The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1893-07-08
HOW FELT is MADE.

legend Says 81. Clement. the Uat-Nak
crs' Patron saint, Was Its Discovsrcr.
st. Clement, the patron saint of hat.
makers, and whose dry occurs N The
2sd of November. is siIn To haze acci-
Mentally discovered felt. Starting on a
pilgrimage. he put some wool between
the soles oi his feet and his sandals to
make his trip easier. The wool after
an interval became felt. owing To the
continued pressure TO which it WAS sub
jected by the feet of the saint. st.
Clement was not the first to discover
felt, rs it was really known long be-
fore his time. but the legend illustr, ties
the simple manner in which the mate
rial itself may he made.
Great improvements have been made
i of late years in the felting industry.
Felt is composed Df wool. fur or hair.
Of which the fibers are SO ~cntanglcl
and int'rlaced that they can not readi-
ly be separated. and this is done with
out spinning or weaving. Its use for
caps. hoiscry, floor cloth. cloaks and
tents has Icing bcen known in the east
by the nomads OF the desert. At pres
ent it is largely made from waste
wool, which IS first deprived of its
oil, then carried and placed in q ma
chine. Hers il is kept wet with hot
water and subjected to n process of
beating by which the fibcrs are made to
move upon each other until the inter
locking of their parts and the curling
of the fiber itself unite the whole into
n compact sheet of felt. The '.fulling"
| of cloth is but n plrtia! fclting of wool
already woven. This felted wool is
used for carpets, carpet covers, coarse
hats, carriage Innings, pads in saddleryr
shoulder pads for mems clothing. slip
pers 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felt is being gradually superseded for
that purpose by asbestos Roofing felt
is n coarse kind, usually coated and
filled with coal tar, and sometimes with
tar and powdered slate. Felt stifcned
with dcxtrine is used for making sur
geons splints- BY far the most i'm
portant use to which felt is put is that
of making hats. Technically. felt hats
are of three ~kinds-"pisin soft" 'piuin
hard" and mapped" or "ruffled." Tho
quality of felt hats has n wide range
and in the finer and moro expensive
qualities the entire body is composed of
fur. For comrnon~ NJ qualitiess mixture
pf fur and Saxony wool is used, and for
the lowest kinds wool alone is en-
ployed. The fur used by hattcrs m
sists principally OF the hair Of rabbits
technically called concvsl and i~tsres,
with some proportion of n%utria, mus-
quash and beaver hair, and generally
the parings and cuttings that can bc
obtained from furriers. Eurs intended
for Slting are deprived Of 'tlIcir long.
coarse hair, after which they are treat
cd with a solution OF nitra%e of mcr-
curry, an operation called carrotia1 or
"~secretage," which greatly increases
the fciting 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 hat-naker. Rabbit fur
for hat-making now comes in large
quantities from Australia. and it is also
largely collected in the United King
dom in northern Europe. A consider
able amount of rabbit fur is exported
from Great Britain to the United States.
-Fashion and Tailoring.