Hat , a covering for the head. From the most remote times man has made use of a head covering of some kind. The most ancient form probably is the cap, such as is seen in figures representing the goddess of liberty. The ancient Greeks had several other kinds of head dress, the names and appearance of which have been preserved in their writings and on engraved gems. According to Strutt, the pileus was a woollen cap, which was sometimes worn as a lining to the helmet; and he quotes several Latin authorities to show that it was adopted by the Romans at the public games and festivals, by those who had been slaves, and by the aged and infirm for the sake of its warmth. It is supposed to have been made of felt, in some of its forms not unlike hats of the same material at the present day. When conical it was the apex of the Roman priests, worn probably from the time of Numa; with an elevated crest pointed forward like the liberty cap, it was the Phrygian or Mysian bonnet; with a brim, it became the petasus, a hat much like the round felt hats now worn. Among the Romans the cap was a symbol of liberty, and slaves were presented with one on receiving their freedom.

After the assassination of Cae-sar coins were issued by Brutus and Cassius on which was represented a cap between two daggers; and after Nero's death many Romans put on caps in order to proclaim the restoration of their liberties. Even at a later period the cap or hat was identified with liberty, as in the republic of the Netherlands after the emancipation from Spain, when a hat became the national emblem. The first hatters in the middle ages appeared in Nuremberg in 1360, under the name of Filzkappenmacher (manufacturers of felt caps); in France, under the reign of Charles VI., 1380-1422; and in 1401 in Wurzburg, Bavaria. Charles VII., in a picture of his entrance into the city of Rouen in 1449, is represented as wearing a felt hat. The early Anglo-Saxons wore generally no other covering for the head than the long flowing hair they sedulously cultivated. The few examples of caps are simple in form and scanty in dimensions. About the 8th century they wore caps resembling the Phrygian bonnet. "Those of the lower class of people," says Strutt, "appear rough behind, and probably were composed of the skin of some animal dressed with the hair upon the hide, and the shaggy part turned outward.

When the men of quality wore this kind of covering, it was usually enriched with some species of ornament. Another cap, in the form of a perfect cone, was worn occasionally by the nobility." Speaking of the head dress in use in the 9th century, the same author observes: "The hat was, I doubt not, made of various materials, and by no means seems to be a part of dress universally adopted; from its general appearance I have supposed it to have been made of skins with the shaggy part turned downward, and probably it might often be so; but they had also felt or woollen hats at this period (fellen hat), which their own records testify." About the middle of the 12th century one of the "nobels of the lande mett at Clarendom" is described by Froissart as wearing "a hatte of biever." The hat being the most conspicuous article of dress, and surmounting all the rest, it was natural to give to it special care and attention, to place in it showy plumes and jewels, and surround it with bands of gold and silver. To it were attached ornamental rosettes, sometimes designed as badges of honor or of office.

Its form and sometimes color were also made to designate the rank and character of the wearer, as the monarch by his crown, the cardinal by his red hat, betokening a readiness to spill his blood for the sake of Jesus Christ, and the court fool by the cap with a bell. In one form it served to distinguish the military officer, and in another the peaceful Quaker. Among the great variety of hats used by the English, the forms of which are preserved in old pictures, none combine the grace, elegance, and comfort of the soft hat of the Spaniards, which the latter have retained while the fashion of the English hat has been continually changing. The manufacture of hats has been carried to perfection in the United States, where it was introduced at an early date. The representations made by the London board of trade to the house of commons in 1732 refer to the complaints of the hatters in London at the extent to which the manufacture was carried on in New England and New York. - Without including caps and straw hats, the kinds in general use may be classed as those which are felted throughout, and those which are made with a covering, usually of silk plush upon a prepared stiff body.

