Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1875-01-28
Human Hair Supplies.

For some years the London human
hair trade has derived its chief and most
highly-esteemed supplies from the open
cutters of the smaller Italian towns
specially and those of the rural districts
generally; and there is scheme at pres
ent under consideration in the Italian
Chambers for raising money to defray
the cost of extensive drainage works to
be carried to the smaller towns after the
larger cities have been drained in accord
ance with our own most approved mod
ern systems. Here, then, we have at
once an answer to the inquiry where our
hair comes from, and the indication of
an impending crisis by which the very
existence of the Italiano- British human
hair trade is threatened; for as soon as
rural Italy is subjected TO the control of
local boards of health there will be an
end 70 all further supplies from that quar-
ter
To make this ineligible we will briefly
explain the initiatory steps Of the process
by which Italian hair is converted into
English "capillaments." The Italian
women, like their sisters in other parts of
the world, have the practice of twisting
into coil all the hairs which become
detached from their heads in the opera
1 tlOu VI vi 1hCoC Aoiio)
in the total absence of house-drains, are
thrown with other refuse into the open
cutters, which seldom fail to supply an
/ Italian household with near and
ready means of disposing of the offcast-
ings of their habitaticns. This is the
first step in the proceeding. The next is
effected when the scavenger appears on
the scene with his springless cart, and
like another Neptune, trident in hand,
wades through the gutter and hooks up
every floating tangle of hairs. These he
carefully consigns to separate recep-
tacle and keeps by him--for ne well
knows their value-till the hair peddler,
technically known in the trade as 1.-THE
cutter" makes his next round and gath
ers in the seasons harvest, which is
forthwith conveyed to Genoa and other
seaport towns, where the coils are olsen
tangled and separated by children, who
are employed in the business, into
+" heads" and "tails," the former being
composed of short but even lengths. ar
ranged according to color, and the latter
of the longer lengths of hair. 1t is said
that of late years many hundred-weights
of these heads and tails, grimly charac-
| terized as {" dead hair" annually cross
the Alps, or round the Rock at Gibral-
ter, on their way to our more northern
centers of civilization, where existing
| systems of drainage present insuperable
obstacles to the retention and util-
ization of refuse hair. 1t is
obvious, therefore, that when rural
Italy is drained London society will find
| that one of it's most conspicuous and APP
parently most highly-prized means of
adornment has become scarce and costly
fNf ar MI ihlo uit In
| the continuance of the present lavish use
| the air. The fate OF the capillaments"
is evidently trembling in the balance.
1 1t may be said that there are other
sources of hair supply than Italian gut
ters- and that is true-but these sources
are not certain or profuse in more than
one or two directions. German peasant
heads have, indeed, long yielded good sup
/ plies of yellow flaxens;" but the peas
ant women OF the Empire are beginning
| to discard their hereditary costume and
to vie with the classes above them in
displaying redundant heads of hair, and
SO they no longer part as readily as of
| yore with their tawny locks. Great hopes
were entertained that Japan would be
found willing to include hair in her cx-
ports; but, even if she were, The tresses
of the daughters of the Flowery Land
have wire-like rightly in their texture
which units them for juxtaposition with
English heads Of hair. 1t is much fthe
same with other sources of human hair
supply. when put to the test of practical
applicability they are found wanting,
and If science had not come to the aid of
nature-with signal success in the case
of those apricot-hued golden reds and
ruddy yellows which have long been the
delight OF painters and poets Of the pre-
Raphael order-we could scarcely pre-
dict anything short of humiliation for
the trade. These special shades of vel
low-rcd hair are, however, manufactured
with perfection which shows what may
be done by skillful adaptation of ordi-
nary means in producing very charming
results; and we are indebted to the news
paper reports of case heard before Sir
X. Mains about five years ago for Clear
exposition of the methods employed. 1t
came out on the trial referred to that the
plaintiffs, who were at the head of
Manchester friZette and hair firm, sued a
rival manufacturer for infringing pat
ent obtained by them in 1867 for convert.
ing coarse Russian wool, known as
tops" into soft, lustrous, golden hair
They declared that they had, under the
advice of eminent chemists, adopted a
successful method of removing all oily
matters from these tops by sleeping them
in sulphate of copper, and that at the
cost of much time, money and thought
they had learned how to give to these
tops the requisite color by means of
catechu, logwood, sulphate of iron and
other ngredients-gelatine being used
to impart curled or crisped appearance
to the hair. 1t was made apparent in
the course of the trial that by the plain
tiff's process hair of any length could be
manufactured lin fact, any number of
| Lady Godivas might have been provided
by the Manchester patentees with the
requisite profusion of hair, not to men,
ton the wholesale manner in which they
were able to supply, among many other
curious hair products, luxuriant DISNEY
/ eled names intended as sorties de balm Tor
ladies at watering places The Vice
Chancellor remained obdurate to the
plea Of the plaintiffs for a monopoly in
the use Of Russian Tops" and dis
missed the bill with costs, stigmatizing
the plaintiffs conduct as uniustifiable.
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