Theory without practice, or practice without theory, is like groping in the dark, and perfection in no trade can be attained till every effect can be traced to its cause, and vice versa.
It is much to be regretted that practical operative workmen are so diffident in writing and publishing their experience in their several trades and occupations, quietly permitting theorists ignorant of the business to glean as best they can from other parties the most intricate and complicated particulars of a trade, and hence the attempt to illustrate the most useful branches of an art often results in crude and even erroneous descriptions of things of the greatest moment, and the dissemination as correct, of that which is altogether at variance with the truth. In confirmation of the above, we may instance the manufacture of hats as described in a work of much merit, and which is accounted as worthy of all confidence, wherein the error above spoken of is but too plainly visible. Thus, in the supplement to the third edition of that most respectable work the Edinburgh "Encyclopedia Britannica," in the article Hat, an apology is made for the original treatise upon that subject, it being acknowledged as both defective and erroneous from the imperfect source of the information. Such a confession, and from such a source, sufficiently exonerates any one from egotism in an attempt to write a more perfect and correct description, coupling theory with practice; relieving the felting process from its misty obscurity by a faithful expose of the whole system: well knowing that an increase of business, like free trade, will be the result of a right understanding of a formerly supposed mystery, viz., the True cause of Felting.
Felt and felted articles being already in use, in many trades in addition to that of hat-making, necessitates a general and indeed a very full and lucid description of the materials of which they are made.
[Descriptions of Furs, Wools, Hair, &c.]
Fur, properly speaking, signifies the skins of various species of animals, dressed in alum or some other preparation with the hair on, and made into articles of wearing apparel; but the term fur also signifies the stuff that is cut from the skin, for the use of the hatter, and in this sense alone it will be employed in the following pages.
Hair, wool, fur, and animal down are simply slender filaments or thread-like fibres issuing out of the pores of the skins of animals, and all partaking of the same general nature, such as great ductility, flexibility, elasticity, and tenacity, differing entirely from the vegetable wools and downs, such as cotton, &c., which contain neither of these four great characteristics to any valuable or appreciable extent.
To characterize in a familiar way these several grades of material, it may be said that fur is distinguished from wool by its greater fineness and softness, and hair from wool by its straightness and stiffness. The nature of all these bearing some relation to each other, it will be necessary in this treatise to use the word hair occasionally to designate one and all of them, that word being most convenient, and tending to avoid confusion.
Simple as the idea may be, and though trifling in appearance, yet the study of a single hair is particularly interesting, both to the naturalist and the man of business, as will be seen when we mention a few of its many peculiarities; hoping it will prove a source of enjoyment to the one and a profit to the other.
Hair, wool, fur, &c., form quite an extraneous appendage to the skin, or body producing them, not at all directly dependent on the life of the animal for their own existence, for they have been known to live and grow for some time after the death of the animal itself. We also know that they live, grow, and die, showing all the signs of youth, maturity, and old age. Hair possesses no sensation at any period of its existence; of itself it has no feeling of touch, nor has it the power of voluntary action.