On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
The annexed engravings are views of a new hat recently registered in the London Patent Office, by a Liverpool hat company named Flanagan. Figure 1 is a vertical elevation, and figure 2 is a vertical section. The object of this hat is to fit it.more comfortably to the head by forming s. soft rim in it where the head enters. The body, A, ot the hat, is the same as it has been, except that it is made with an external air channel, B, standing up a short distance above the rim",— The mouth of the hat is therefore made a little wider than those in common use, and the channel, B, answers as a receptacle for air to act as an elastic cushion. This recess may contain granulated cork or air alone. It is covered tight on the inner side by a flexible band, C, which is glued to the body of the hatwith an opening left for the external air. An encircling air chamber is thus formed to embrace the head, and make an easy, pleasant fit. All that appears externally, is the band-like projection which contains the elastic fitting piece. Two years ago, when Kossuth came here with a felt beaver, the rage for such head pieces, with little feathers in them, was notorious ; we welcomed the felt hat, but not the feather. Since then the old hard shell has come into vogue again, and we all wear our little pots on the top of our heads once more. With few exceptions, the black silk hat is the only one in general use. It is not a good hat, but a positively bad one. It is hard and uncomfortable, and is perfectly air tight; it therefore does not allow the vapors of the head jto pass off; it is the cause of headaches and baldness on this very account. The silk hat has a felt body ; this is saturated with lac varnish, and a black silk plush cover (by steaming and ironing) is cemented on it.— How can it then be comfortable, and how can it be anything but injurious to the health of the head by long use ? This illustrated hat provides for the comfort of the person who wears it, and we hope that our hatters will either adopt this or some other mode of improving their silk hats for the comfort and benefit of their customers. We are well aware that people—men and women—will, if they can, live up to the fashion, whatever that be, either high heeled, uncomfortable boots, tight laced corsets, or hard shell hats.— We do not care what the fashion may be, if it does not sacrifice comfort, good taste, and common sense. For these reasons we want all the fashionable hats hereafter to be made with comfortable mouth pieces and some ventilating arrangement all lor the benefit of poor humanity.
