The plait mill, made of both wood and iron, completes the list of mechanical appliances used in making a straw hat.
But at the present time all hat sewing machines, which for at least twenty-five years were driven by the foot power of the operator, are worked by mechanical power, either from a gas or steam engine, or by electrical dynamos.
CHAPTER III
STRAW PLAIT—METHOD OF PREPARING THE STRAWS
The foregoing details, mainly devoted to the classical and historical side of straw hat manufacture, have demonstrated that the word “straw” is very elastic in its meaning when applied to its use for making hats. All classes of vegetable fibres have been included at some time or other in its embrace, and to-day the range of materials technically known as “straws” is larger than at any previous time. But as the industry of straw hat making centred itself in the locality of South Bedfordshire on account of the superior straw, and because the process of splitting and subsequent manipulation effected a total revolution in straw hat working, a description of the processes common in that district will, with a few minor exceptions, serve as an example for all plait making. The straws used in England are principally those of wheat, the exceptions are very small. They are specially grown by careful methods of tillage, and at the proper period are cut either with the sickle or with the scythe, the mowing machine being likely to bruise the stalks. They are tied into suitable bundles, considerably smaller than the usual sheaf, with the ears of corn as nearly level as possible; these are then cut off and used for grain purposes. The bundles of straw are carefully “combed” with a coarse wooden comb to rid the stalks of all the loose portions and thin blades. They are then cut into the standard lengths, about 10 ins. long, and are ready for sizing. This is effected by working through a series of sieves, with somewhat deep sides. As the straws have been carefully gathered with ears uppermost, it naturally follows that all the similar thicknesses of stalk are together, and therefore the process of sorting becomes a fairly speedy one. The cut lengths now become straw pipes, and they are first placed on the largest end in the largest grade sieve, the pipes smaller than the mesh fall through, leaving only those of the coarsest dimensions. This process is repeated until all the varying thicknesses of straw have been sorted into their respective sizes. They are then tied up carefully into bundles of about 5 ins. in diameter, and are ready for the plaitter.
In Italy, where the straw is grown solely for plaitting purposes, the process before sorting is a little different. The sowing of corn (Triticum turgidum, or Triticum oestivum, which is a species of rye) is done very thickly, so as to produce thin and short stalks. It is gathered when the ear is in a soft, milky state before the final stages of ripening. It is then thinly spread over the ground in fine, hot weather, and afterwards tied in bundles and stacked, so that the resultant heat may drive off all moisture. After remaining stacked for about a month, it is spread out and exposed to the action of dew, sun and air, in order to bleach it. During the exposure, which varies according to necessity, the stalks are frequently turned. When the bleaching process is sufficiently complete, the lower joint of the straw stripped of its outside thin sheath is divided from the upper one, which is still allowed to retain the ear. This process provides the punta and the pedale. The straw is then subjected to the action of steam and the fumes of sulphur. When this bleaching process is complete the assortment into sizes by sieves takes place, and the graded straws are then ready for use.
From this stage for making plaits of the whole or unsplit straw, the processes adopted by both England and Italy are in the main identical; Italy, however, has not generally adopted the splitting processes for plait making on account of the fineness of her straws. But the British plaitter reserves the sulphur bleaching of the straws until the plait is actually made, for, with the excellent colour of the straw, in many cases this can be dispensed with until the need for hat making arises. The first processes of plaitting, either of hats or of braid, were undoubtedly of the unsplit stalks, and all “English whole straw” plaits were so made. It has been shown how and why the splitting of straws arose. The plaitter, having determined on the variety of plait to be made, acquired a sufficiency of suitable sized pipes. With the splitter, the point of which, inserted in the end of the straw, and pressed downwards, the tube of straw coming against the radially set cutters, the pipes were divided into splints of equal widths of a fineness according to the plaitter’s requirements. These were then wetted so as to render them a little tougher and more amenable for manipulation and bending. The plaitter, with a bundle of splints under the left arm, and generally a few in the mouth, through the lips of which they are drawn to keep moist, commences operations. Any description of all the methods of plaitting would be tedious, all the operations consisting of a constant under and over locking of the splints, but in the split straw making of the “Patent Dunstable” the plaitting, instead of being of either one straw or splint, is of two, wetted and laid together, and in the varieties known as “Splits” the splints are plaitted singly, leaving alternately, or in a spaced pattern, according to the design required, the inside and the outside of the straw; the outside of silicate being shiny, and the inside with its slight pith (or rice as it is termed) being dull. The “Whole Straw Dunstable,” the first plait made in the neighbourhood, was of seven entire straws, “Patent Dunstable” or “Twist” was of seven doubled strands, or ends, formed of fourteen splints. Rice similarly made, but with the splints inside out, making a plait of a dull white which was extensively used for bonnets for weddings. “Split” was formed of seven single split straws, presenting the varied appearance mentioned above, and was naturally the lightest of British fine plaits. “Luton” was made like “Patent Dunstable,” but without the “Twist” head, making a flat plait similar to split but with both sides alike. “Bedford,” made of eleven single or eleven double ends of twenty-two splints, similar to and in imitation of the Italian plait “11-end Tuscan,” and “Rustic,” a plait of four whole or split straws plaitted to show pointed serrations on both edges. These plaits form the base from which all other straw plaits have developed; their composition and methods are to be found in every variety whether made in Great Britain or abroad, and although other hand-made plaits have larger or smaller numbers of “ends” (from three to almost any number upwards) their basis of treatment remains the same.
The two primary homes of plaitting straws into braids, Italy and Great Britain, had many features in common in the conditions and methods by which the plait was made. In both countries the whole of the industry was carried on by peasants and their wives. The males, who were generally agricultural labourers or small traders in rural districts, for the main part saw to the growing of the straws and their preparation and distribution for plaitting, followed after the braids were made by the marketing of the work done by their female friends or relations. In some districts, such as the environs of Florence and of the South Beds and neighbouring counties, these occupations were of such magnitude as to give constant employment to many.
In all the districts the main labour of plaitting was undertaken by the womenfolk, although men at times took a hand, and in the middle of the nineteenth century it was a real feature of village life in the plaitting centres, to see the good wives and daughters, after the household work was done, standing at their cottage doors, swiftly and dexterously plaitting and at the same time distributing that gentle and yet satisfying gossip that was so dear to rustic life. In this manner by far the greater bulk of the plaits of Italy and Great Britain were made, although in the latter country since about 1825, some extra means of production were employed. Instead of the art being taught from mother to daughter, as was the earlier practice, schools of plaitting were instituted. These were generally arranged in the cottage home of one of the most expert plaitters, who for a small fee taught the youthful aspirants all the intricacies of the trade, while at the same time the instructor contrived to keep at work on her own particular plaitting. The view of a portion of a plaitting village, on a fine day, with its generally picturesque surroundings framing an active rustic group of women engaged in plaitting, was such as should have commended itself to many an artist, yet strange to say the pictures extant of either Italian or British plaitting scenes are very few and far between. These pleasant, pastoral occupations seem to have gone for ever from Great Britain, although one may still see in Italy the once familiar signs. Hand plaitting has migrated to the Far East, and there in China and Japan one can to-day see, with the changes consequent on the different setting of the scenes, the sights which seventy-five years ago were common to the countryside around Dunstable, Hemel Hempstead, and Luton.