being damped, the workman spread over it a covering of this lap,
and by moistening and gentle patting with a brush the cut ends
of the hair penetrated and fixed themselves in the felt body. The
hat was then put into a coarse hair cloth, dipped and rolled in
the hot liquor until the fur was quite worked in, the cotton being
left on the surface loose and ready for removal. The blocking,
dyeing and finishing processes in the case of beaver hats were
similar to those employed for ordinary felts, except that greater care
and dexterity were required on the part of the workmen, and further
that the coarse hairs or kemps which might be in the fur were cut off
by shaving the surface with a razor. The nap also had to be laid in
one direction, smoothed and rendered glossy by repeated wettings,
ironings and brushings. A hat so finished was very durable and
much more light, cool and easy-fitting to the head than the silk hat
which has now so largely superseded it.
The first efficient machinery for making felt hats was devised in America, and from the United States the machine-making processes were introduced into England about the year 1858; and now in all large establishments machinery such as that alluded to below is employed. For the forming of hat bodies two kinds of machine are used, according as the material employed is fur or wool. In the case of fur, the essential portion of the apparatus is a “former,” consisting of a metal cone of the size and form of the body or bat to be made, perforated all over with small holes. The cone is made to revolve on its axis slowly over an orifice under which there is a powerful fan, which maintains a strong inward draught of air through the holes in the cone. At the side of the cone, and with an opening towards it, is a trunk or box from which the fur to be made into a hat is thrown out by the rapid revolution of a brushlike cylinder, and as the cloud of separate hairs is expelled from the trunk, the current of air being sucked through the cone carries the fibres to it and causes them to cling closely to its surface. Thus a coating of loose fibres is accumulated on the copper cone, and these are kept in position only by the exhaust at work under it. When sufficient for a hat body has been deposited, it is damped and a cloth is wrapped round it; then an outer cone is slipped over it and the whole is removed for felting, while another copper cone is placed in position for continuing the work. The fur is next felted by being rolled and pressed, these operations being performed partly by hand and partly by machine.
In the case of wool hats the hat or body is prepared by first carding in a modified form of carding machine. The wool is divided into two separate slivers as delivered from the cards, and these are wound simultaneously on a double conical block of wood mounted and geared to revolve slowly with a reciprocating horizontal motion, so that there is a continual crossing and recrossing of the wool as the sliver is wound around the cone. This diagonal arrangement of the sliver is an essential feature in the apparatus, as thereby the strength of the finished felt is made equal in every direction; and when strained in the blocking the texture yields in a uniform manner without rupture. The wool wound on the double block forms the material of two hats, which are separated by cutting around the median or base line, and slipping each half off at its own end. Into each cone of wool or bat an “inlayer” is now placed to prevent the inside from matting, after which they are folded in cloths, and placed over a perforated iron plate through which steam is blown. When well moistened and heated, they are placed between boards, and subjected to a rubbing action sufficient to harden them for bearing the subsequent strong planking or felting operations. The planking of wool hats is generally done by machine, in some cases a form of fulling mill being used; but in all forms the agencies are heat, moisture, pressure, rubbing and turning.
When by thorough felting the hat bodies of any kind have been reduced to dense leathery cones about one-half the size of the original bat, they are dried, and, if hard felts are to be made, the bodies are at this stage hardened or stiffened with a varnish of shellac. Next follows the operations of blocking, in which the felt for the first time assumes approximately the form it is ultimately to possess. For this purpose the conical body is softened in boiling water, and forcibly drawn over and over a hat-shaped wooden block. The operation of dyeing next follows, and the finishing processes include shaping on a block, over which crown and brim receive ultimately their accurate form, and pouncing or pumicing, which consists of smoothing the surface with fine emery paper, the hat being for this purpose mounted on a rapidly revolving block. The trimmer finally binds the outer brim and inserts the lining, after which the brim may be given more or less of a curl or turn over according to prevailing fashion.
Silk Hats.—The silk hat, which has now become co-extensive with civilization, is an article of comparatively recent introduction. It was invented in Florence about 1760, but it was more than half a century before it was worn to any great extent.