In the former class are included the coarse qualities made entirely of wool mixed with hair and stiffened with glue; those called plated, which are furnished with an external pile or nap of finer material than the body, and sometimes water-proof stiffened before the nap is put on; and those called short naps, in which some of the better class of fur is worked in the plaiting or nap, and all are water-proof stiffened. Beaver hats, formerly esteemed the best of all hats, had merely a nap of the fur of the beaver, which was felted into the body; the best hats being finished with the finest fur taken from the belly and cheeks of the animal, and the inferior qualities with that from the back. The soft genuine beaver hats, now rarely seen, were made upon a body of rabbits' fur. As beavers' fur became scarce, nutria was substituted for it, also the fur of the musquash, hare, and rabbit; and for the body lambs' wool and that of the llama were used instead of rabbits' fur. Furs intended for felting are prepared in different ways. Hare skins are split open, then rubbed with a jagged knife blade called a rake to remove bits of fleshy matter adhering to the pelt. They are next damped on the pelt side with water, and being placed together in pairs, pelt to pelt, are pressed.

They are thus made smooth and ready for shearing, by which the long coarse hairs are clipped close down to the fur. The angular projections and edges of the pelt are then trimmed off, a process called rounding. The fur was formerly cut from the skins by hand, and this method is still practised among some of the smaller European manufacturers; but by the principal manufacturers, and in America by all, it is now cut by machines of American invention. The skin is held horizontally with the fur side down, a narrow edge of the pelt being pushed over a horizontal bed knife, which presses back the fur. Behind this bed knife a cylinder, provided with knives set obliquely, revolves with great rapidity. The edge of the pelt is caught between the descending knife and the bed knife, and cut off as by a pair of scissors; the line of fur attached to the strip is thus severed at the roots and falls on a surface placed to receive it. As strip after strip of felt is thus cut off, the fur continues falling till the whole fleece lies compactly together. Rabbit skins are treated in a similar way, except that the long hairs, instead of being clipped, are pulled by catching each one between a knife blade and the thumb, which is protected by a leather covering.

Beaver and nutria skins require more care to remove the fatty and fleshy matters, and to cleanse them from grease, all which must be done before the long hairs are pulled. Nutria skins especially are loaded with fat upon the pelt, and the fur is filled with grease. Scrubbing with a brush and free use of soap and boiling water are necessary to remove the latter. Attempts have been made to remove the fur by chemical ingredients, but the effect of these has usually been to impair the felting property. But the application of dilute nitric acid to the fur before it is removed from the pelt is found to improve this property, probably by destroying the last traces of the grease. Skins that have been wetted with it are said to be "carroted," from the color it imparts; they should be immediately dried by exposure to the heat of a fire, or by smoothing with a hot iron and drying in the sun. Rabbit and hare skins by long keeping are very liable to sutler injury from moths and other insects, and the former, especially if kept in large heaps, from the running of the greasy matter among them, and becoming rancid, corroding the pelt itself. In England it is found that the strongest rabbit fur for felting is obtained from animals bred near the sea.

The skins taken in the winter are far superior in quality to those obtained at other times, and are distinguished in the trade as seasoned, all others being called unseasoned.

The annual production of hatters' fur in the United States is about 500,000 lbs.; but the principal supplies come from towns on the North sea, from Frankfort, Brussels, and a few other places. The furs are obtained there in large quantities, and have the excellent quality of thickness due to a cold climate. - After the fur has been separated from the pelt it is first mixed, the different qualities together, and the finest carded cotton is added in the proportion of 1/4 to 1/2 oz. of cotton to 4 or 5 oz. of fur, the usual quantity required for a felt hat. The mixing is effected in a picking machine, into which it is drawn as fed, and, immediately seized by a toothed picker, which revolves with great velocity, creating a powerful current of air, it is tossed about in the capacious box forming the top of the machine, and carried as it falls upon an endless apron, which delivers it to a second pair of feed rollers and another picker, by which the operation is repeated. The fur discharged from this contains the long hairs and bits of pelt and other impurities, from which it is to be separated in the next process, which is called blowing.

