The Blowing Machine

   In the manufacture of the finest kinds of fur hats, namely, those with a flowing nap, the stuffs of which they are made must be thoroughly refined.

   The clipping and pulling operations, to which the skins were subjected previous to cutting off the fur, never free the fur entirely of the coarse hairs that are intermixed with the finer; and to separate the coarse from the fine, the fur, as it came off the skin, is placed under the action of the blowing machine, which consists of a long, close, narrow, wooden box, divided into a number of apartments, the divisions between each of them having an open space at the top or bottom, so that a blast of wind can be propelled through the whole length of the trunk. The fur is put into one of these receptacles at one end, where it is teased and tossed by revolving brushes set in the bottoms of several of them, and a revolving fan is placed at the head. The whole being set in motion by some first power, the blast of wind from the fan seizes the loose thrown up fur that is tossed by the revolving breakers and brushes, and the stream of flying fur is transmitted from division to division, along the whole length of the wooden box. In this operation, the fur is graded as it is blown along and deposited gradually in the respective places, lodging in the most regular order, from the one end of the wooden trunk to the other, the dust and dirt falling down below, the heavier portion of fur not being blown to the same distance as that of the finer, which reaches the farther end, where the finest of all is received entirely refined of its impurities. But the cutting and blowing of fur are both independent and distinct branches of business, although relatively connected with that of hatting, and the various grades of fur are bought by the hatters from the professional hat furriers or their agents.

from page 36 of
A TREATISE ON HAT-MAKING AND FELTING,
INCLUDING A FULL
EXPOSITION OF THE SINGULAR PROPERTIES
OF FUR, WOOL, AND HAIR.
by John Thomson,
a practical hatter.
1868
for HairQuest 2024