Author Description

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 Manu- facturers, 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 IManufacturing, 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 illus- trations 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 coincid- ence served to give especial stress to the wisdom of the counsel 3942219 vi Preface 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 moiiei/ 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 DEGREES Gazette, and in part in newspapers