THE CHEMISTRY

OF

HAT MANUFACTURING

LECTURES DELIVERED BEFORE THE HAT MANUFACTURERS' ASSOCIATION

BY

WATSON SMITH, F.C.S., F.I.C.

THEN LECTURER IN CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY IN THE OWENS COLLEGE, MANCHESTERAND LECTURER OF THE VICTORIA UNIVERSITY

REVISED AND EDITED

BY

ALBERT SHONK

WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON
SCOTT, GREENWOOD & SON
"THE HATTERS' GAZETTE" OFFICES
8 BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL, E.C.


CANADA: THE COPP CLARK CO. LTD., TORONTO
UNITED STATES: D. VAN NOSTRAND CO., NEW YORK
1906

[All rights remain with Scott, Greenwood & Son]

PREFACE

The subject-matter in this little book is the substance of a series ofLectures delivered before the Hat Manufacturers' Association in theyears 1887 and 1888.

About this period, owing to the increasing difficulties of competitionwith the products of the German Hat Manufacturers, a deputation of HatManufacturers in and around Manchester consulted Sir Henry E. Roscoe,F.R.S., then the Professor of Chemistry in the Owens College,Manchester, and he advised the formation of an Association, and theappointment of a Lecturer, who was to make a practical investigation ofthe art of Hat Manufacturing, and then to deliver a series of lectureson the applications of science to this industry. Sir Henry Roscoerecommended the writer, then the Lecturer on Chemical Technology in theOwens College, as lecturer, and he was accordingly appointed.

The lectures were delivered with copious experimental illustrationsthrough two sessions, and during the course a patent by one of theyounger members became due, which proved to contain the solution of thechief difficulty of the British felt-hat manufacturer (see pages 66-68).This remarkable coincidence served to give especial stress to the wisdomof the counsel[Pg vi] of Sir Henry Roscoe, whose response to the appeal of themembers of the deputation of 1887 was at once to point them toscientific light and training as their only resource. In a letterrecently received from Sir Henry (1906), he writes: "I agree with youthat this is a good instance of the direct money value of scientifictraining, and in these days of 'protection' and similar subterfuges, itis not amiss to emphasise the fact."

It is thus gratifying to the writer to think that the lectures have hadsome influence on the remarkable progress which the British Hat Industryhas made in the twenty years that have elapsed since their delivery.

These lectures were in part printed and published in the Hatters'Gazette, and in part in newspapers of Manchester and Stockport, andthey have here been compiled and edited, and the necessary illustrationsadded, etc., by Mr. Albert Shonk, to whom I would express my bestthanks.

London, April 1906.

[Pg vii]

CONTENTS