The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-10-20
RABBITS into FELTS.
ALL FELT HATS ARE
MADE

pIishad Is q Complicated one-Best
Fur From the Back.
The days have come when you might
find yourself, almost any time, before
mirror at your hatter's, solemnly try
ing on a fall derby or q silk hat or an
alpine, according to your tastes, in
clinations. or peculiar style of beauty
There are crosses of winter hats at
your hatter's now, you will notice. of
all kinds. colors, shapes and sizes. And
all over the country there are hum
dreds of thousands of other hats wait
ing for the public to tire OF Panama
and straw. or for chillier weather to
call public attention to the need of
something warmer than grass for head
gear.
You will stand in front of a mirror
and the polite salesman will affix a
hat on your brow as though you were
undergoing a coronation, and then,
when you have regarded it gloomily for
! a while, if you are fiattered by your re-
Election you will take it, and pay for it,
let us hope. and maybe wear it out of
the shop, self-conscious, as BELTS per-
son who has just changed from straw
to felt
| But wait minute, as you stride up
| the street. perfectly sure that every
one is looking at your brand new head
gear. Let us ask you few questions
about the hat you have just purchas-
ed.
What is it made of? Felt? Well,
and what is felt made of? How did felt
become felt and how did felt become a
hat?
| OF course you are more interested in
| the way your new hat becomes you
than in the way it was made, as might
| have been expected. But there are a
number of rather interesting points
about the manufacture of a felt hat
| that are somewhat of a surprise to hat
buyers. You know how shoes are
tanned and cut and made, very likely,
and how clothes are woven and fitted
and sewn, but a hundred to one you
haven't an idea in the world about the
process by which that stiff black derby
got it's shape, gloss texture and body,
and how it was evolved from a rab-
bit.
| There's another thing you didn't
know probably-that felt hats are made
from rabbit FIR. To be sure it is easy
enough to find out, but when person
buys a hat he is more likely, if he asks
questions to inquire: "How does ii
| look ?'' than How was it made?"
The felt hat is made from the skins
of rabbits from Australia, for the most
part, and from French and Belgian and
English and Scotch rabbits, too.
First catch your rabbit. Then, unfor-
tunately he must be killed and skin
ned and his skin dried with the fur
on it and packed in a bale and sent
almost and ALWAYS, to London where
the fur merchants buy his hide at auc-
ton and pay from so cents to IS for it.
according as it is good or Indifferent.
The rabbit skin is then treated by
the fur merchant in the following dis
respectful manner: 1t is first covered
with preparation known to the trade
as carrot" which is somewhat
sticky liquid, the composition of which
is not made public. and the purpose OF
which is to give the fur a finish that
will permit it's being the more readily
felted or welded together The fur is
then cut from the skin by circular
revolving knife so adeptly that wher
it has been separated it still retains the
shane of the hide It is then carefully
folded into small fluffy balls, an6
packed in paper bags holding five
pounds each, when it is ready to bt
shipped to the hat manufacturer
The best part of the fur Is the bach
and hides, although that cut from tht
bellies, cheeks and tails Is also used
The halter, buying his fur from the fu'
merchant by weight, must first mix tn,
different grades thoroughly to get tn,
desirable blend for the quality of ha
he contemplates making. So from tn,
fur storeroom the paper bags are takel
to the first machine.
This machine is called "the devil,
probably because it might vulgarly b.
said to play the devil with everythin,
it gets hold of. 1t Is approached by
broad moving belt on which the fur /
piled from the bags by the workmen
and the belt vanislles between a sue
cession of revolving rollers, with teet1
like gigantic music box cylinders, Whe1
the fur is caught between the multi
tudinous teeth of these cylinders it i
separated to the last hair and reduce
to a fluffy mass which, as it emerge
on the belt beyond the rollers. is blow
violently into tall "air box wit
gauze walls between which the flu
flies wildly, finally settling in sol
masses to the floor. The object of tn
devil is, of course, to mix and disin
tegrate the fur. and the airbox attach
ment further blends the fluff and blow
from it the hairs which We're original
mixed with it and which are not want
ed in the felt. From the devil the flu
is passed to the blower, machin
which forces the fur through NOR
gauze compartments for the purpose C.
mixing it and eliminating the hair sti
further.
The next machine which lies in wal
for what remains Of the inoffensiv
1 rabbit is the forming machine.
The forming machine is a grea
gauze walled box, in the midst of whic
is q tall copper cone, revolving, and flu
Of thousands of tiny holes. The fu
from the blower is measured out yer
carefully on hand scales in the requisit
| pua DtitieS for individual hats and IN