The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-04-28

lac which stiffens the brim. and which comes from China, Japan or Italy; of hats, no matter whether they cost S1 or s10.
 In order to tell you the story of the hat of the soldier, I have gone through the factory of the company of which Colonel Cummings is president, following the fur from the rough skins upon which it is imported, to it's place in the soft crowned, stiff-brimmed headgear now used by the army. All fine felt hats are made of the fur of aquatic and semi aquatic animals. The very finest come from the otter and also the beaver, the flat-tailed animal which is trapped near it's dam in the wilds of northwestern America. Hats almost as fine are made from the nutria, which is a South Amer ican animal somewhat like the beaver, save that it is smaller and has round, sharp, pointed tail. All such fur is costly and that for the hat of the sol- |. dier comes from the hare and the rabbit, which is very much cheaper.
 The general idea as to felt hats is that they are cut. and made or nodded out of a sheet of felt. The fact is that the fur goes from the rabbit skin right into the hat. The skins come in in great bales, are carrotted or treated with ni- trate of mercury before they are removed ! from the hides The fur can be felted because each hair composing it consists of barbed shaft covered with scales or hooks. This can be seen only by means of a microscope. When the hairs are mixed together, the hooks interlace and lnterlock, forming the felt. The mer- cury causes the scales on the hair to open and fits them for feltng. The skins are then dampened and run through a machine which causes the fur to flow off fr<. ..l placement of the hair. This machine has revolving knives, which whirl around at the rate of 200o revolutions minute. The pelt is run into the machine with the fur side up, and the knifs cuts off the skin in short strings which look much like the fibers of shredded wheat bis cult These bits fall below and are saved to make glue. The fur remains in- tact, and it moves along over an endless belt, in a thick, fluffy sheet It is now as soft as silk and as light as the finest of down. As I watched this process was told that something like 12000, ,0O( skins are cut off in that way in this factory every year. That equals about one-third as many skins as have already been used for the United States army
 The next step in army hat making is blowing, mixing and cleaning the fur
 
 dirt. and to leave only the short flu ready for felting. This work is done in machines where the fibers are torr apart by revolving cylinders, which have thousands of steel teeth, and at the end the fur is so fine that it seems tc be almost dust notes rather than the hair of the rabbit. The fibers are then mixed, coming forth from the machines in a lap. fine and soft, and so light and filmy that they will hardly bear the touch. They now go to girls who measure them out into parcels or boxes, each containing enough for one hat Each hat is to have just so many ounces of fur, according to size, and the weight is exact
 The next process is the real beginning of the hat. This is done by feeding the fur which has been torn into pieces into a circular chamber. in which is a cone of perforated copper about as high has hundreds of small holes and it flies around at many revolutions per min : ute. The air is drawn through these holes by an exhaust fan below. The fur particles are fed so that they flow l in like a cloud or mist, and they are drawn by the suction onto the cone, 1 where the little hooks of the fbers in- terlock until they cover it with a thin film of felt. This covering is not much thicker than piece of plotting paper and it must be very carefully handled. It remains on the cone, while it is taken out. wrapped in wet flannel and dipped in hot water. This causes the felt tc