“The Society of Arts have at various times rewarded many individuals for successful attempts to introduce bonnets formed of grasses indigenous to Britain,” says Tomlinson, in his Cyclopaedia published in 1867, but all these well meant efforts to revive the industry were unavailing. Neither for price nor quantity (which latter was rapidly becoming almost the prime necessity) could British plaitters successfully compete with the Italians and the Chinese for plaits of narrow grades, although quantities of wider plaits both of plain and fancy designs continued to be made. About 1890 plait began to arrive from Japan, and just as the British straw was better than the Italian and Chinese, so the Japanese was superior to the British. It was of the most delicate pearly colour, it was infinitely lighter in weight, and it could be obtained in far bigger pipes than any European or Chinese growths, and its adaptability both for whole and split plaits was equal to all.
In straw plait, therefore, the Japanese were able to compete successfully, but in a short time they put on the market an article made of wood splints plaitted with three strands, called “Chip 3 ends.” This plait, of Italian make originally, from its extremely low price and colour possibility, was the material backbone of the ladies’ hat trade for some years. In later times a braid made of hemp by machinery, called Tagal or Tégal, originated in Switzerland and Italy. Quickly adopted by the Japanese, they have been able to supplant the earlier producers, and as with the Chip 3 ends, to provide varieties which have almost monopolized the hat making markets for the million.
In 1896 the plaitting trade was in such a bad state that some of the principal hat makers in the district determined to attempt the rescue of the plaitters. For that purpose the “British Straw Plaitting Company” was formed, the writer of this book being appointed Chairman of a very representative Board of Directors. Manufacturers were eager to assist, and for the first twelve months the company showed great promise. A revival of plaitting (although with other materials than straw and of fresh designs) ensued, and better prices were paid so that wages were much advanced. But the Swiss and Italians took fright, and for the next two years so successfully competed by cutting prices, that in 1899 the company was obliged to cease operations.
In fact, not only could better materials for plaitting be found in other parts of the world, but in those parts the natives, who (as the Ency. Britt. says about the Chinese) “could live where an Englishman would starve,” were able to produce plait at prices which made it impossible for plaitters in England to earn a living. But fortunately as the plaitting trade declined the hat and bonnet making of Dunstable and Luton was increasing as fast as its predecessor fell.
In 1865 the first attempts to sew plait by machinery were made, previously all had been sewn by hand, a long and tedious process, when fine plaits were involved.
This took the form of sewing several pieces of fine plait in a parallel form, making strips of an increased width, which were then sewn by hand to the desired shape. A little later an American named Bodsworth introduced a machine which was capable of sewing plait into hats and bonnets, but unlike all subsequent models, which start at the centre of the top of the crown, this machine started sewing at the edge of the brim. This materially lessened the field of shape variety, and although great improvements were effected by skilfulness of working, and although the machine was adopted by Messrs. Vyse Sons & Co., it was not taken up generally by the trade.
The well-known firm of Willcox & Gibbs, makers of a domestic chainstitch sewing machine, had an agent in Luton named Edward Stratford, and about 1870 his wife, in response to a friendly challenge, sewed the first straw hat from centre to circumference. The day following this epoch making occurrence Mrs. Stratford sewed another hat out of a fine make of “English China Purl” (a fine fancy edged plait); this hat is said to be still in existence.
From 1870 the whole trade was revolutionized, all fine plaits eventually were sewn by machine, only the coarsest and broadest widths being sewn by hand. In 1874 Mr. Henry Bland, a Luton mechanic, turned his attention to making alterations to the Willcox & Gibbs’ domestic machine, in order to render it more suitable for sewing straw plait. He took out patents to cover his improvements, which were subsequently acquired by Messrs. Willcox & Gibbs, who issued the new machine to the Trade under the title of “The 10-Guinea” straw hat sewing machine. But this visible stitch machine had a fault which made it unsuitable for the best work, inasmuch as the stitch was prominent on the outside of the hat, and the demand for handsewn invisible stitch continued unabated for goods of the best quality. Various machines were introduced to imitate handsewing, most of them failures, but M. Légat, a Frenchman, patented one in 1875 that even up to the present time has never been surpassed for close resemblance in its work to that done by hand, but although the machine was taken up seriously by the best houses of Great Britain and France, its large initial cost, and heavy charges for maintenance, allowed it only to retain its supremacy pending the advent of a less intricate, delicate and costly model.
In 1878 Mr. Edmund Wiseman (who is still living), of Luton, took out a patent for a machine to sew plaits with a “concealed” stitch. In 1880 some improvements were made, and for some years the “Wiseman Concealed Stitch” machine sold at about half the price of the “Légat,” and by no means as intricate and delicate, gradually displaced the French machine. Between 1880 and 1886, Mr. Bland, of Luton, and Mr. William Walker of Dunstable, both patented concealed stitch machines, but without much success. In 1886 Mr. Wiseman entered into arrangements with the Willcox & Gibbs Co. to produce an improved concealed stitch machine that from its shape and method of action was called the “Box machine.” This, although on the same lines as the first invention with regard to the method of stitch and sewing, was capable of sewing all kinds of plait both fine and coarse, whereas the earlier patent was only really successful on fine plaits. This Box machine has been greatly improved since 1886, but taken on the whole, its general characteristics are the same. In 1895 Messrs. Janes Bros., of Luton, took out a patent for a concealed stitch machine called the “Lutonia,” which has met with a very distinct success. Meanwhile the demand for hats of certain plaits, which were improved by the outside stitch sewing, kept on increasing, and indeed there are plaits on which even the so called “visible” stitches are invisible. Plaits of cotton, silk, ajour, and crinoline are of such nature that the cotton used in the outside stitch machine sewing seems to lose or bury itself in the material of the braid, and there is less likelihood of the needle catching in their tough fibres than there is in the working of the Box machine, where a hook is used; and further for some years plaits of fine chip were the dominant demand, and for these there was less tendency on the part of the fine single needle of the visible stitch machine to cut the narrow wood strands, than if the double punctuation of the Box machine needle and hook were used. In 1879, therefore, the Willcox & Gibbs Co. took out a patent for what is now known as the “17 Guinea” type of visible stitch sewing machines. This model has been closely followed by the “Dresdensia,” a German product of signal value; and “The Singer,” an American competitor, both of which are in the main imitations or copies of the 1879 patent. It is a fact worthy of note that the first successful machine to sew a hat of straw plait from button to circumference of brim was a Willcox & Gibbs, and that the latest word in straw sewing is also, by the arrangement with Mr. Wiseman, a product of the same firm.
Other machinery used for making straw hats consists of a variety of “Blocking” machines. As will be shown hereafter, the most primitive means were adopted at first, but when the hydraulic type made its appearance it soon left no room for any other method. The appliances of Messrs Desbordes, Desireau, Légat, Beresford, Keston, Brochier and Stoffel (described in Chapter XII) have now rendered possible the blocking of all kinds of shapes and materials by machine.