Statement of the case. body shrinks to nearly one-third of its original superficial size, and greatly increases in thickness, compactness, and toughness. The body was then stiffened, either by immersion in a hot solution of glue, or in a solution of gum shellac in alcohol. It was next blocked by being drawn over a cylindrical block and tied at the band, and then felted or stretched so as to make the brim straight. Lastly, the body was dried, and a silk plush covering was stuck on the ex terior of it by a hot iron, which melted the glue or shellac.* THE INVENTION IN MACHINERY AND PROCESS OF MAKING HAT-BODIES. Prior to 1833 no machine had been devised for depositing the fur in a proper manner to form hat-bodies; and the process was effected solely by the use of a bowstring worked by hand, as shown in figure 4. In 1833, however, T. R. Williams, an American citizen, of Newport, Rhode Island, while temporarily residing in England, invented, and in the same year patented, a machine for making "hat-bodies," or "foundations," on which hats were to be formed. The machine as a whole is shown in figure 6† (page 538); and its object, as patented, was to produce at one operation "hat-bodies," or "foundations," in the state to be at once covered by the silk plush, thereby dispensing with all manual operation but the last. This machine depended for its action on the principle of distributing the fur fibres in the atmosphere over a perforated hollow cone (b), usually made of wire, either of a strictly conical form (b), or of the nearer shape of a hat, as seen in * Instead of using silk plush for the exterior covering, the fur-like ap pearance was originally given to the exterior surface of the body by scald ing in, or partially felting the fine fur fibres upon the exterior surface, after the body was stiffened, and before it was blocked, producing a napped surface, and the hat was called a napped hat. At other times the workman, while engaged in sizing the body, by continually brushing the body with a hand-brush, would brush a nap out of its surface. Hats so finished were called brush hats. This plate is a copy of one annexed to Williams's patent. Statement of the case. the other figure c, of the plate; having an apparatus (D) to exhaust the air, and so to attract the fibres of fur to the cone above. The cones rested and rotated on cog-wheels, driven by a shaft and toothed pinion or spur (c). The cog-wheels were made to rotate in sockets of a cone-box below; itself revolving horizontally on its centre, so as to present each hollow cone in succession to a conduit of fur, which is scen in the plate descending in a shower. Underneath the conebox was a fan-box, with a socket above for the cone-box to revolve in, and in it a fan with side passages for the entrance of air. The cone-box was connected by a rim with the lower box or conduit leading to this exhaust-box. The fur, as the reader will understand, had been previously disintegrated by the carding machine, and is thrown by a rotating fan (F) in such a way as to be deposited on the cones below. Williams's invention was the first attempt to make use of the principle of atmospheric pressure, or "exhaustion," to cause a deposit of fur or other fibrous material on perforated cones, cone-frames, or "formers," as these contrivances are indiscriminately called. This machine of Williams contained no trunk or conduit inclosed on all sides to carry the fur when disintegrated, and by the character of its aperture to direct it in a particular way towards the cone; it had, however, as the reporter understood it, a sort of "roof" over the disintegrated fur, with open sides; which roof the operator bent more or less, as he considered that the case needed. After sufficient fur had been deposited on the "former," a hollow hinged perforated cover (1) was placed over it, and the two were immersed in a boiling solution of glue and starch, and then the body was removed from between the forms and dried. The immersion of the body, while between the perforated forins, in a solution of glue or starch, as described by Williams, was deemed necessary, in order to cause the fibres to adhere together after the body was removed from the influence of the exhausting apparatus. The fur fibres, by Williams's process, were so glued or stuck together that they could not be felted afterwards. In 1839-this date must be observed—a certain William Statement of the case. Ponsford discovered, that when a mass of fur or fibrous material capable of felting is disintegrated, and deposited in a condition proper for felting, and is immersed for an instant in very hot water, that the hot water will, of itself, cause an incipient felting of the fibres, so that a continuous fabric of fur of the shape of the "former" can be then removed from the "former" and finished by the hand of the workman; and he further discovered, that if the bat* be surrounded carefully with a soft cloth, its texture will not be disturbed during the operation of immersion, by reason of the water percolating or passing through it. The mode of applying this discovery was described in the English patent of Ponsford in 1839 as follows: "The hair as it passes from the blowing machine is to be tossed or thrown into the air, from which it is to be sucked or drawn down upon hollow perforated cones or moulds of metal or wood, with an exhausting cylinder beneath; when the hair has been received on one of those perforated cones or moulds to a sufficient thickness, a cowl of linen or flannel is to be drawn gently over it, and then a hollow perforated cover, of copper or any other suitable metal, is to be dropped over the cowl; the cone or mould is then to be immersed in a vat or tub of boilinghot water, and there allowed to remain for about a minute, after which it is to be taken out, and the metal cover and flannel or linen cowl removed, when the bat or layer of hair will be found felted to a degree that it may be readily finished off by the workman in the usual manner at the oven." As illustrating the history of the art, and fixing the true relations to it of subsequent discoveries, rather than as directly bearing on the case in issue, it may be mentioned that in 1842 a certain Fosket began experiments in this same branch of business, and obtained a patent January 23, 1846, three months before Wells obtained his original patent.† Fosket's machine consisted of a combination of a vibrating A "bat" is a hat-body in the process of formation. t Wells's reissue, No. 1C87, referred in its preamble to this patent of Fosket, reciting it as a prior patent. Statement of the case. bowstring disintegrating apparatus, worked by a wheel, as in figure 7; a hollow perforated revolving vacuum cone and a trunk or conductor, partially surrounding the disintegrater at one end, and extending to the cone, for the purpose of guiding and directing the fur between the disintegrating mechanism and the cone. The patent of Fosket was reissued March 23, 1858, two years anterior to the Wells reissues of 1860. A person named Robertson, and Hezekiah Miller, a Philadelphian, had previously made certain improvements, not necessary to be specially presented; the former in 1838, the latter in 1839. The present controversy related to the formation of the "hat-body," or foundation of the hat on the perforated cone, and the removal of it when formed from the cone without injury to the texture; the former matter being the principal question. A fur hat-body is required to be made of uniform thickness in the direction of its circumference, and of varying thickness from brim to tip, thin at the tip and along the crown, and thick at the band and brim; but thickest at the junction of the brim with the crown, termed the band To secure lightness with the requisite strength calls for such a distribution of the material as will concentrate most of it where strength is most required. Wells, from whom, as already mentioned, the complainant |