Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-26
RABBIT FUR In HATS.
The Finest Felt Is a Product From
the Pests of Australia.
NO THEORY ACCOUNTS FOR G0UT.
Vibrstory Appliance That's Successful In
Curing Deafness
THE RUBBER BASE IN CHEWING GUN
0 THEORY ACCOUNTS FOR GOUT.
THE RUBBER BASE In CHEWING GUN
WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPArcH.1

WRITTEN FOR THE DrsPATcH.1
Great improvements have been made Of
late years in the felting industry. Felt is
composed of wool, fur or hair, of which
the fbers are so entangled and interlaced
that they cannot readily be separated, and
this is done without spinning or weaving.
There is tradition that felt was discovered
by St. Clement while on q pilgrimage.
Having put bat of carded wool into each
shoe to save his feet from blistering, he
found at his journeys end that moisturs
and friction had converted the wool into
felt Its use for caps, hosiery, foo- cloth,
cloaks and tents has long been known in
the East BY the nomads of the desert.
At present it is largely made from waste
wool, which is first deprived of its ell, then
carded and placed in a machine. Here it Is
kept wet with hot water and subjected to
process of beating by which the fbres are
made to move upon cash other until the
interlocking of their parts and the curling Of
the fiber itselfunite the whole into compact
sheet of felt. The ''fulling" OF cloth is but
a partial felting of wool already woven.
This felted wool is used for carpets, carpet
covers, coarse hats, carriage Innings, pads in
saddlery, shoulder pads for mems clothing,
slippers and shoes and even for cloaks and
other garments. The cheapest wooden rags
and other articles are worked into felt for
covering steam boilers, although felt is
gradually being superseded for that purpose
BY asbestos. Roofing felt is a coarse kind,
usually coated and filled with coal tar, and
sometimes with tar and powdered slate.
Felt stifened with dextrine is used for max
ing surgeons splints.
By far the most important use to which
felt is put is that of making hats, and David
Mandel, Jr, has recnntly given an interest
ing description OF the process. Technically
felt hats are of three kinds, 'plain soft"
'plain hard' and mapped" or "ruffed"
The quality of felt hats has wide range,
and IN the finer and more expensive quali-
ties the entire body is composed of fur. For
commoner qualities a mixture of fur and
Saxony wool is used, and for the lowest
kinds wool alone is employed The fur
used by hatters consists principally of the
hair of rabbits Technically called coneys)
and hares, with some proportion of nutria,
musquash and beaver hair, and generally
any parings and cuttings that can be OBJ
tanned from furriers. Furs intended for
felting are deprived of their long, coarse
hairs, after whicn they are treated with a
solution of nitrate of mercury, an operation
called carroting or ''secretage," which
greatly increases the felting properties of
the fur. The fur is then cut by hand or
machine from the skin, and in this state it
is delivered to the hatmaker Rabbit fur
for hat making now comes in large quanti-
ties from Australia, and 1T is also largely
collected in the United Kingdom and in
Northern Europe. A considerable amount
of rabbit fur is exported from Great Britain
to the United States.