IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FELT HATS OR COVERINGS FOR THE HEAD
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Samuel Taylor and Roughsedge
Wallwork at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 15th August
1882.
SAMUEL TAYLOR of Hazelgrove in the County of Chester and ROUGHSEDGE
WALLWORK of the firm of Henry Wallwork and Co of the City of Manchester in
the County of Lancaster. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FELT HATS
OR COVERINGS FOR THE HEAD,"
«
Firstly. In the wool used for making wool felt hats, foreign matters such as
burs," cotton fibre, and other vegetable matter are frequently present, and these
burs are objectionable and require to be, but are difficult to remove, in the
ordinary method of manufacture and the object of this part of our invention is to
take away these burs and other vegetable matter by the following process and
treatment The bodies for the hats are taken in the cone stage when formed and
hardened before they are felted, and are steeped for two hours in a bath formed of
120 parts by weight of water with 1 part by weight of the vitriol of commerce (or
its chemical equivalents.)
Then the hat bodies are removed from the bath and the moisture is wrung from
them by any suitable means-They are then placed in a stove heated to a
temperature of 160 degrees Fah in which they are allowed to remain until dry.
These hat bodies after being so treated are then milled or felted by the ordinary
process, and while so being operated upon the burs, will drop away and are thus
removed from the hat bodies.
Secondly. In treating fur felts the hat bodies are felted or milled or as it is
commonly termed "planked" in some cases with pure water, and in other cases
with a mixture of water and sulphuric acid, and this acid, and all other greasy or
impure matter, must be fully removed after the "planking" process otherwise in
the subsequent processes the hat bodies will neither dye satisfactorily nor can they
be perfectly hardened or "proofed" as it is termed in such a way that the proofing
composition will remain in the body of the felt and not show more or less on the
exterior surface.
When hat bodies are "planked" in pure water by the ordinary process, no acid
or objectionable matter is supposed to be present in them, but jet it is not all

page_text: removed, and when sulphuric acid and water is used in the "planking" process
and the hat bodies are afterwards well washed in pure water, still there is no
certainty that all acid, greasy, and impure matters, have been removed, and this is
the cause of the uncertainty in obtaining the required results in the subsequent
processes.
Our invention consists in felting or planking the hat bodies with or without
sulphuric acid in the water in the ordinary manner and in then finishing the latter
part of the planking process with boiling water in which Soda and Borax has been
dissolved in the proportion of 12 ounces of the Soda of commerce and 4 ounces of
the Borax of commerce (or other alkalies being chemical equivalents for the said
Soda and Borax) to 160 lbs of water After this treatment the hat bodies are put
through clean boiling water, and the moisture is well rolled, or wrung out, and are
then dried, when they are in a fit state to be dyed and proofed with the certainty
of obtaining a satisfactory result.