manufacturers achieve their success, both as regards dyeing either with
logwood black or with coal-tar colours, and also getting a high degree
of "finish"? They attained their object by rubbing the proofing varnish
on the inside of the hat bodies, in some cases first protecting the
outside with a gum-varnish soluble in water but resisting the
lac-varnish rubbed inside. Thus the proofing could never reach the
outside. On throwing the hat bodies, thus proofed by a logical and
scientific process, into the dye-bath, the gums on the outer surface are
dissolved and removed, and the dye strikes into a pure, clean fibre,
capable of a high degree of finish. This process, however, whilst very
good for the softer hats used on the Continent, is not so satisfactory
for the harder, stiffer headgear demanded in Great Britain. What was
needed was a process which would allow of a through-and-through proofing
and stiffening, and also of satisfactory dyeing of the stiffened and
proofed felt. This was accomplished by a process patented in 1887 by Mr.
F.W. Cheetham, and called the "veneering" process. The hat bodies,
proofed as hard as usual, are thrown into a "bumping machine" containing
hot water rendered faintly acid with sulphuric acid, and mixed with
short-staple fur or wool, usually of a finer quality than that of which
the hat bodies are composed. The hot acid water promotes in a high
degree the felting powers of the short-staple wool or fur, and, to a
lesser extent, the thinly proofed ends of the fibres projecting from
the surfaces of the proofed hat-forms. Thus the short-staple wool or fur
felts itself on to the fibres already forming part of the hat bodies,
and a new layer of pure, unproofed wool or fur is gradually wrought on
to the proofed surface. The hat-forms are then taken out and washed, and
can be dyed with the greatest ease and with excellent results, as will
be seen from the accompanying illustration (see Fig. 15). This
successful invention emphasises the value of the microscope in the
study of processes connected with textile fibres. I would strongly