The machines for this are contained in a box sometimes 20 ft. long and about 7 high, in which case there are eight successive sets of the same apparatus of pickers and screens. As the fur is fed in at one end, it is taken by the feed rollers against the points of a cylindrical picker, which revolves several thousand times in a minute. This strikes out a large portion of the heavy hairs and coarse particles, and tosses the light fur into the upper portion of the box, where it is blown forward to the next set, in which it is subjected to a repetition of the same process. The coarser portions fall upon an inclined screen, which is kept in agitation. The loose hairs and refuse stuff fall through this, and the portion that is shaken off the screen is delivered back on the floor under the point of starting. As it collects it is taken up and sent through again. Much of the dust separates through the perforated sheet copper with which the machine is covered. The next process is to form the hat body; an operation that has been accomplished by various methods, as by bowing and working the fur together by hand, and thus felting it; also by what is called the pneumatic process, by which a mat is obtained that is afterward worked upon a block into the required shape.

Thomas Blanchard of Boston several years ago, by exhausting the air under a fine wire gauze, caused the fur to be drawn together upon this and partially felted, in the form of a thin narrow ribbon. This was then wound upon a double cone of the size and form for two hat bodies. The next improvement was that of Henry A. Wells of New York in 1846, who invented the machine now in use. He made a cone of sheet copper punched full of round holes, and, setting it upright, caused it to revolve slowly upon its axis. Under this an exhausting fan is put in action, causing by its rotation of about 4,000 times in a minute a current of air to draw through the holes from the outside. A trunk or box with a vertical opening directed against the cone discharges the fur, which is fed into it at the other end. Here it is received from the feeding apron in quantity just sufficient for one hat body. It is drawn in between two horizontal feeding rollers covered with felt, and immediately seized by a cylinder revolving about 3,600 times in a minute, and furnished with several longitudinal lines of stiff' brushes.

This generates a current of air, which scatters the fur, and blows it toward the mouth of the trunk, where it is rapidly drawn upon the perforated cone and evenly spread over the top and down the sides of the same, in quantity enough for one body in 16 revolutions. II. A. Burr improved the discharging trunk, so that it could be adjusted to deposit more or less fur on any desired portions of the cone. As the fur collects, the workman picks off any coarse particles that gather on the surface, and when the supply for one hat body is deposited he wraps a wet cloth over the cone, and slips a metallic cover over the whole, which he removes into a tank of hot water. A new cone is immediately set in its place to receive another coating of fur. The hot water makes the mat more tenacious. It is soon slipped off the cone, taken to a table gently worked by hand-rolling in a piece of blanket, squeezed and pressed, and then folded into convenient shape. It is now ready to be pressed with others, to be made up into the bundles in which the bodies are sent to the hatters. The material has not yet assumed the form or size of a hat. It is a large open-mouthed bag, smaller and rounded at the closed end. In making the bodies by the old hand process, a man used to be occupied a whole day upon four or five.

By the machine just described, and known as the "former," tended by two men and a boy, and employing another in rolling the bodies, 400 are completed each day, all of which are alike in shape, weight, and thickness. The cost of the labor on each is estimated at from 6 to 10 cts. The inferior bodies made by the old method cost for labor about 56 cents; their manufacture is now generally abandoned. - After the mats come into the hands of the hatters, they are reduced in size by sizing. This, which is entirely a hand process, consists in rubbing a pile of several bodies, first dipped into hot water and rolled in a piece of blanket, upon a sloping table, technically called a battery, which is arranged around a central caldron affording accommodation for from 8 to 12 workmen. By rubbing the bodies together for a short time they are reduced to about one third their original size, and the felt is rendered more compact. A skilful workman knows just how far to carry this process, which leaves the shells, as they are now called, uniform in thickness and size. They are then dyed of any desired color, after which they are blocked, which consists in stretching the cone-shaped shell over a wooden block of the shape and size of the hat to be made.