A silk hat consists of a light stiff body covered with a plush of silk, the manufacture of which in a brilliant glossy condition is the most important element in the industry. Originally the bodies were made of felt and various other materials, but now calico is chiefly used. The calico is first stiffened with a varnish of shellac, and then cut into pieces sufficient for crown, side and brim. The side-piece is wound round a wooden hat block, and its edges are joined by hot ironing, and the crown-piece is put on and similarly attached to the side. The brim, consisting of three thicknesses of calico cemented together, is now slipped over and brought to its position, and thereafter a second side-piece and another crown are cemented on. The whole of the body, thus prepared, now receives a coat of size, and subsequently it is varnished over, and thus it is ready for the operation of covering. In covering this body, the under brim, generally of merino, is first attached, then the upper brim, and lastly the crown and side sewn together are drawn over. All these by hot ironing and stretching are drawn smooth and tight, and as the varnish of the body softens with the heat, body and cover adhere all over to each other without wrinkle or pucker. Dressing and polishing by means of damping, brushing and ironing, come next, after which the hat is “velured” in a revolving machine by the application of haircloth and velvet velures, which cleans the nap and gives it a smooth and glossy surface. The brim has only then to be bound, the linings inserted, and the brim finally curled, when the hat is ready for use.
HATCH, EDWIN (1835–1889), English theologian, was born
at Derby on the 14th of September 1835, and was educated at
King Edward’s school, Birmingham, under James Prince Lee,
afterwards bishop of Manchester. He had many struggles to
pass through in early life, which tended to discipline his character
and to form the habits of severe study and the mental independence
for which he came to be distinguished. Hatch became
scholar of Pembroke College, Oxford, took a second-class in
classics in 1857, and won the Ellerton prize in 1858. He was
professor of classics in Trinity College, Toronto, from 1859 to
1862, when he became rector of the high school at Quebec.
In 1867 he returned to Oxford, and was made vice-principal of
St Mary Hall, a post which he held until 1885. In 1883 he was
presented to the living of Purleigh in Essex, and in 1884 was
appointed university reader in ecclesiastical history. In 1880
he was Bampton lecturer, and from 1880 to 1884 Grinfield
lecturer on the Septuagint. In 1883 the university of Edinburgh
conferred on him the D.D. degree. He was the first editor of
the university official Gazette (1870), and of the Student’s Handbook
to the University. A reputation acquired through certain
contributions to the Dictionary of Christian Antiquities was
confirmed by his treatises On the Organization of the Early
Christian Churches (1881, his Bampton lectures), and on The
Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages on the Christian Church
(the Hibbert lectures for 1888). These works provoked no little
criticism on account of the challenge they threw down to the
high-church party, but the research and fairness displayed were
admitted on all hands. The Bampton lectures were translated
into German by Harnack. Among his other works are The
Growth of Church Institutions (1887); Essays in Biblical Greek
(1889); A Concordance to the Septuagint (in collaboration with
H. A. Redpath); Towards Fields of Light (verse, 1889); The
God of Hope (sermons with memoir, 1890). Hatch died on the
10th of November 1889.
An appreciation by W. Sanday appeared in The Expositor for February 1890.
HATCH. 1. (In Mid. Eng. hacche; the word is of obscure
origin, but cognate forms appear in Swed. häcka, and Dan.
hackke; it has been connected with “hatch,” grating, with
possible reference to a coop, and with “hack” in the sense
“to peck,” of chickens coming out of the shell), to bring out
young from the egg, by incubation or other process, natural or
artificial. The word is also used as a substantive of a brood of
chickens brought out from the eggs. “Hatchery” is particularly
applied to a place for the hatching of fish spawn, where the
natural process is aided by artificial means. In a figurative
sense “to hatch” is often used of the development or contrivance
of a plot or conspiracy.
2. (From the Fr. hacher, to cut, hache, hatchet), to engrave or draw by means of cutting lines on wood, metal, &c., or to ornament by inlaying with strips of some other substance as gold or silver. Engraved lines, especially those used in shading, are called “hatches” or “hachures” (see Hachure).
3. (O.E. hæc, a gate, rack in a stable; found in various Teutonic languages; cf. Dutch hek, Dan. hekke; the ultimate origin is obscure; Skeat suggests a connexion with the root seen in “hook”), the name given to the lower half of a divided
