The crude wood spirit is mixed with
milk of lime, and after standing for several hours is distilled in a
rectifying still. The distillate is diluted with water, run off from any
oily impurities which are separated, and re-distilled once or twice
after treatment with quicklime.
_Stiffening and Proofing Process._--Before proceeding to discuss the
stiffening and proofing of hat forms or "bodies," it will be well to
point out that it was in thoroughly grasping the importance of a
rational and scientific method of carrying out this process that
Continental hat manufacturers had been able to steal a march upon their
English rivals in competition as to a special kind of hat which sold
well on the Continent. There are, or ought to be, three aims in the
process of proofing and stiffening, all the three being of equal
importance. These are: first, to waterproof the hat-forms; second, to
stiffen them at the same time and by the same process; and the third,
the one the importance of which I think English hat manufacturers have
frequently overlooked, at least in the past, is to so proof and stiffen
the hat-forms as to leave them in a suitable condition for the
subsequent dyeing process.
Pages:
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114