also made for women's wear, not only of the above stuffs, but of chips, straw, or cane, by plaiting, and sewing the plaits together; beginning with the centre of the crown, and working round till the whole is finished. Hats for the same purpose are also wove and made of horse-hair, silk, &c.
Hat is also figuratively used for the dignity of cardinal, or a promotion to that dignity. In this sense they say, "to expect the hat; to claim, or have pretensions to, the hat," &c.
Pope Innocent IV. first made the hat the symbol or cognizance of the cardinals, enjoining them to wear a red hat at the ceremonies and processions, in token of their being ready to spill their blood for Jesus Christ.