The Chemistry of Hat Manufacturing

The Chemistry of Hat
Manufacturing

Project Gutenberg's The Chemistry of Hat Manufacturing, by Watson
Smith This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and
with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: The Chemistry of Hat Manufacturing Lectures Delivered Before
the Hat Manufacturers' Association
Author: Watson Smith
Editor: Albert Shonk
Release Date: February 10, 2006 [EBook #17740]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
CHEMISTRY OF HAT MANUFACTURING ***

Produced by Jason Isbell, Josephine Paolucci and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

THE CHEMISTRY

OF
HAT MANUFACTURING
LECTURES DELIVERED BEFORE THE HAT MANUFACTURERS'
ASSOCIATION
BY
WATSON SMITH, F.C.S., F.I.C.
THEN LECTURER IN CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY IN THE
OWENS COLLEGE, MANCHESTER AND LECTURER OF THE
VICTORIA UNIVERSITY
REVISED AND EDITED
BY
ALBERT SHONK
WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON SCOTT, GREENWOOD & SON "THE HATTERS'
GAZETTE" OFFICES 8 BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL, E.C.
CANADA: THE COPP CLARK CO. LTD., TORONTO UNITED
STATES: D. VAN NOSTRAND CO., NEW YORK 1906
[All rights remain with Scott, Greenwood & Son]

Transcriber's Note: Underscores around words indicates italics while an
underscore and curly brackets in an equation indicates a subscript.

PREFACE

The subject-matter in this little book is the substance of a series of
Lectures delivered before the Hat Manufacturers' Association in the
years 1887 and 1888.
About this period, owing to the increasing difficulties of competition
with the products of the German Hat Manufacturers, a deputation of
Hat Manufacturers in and around Manchester consulted Sir Henry E.
Roscoe, F.R.S., then the Professor of Chemistry in the Owens College,
Manchester, and he advised the formation of an Association, and the
appointment of a Lecturer, who was to make a practical investigation of
the art of Hat Manufacturing, and then to deliver a series of lectures on
the applications of science to this industry. Sir Henry Roscoe
recommended the writer, then the Lecturer on Chemical Technology in
the Owens College, as lecturer, and he was accordingly appointed.
The lectures were delivered with copious experimental illustrations
through two sessions, and during the course a patent by one of the
younger members became due, which proved to contain the solution of
the chief difficulty of the British felt-hat manufacturer (see pages
66-68). This remarkable coincidence served to give especial stress to
the wisdom of the counsel of Sir Henry Roscoe, whose response to the
appeal of the members of the deputation of 1887 was at once to point
them to scientific light and training as their only resource. In a letter
recently received from Sir Henry (1906), he writes: "I agree with you
that this is a good instance of the direct money value of scientific
training, and in these days of 'protection' and similar subterfuges, it is
not amiss to emphasise the fact."
It is thus gratifying to the writer to think that the lectures have had
some influence on the remarkable progress which the British Hat
Industry has made in the twenty years that have elapsed since their
delivery.
These lectures were in part printed and published in the _Hatters'
Gazette_, and in part in newspapers of Manchester and Stockport, and
they have here been compiled and edited, and the necessary
illustrations added, etc., by Mr. Albert Shonk, to whom I would express
my best thanks.

WATSON SMITH.
LONDON, April 1906.

CONTENTS
LECTURE PAGE
I. TEXTILE FIBRES, PRINCIPALLY WOOL, FUR, AND HAIR 1
II. TEXTILE FIBRES, PRINCIPALLY WOOL, FUR, AND
HAIR--continued 18
III. WATER: ITS CHEMISTRY AND PROPERTIES; IMPURITIES
AND THEIR ACTION; TESTS OF PURITY 29
IV. WATER: ITS CHEMISTRY AND PROPERTIES; IMPURITIES
AND THEIR ACTION; TESTS OF PURITY--continued 38
V. ACIDS AND ALKALIS 49
VI. BORIC ACID, BORAX, SOAP 57
VII. SHELLAC, WOOD SPIRIT, AND THE STIFFENING AND
PROOFING PROCESS 62
VIII. MORDANTS: THEIR NATURE AND USE 69
IX. DYESTUFFS AND COLOURS 79
X. DYESTUFFS AND COLORS--continued 89
XI. DYEING OF WOOL AND FUR; AND OPTICAL PROPERTIES
OF COLOURS 100
INDEX 117

THE CHEMISTRY OF HAT MANUFACTURING

LECTURE I
TEXTILE FIBRES, PRINCIPALLY WOOL, FUR, AND HAIR
Vegetable Fibres.--Textile fibres may be broadly distinguished as
vegetable and animal fibres. It is absolutely necessary, in order to
obtain a useful knowledge of the peculiarities and properties of animal
fibres generally, or even specially, that we should be, at least to some
extent, familiar with those of the vegetable fibres. I shall therefore have,
in the first place, something to tell you of certain principal vegetable
fibres before we commence the more special study of the animal fibres
most interesting to you as hat manufacturers, namely, wool, fur, and
hair. What cotton is as a vegetable product I shall not in detail describe,