This was formerly done by hand, but is now effected by a patented machine called the Eickemeyer hat-blocking machine, invented by Rudolf Eickemeyer of Yonkers, N. Y., for the use of which a royalty of from 2 to 8 cts. per dozen is paid by all manufacturers. The next operation is pouncing, by which the rough surface of the hat is smoothed and all inequalities are removed. This also was formerly done by hand by two workmen, one shaving down the inequalities with a sharp knife, and the other smoothing the surface with sand-paper and pumice stone; but it is now performed by a patented machine in which the hat while revolving is brought into contact with a cylinder covered with emery paper. A royalty of 6 cts. per dozen for fur hats and 3 cts. per dozen for wool hats is paid by each manufacturer for the use of this machine, which was invented by Sidney S. Wheeler and Daniel D. Manley of Danbury, Conn. After pouncing the hat is again stretched on a block and pressed into shape with a hot iron. This is technically called finishing. If the hat is to be stiff, the next operation is curling, which consists in pressing the brim into shape with a hot iron.

The trimming is done by girls, who put in the lining, the round top piece, technically called the tip, and the leather, and sew on the band and the binding. The binding is usually done with the sewing machine, but in some hats it has to be put on by hand. The last operation, called ironing off, is merely the running of a hot iron over the hat to press it into perfect shape, after which it is ready for the packing box. A cheaper quality of hat is made from felted wool, the manufacture of which is conducted in nearly the same manner. "Wool hats, however, are sized or felted in a fulling mill. They are made entirely of wool in the United States, but in England a little fur is sometimes mixed with the wool. - Silk hats were formerly made of felt shells formed by the Wells machine, but the felt bodies are now almost entirely superseded by those made of muslin. The muslin is prepared by being stretched on frames and saturated with a solution of shell-lac in ammonia and water. For the brims of hats from two to six thicknesses are required; for the tops one or two thicknesses.

After the several sheets are thoroughly rubbed together so that they adhere to each other, they are dried by the fire, after which another coat of shell-lac varnish is put on. "When this is dry the muslin is removed from the frames and cut into the proper shapes for sides, tops, and brims. The several pieces are then fitted together over a block. The side is put on first, and then the top, the projecting edges of the latter being ironed down until they adhere firmly to the side. A strip of thin muslin, technically called robbin, is then saturated with shell-lac and ironed down around the edge to strengthen it and to keep the parts together. Lastly, the brim is put over the block and fastened in a similar way, the inner edge being turned up and ironed against the side and finally strengthened with a piece of robbin. After the brim has been trimmed the body is again varnished with a solution of shell-lac and alcohol, and when this is dry the hat is ready for the cover of silk plush. The brim is covered by one piece on the under side, which is put on first, and one on the upper. These are secured by ironing with a hot iron, which softens the varnish and causes it to stick the plush to the body.

The cover for the side, to which the circular piece for the top has been sewed with a scarcely discernible seam, is next slipped on and ironed until it adheres thoroughly, the seams being carefully concealed. Fashionable hats require the finest quality of French plush; that made by Martin at Lyons and Metz is held in the highest estimation on account of the excellence of the black dye with which it is colored. The hat is now lined and trimmed, and afterward shaped and smoothed with the iron. Great care is given to finishing the brim, which is curled by hand, the workman judging by his eye of the perfection of the outline. The lining of the best quality of hats is of silk, that of the cheaper kinds usually of paper. In what are called French gossamer bodies, the body is composed of but one thickness of muslin, and the silk lining is ironed on to this so as to stick fast to it, after which another thickness of muslin is ironed on to the outside. In those called English bodies, the body is generally of two thicknesses, and has another thickness of muslin ironed on to it after the hat is formed. This is the common style of hat, and weighs about four ounces. Hat bodies are sometimes made also of cork, willow, and felt. Cork bodies are cut very thin, and are of course very light.

Willow bodies are of thin slips of willow, woven by a process patented by a firm in Philadelphia. White hats for summer wear, called cassimere hats, are made of felt. The superiority of American silk hats is owing to the scrupulous care in the selection as well as in the manipulation of the materials. The best are not surpassed in Europe. The French make hats of similar quality; but in England the humidity of the climate will not admit the use of hats so light as those worn in America. - According to the census of 1870, the total value of the hat and cap manufactures of the United States in that year was $24,848,167; of which New York produced $8,708,723, New Jersey $5,007,270, Connecticut $3,740,871, Massachusetts $3,416,-191, and Pennsylvania $2,813,766. - For straw hats, see Straw.