Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1851-08-23
NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER.
EDITORS CORRESPONDENCE.

d NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER.
EDITORS CORRESPONDENCE.
The Hassrads ofNso YoykBsrr and st. Johns establish
nents for making hat bodies The entire reUoiOn g
ctsd IN the their patent n'acaines-
Bee5e Co.'S celebrated hat faet0ry' 1nsr Methods and
s R NV YoRx, AusUsr IA, 1851.
There il no article for the superior manufacture OF which
New York distinguished than that OF the hat as her
rspdy exports of bats to all quarters of the globe
,sses Even as late years ago the finest hats
in this country were imported from England and France
prices double those to which American in their
fabrication have brought them down. Then dollars
the sum asked on both sides Of the Atlantic for fashionable
beaver Now few in either hemisphere be induced
crown themselves with fur hats except of the shtest
description when silk plush haiti to be obtained The in
PRODUCTION Of the latter may be said to have drvents uncouh
heavy and less durable rival entirely oct Of the market
The plush hat is French invention though Paris has al
ready yielded the mastery in It's manufacture to the United
States STILL however, furnishing with the principal novel
material used. There data at hand from which might
be enabled present your readers with statistics of the extent
Of the city hating and csppng business but may remark
that almost every traces Of its presence in
Of it, many stages, between the importation and
preparation Of the materials and the shipment of the
finished goods their sale At retail in nearly every street Of
New York. The arrangements for their manufacture
different the amounts Of capital employed by the master
wormen and their tastes manufacturing wholly for the
city trade while others make their goods wholly to be sold
abroad There arc establishments in Water street. for in
stance whersn. notwithstanding their importing house
appearance hundreds Of hands constantly making hats
not one Of which expected be within hundreds Of
miles Of this point. The increasing demand for New York
hats has greatly benefited the wages of the trade notwh
standing the great increase Of ouneymsn in the art who of
late years have ocked hher from France and England The
working haers Of the city receive average of about
81 per dem instead Of Sl25, the average Of their wages
five years ago. This fact will demonstrate to the Of
business the very Aourishng condition Of the trade in New
York Az pracsed here BY leading houses the business is
as different from the hating trade Of most other points
their respective products The house Of BEEBE & Co.,
No. l56 Broadway stands deservedy at the head Of the
New York hating establishments. shall describe its
rangement the best mode Of conveying to those dis
correct ideas Of the methods and condition Of the trade
in the commercial metropolis Of the New World in 1851
They (he Beebes in 1916 from Newark where they
carried wholesale hat factory for the supply of tho
Southern and Western markets almost exclusively and they
commenced city business in Broadway under the style
Beebe Coser, c. being we-known stylish city halter
Up to this time they have been burnt out twicen Septem
rising phoenix like after each fire. larger and more complete
in its arrangements and Aourshing AT present their
building Con the Of Broadway and Liberty sreets is
stories high, including the basement and is devoted
exclusively to their own purposes.
For their fur hats and silk habodies they purchase the
material with great in this market and send it out
other establishments here and in Newark undergo the
machine blowing operations by which is first cleared
Of ha and then formed into felt three high with
base wide the mouth of -four barrel These the
usy-celebrated shops of Bum g. ST. JoHS who owning
the wells patent" do Tin this city, the Of Hester
and Elizabeth Streets and in Newk) all the machine hat
body forming done for the New city trade These
gentlemen have already effected an entire revolution in the
method of making the hat body though the patent under
which they work granted late in S46 present
apprentice the hating trade in this city learns the old
process Of blowing," sssettng up" and stoppng off
by which previously all hat bodies formed in Europe
well this country. These processes conducted in
rooms from which the air carefully excluded which
dered both painful and dangerous to work it. jour
neyman could only form average five bodies per diem
by those methods whereas the Wells machines with Burr
& Taylors improvement (aso patented enables man and
two boys make three hundred per diem the work being
done far better than possible by hand Henry A. Wells
the original inventor New York reared hatte invent
ed the machine for making felt cloths and carpetng He
went to England with and having made the carpets
ing the paror floors of Windsor Castle the time of the
marriage Of victors sold his English patent for $780, 000
Having quickly spent this money, he returned New York.
and invented his hat dyormer which, before remarked
he sold to the present propeto of the patent Burr and ST.
Johns. Mr.. Wells who of the most talented me-
chanics this country has far produced died few years
since. This last machine destined prove among the
most valuable to society invented in this any other country
within the last quarter Of century Thus it enables the
hat body to make for lei such bodies for
mery cost 62A cents to form. They (Bur and ST. Johns
make the silk hat body for 81 cents for which formerly the
trade paid 37} In this estimate have reference
the cost of the material writing here do only of the labor
necessary As the fur and silk hats used in this country will
average quite per to its every white male nhabi-
tant over ten years Of age, the reader will perceive that the
invention of Wells with Bur's Improvement capable o.
saving million Of dollars annually country alone
To the trade Of this city is already saving wenigh
quarter OF million Of money yearly for during the year
1850 they made quite eight hundred thousand of their
machine-formed bodies. II M
The fur used in this establishment mostly from
abroad, in packages weighing from pounds Lepsc
the market in which the greater part prepared That Of
the Russia hare which used here in the fabrication Of all
their fine goods in greater less quantities. obtained BY
dividing the skin into three parts-back Sides and belly.
The hair then scrsped off by hand solution Of
fo quicksilver and water spread on it. which eats of
from the fur all animal grease other substances
The cut skins then passed through rollers revolving