The other day while driving down Grand Avenue in Brooklyn I spotted the former Knox Hat Company and stopped to take a picture. It reminded me of what I learned once about Mad Hatter's Disease from Dr. Richard Greenwald, now of Drew University. The above slide show took inspiration from that. Dr. Greenwald was referring to this study
Johan Varekamp, George I. Seney Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences, has followed Carroll's Hatter's example by investigating mercury. When he and his students at Wesleyan University investigated cores of sediments taken at the mouth of the Housatonic River in western Connecticut, they found high levels of mercury. The source was a mystery. They traced the mercury back up the river by doing more sampling, finding ever higher concentrations, until they reached the source: the Still River in Danbury. They were initially surprised to find such high concentrations (less than the State identifies as dangerous, but close enough to cause concern should the mercury become concentrated.)
What could have happened nearby, they wondered, to cause the phenomenon?
The Hat City's Past: Danbury Connecticut has always been known as "The Hat City". It was the hat making capital of the world in the 19th century. At first the felt fur hats were made by hand in small shops. During the 1830's, more people were employed in hatmaking there than in any other trade. Some farmers were known to pull out a kettle, gather some furs, and hang up a hatter's shingle as a cottage industry in lean times.
European hatters brought their trade with them when they emigrated to North America. It became such a successful industry that in 1731, King George II banned exports of hats from the colonies to benefit hatters in England. The city of Danbury had all of the necessary prerequisites for a successful hatmaking industry: abundant water, transportation, animal furs, and plentiful labor.
Local legend says the first Danbury hatter might have been Zoe Benedict. Wool felt was already made in many parts of the world. But Benedict found a new twist. Being a busy New England Yankee, when he got a hole in his shoe, he plugged it with a scrap of rabbit fur. Later he discovered that pressure and perspiration had transformed it into felt. He experimented with fur felt, shaping large pieces into hats on his bedpost. His shop opened on Main Street in 1780, making beaver hats at the rate of three per day.
Business boomed, because everyone then wore hats! Hats were indicators of gender, occupation, social status, season, interests, and personality. Abraham Lincoln's famous stovepipe hats were made of beaver felt, and may have been made in Danbury. Hatmaking spread to a smaller degree to other towns in the state. Danbury was burned by British troops in 1777, during the American Revolutionary War, but another revolution, this time Industrial, brought hatmaking back with a vengeance. With mechanization, factories sprang up.
At the peak of the industry, five million hats a year were produced in 56 different factories in Danbury. A process called "carroting" was used in the production, but it had nothing to do with vegetables. Carroting involved washing animal furs with an orange-colored solution containing a mercury compound, mercury nitrate.
The colorful solution facilitated the separation of the fur from the pelt and made it mat together smoothly. The fur was then shaped into large cones, then shrunk in boiling water and dried many times before final shaping, smoothing, and finishing. Workers would often be exposed to mercury vapors in the steamy air. Many hatters with long-term exposure, particularly those involved in carroting, got mercury poisoning.
Mercury poisoning attacks the nervous system, causing drooling, hair loss, uncontrollable muscle twitching, a lurching gait, and difficulties in talking and thinking clearly. Stumbling about in a confused state with slurred speech and trembling hands, affected hatters were sometimes mistaken for drunks. The ailment became known as ³The Danbury Shakes². In very severe cases, they experienced hallucinations.
"Mad as a hatter" became a common term for someone experiencing severe mental problems. Some hatters eventually died of mercury poisoning. In 1934, following intense objections from hatters¹ labor unions, a major scientific study was performed and documented mercury poisoning in hatters. Processes to mat felt that did not include mercury were developed, and by 1943 all use of mercury in hatmaking ceased. Processes to mat felt that didn't include mercury were developed.
vocal by Patty McGovern
I say I'll move the mountains
And I'll move the mountains
If he wants them out of the way
Crazy he calls me
Sure I'm crazy
Crazy in love I'd say
I say I'll go through fire
And I'll go through fire
As he wants it so it shall be
Crazy he calls me
Sure I'm crazy
Crazy in love you see
Like the wind that shakes the bough
He moves me with a smile
The difficult I'll do right now
The impossible will take a little while
I say I'll care forever
And I mean forever
If I have to hold up the sky
Crazy he calls me
Sure I'm crazy
Crazy in love am I
Like the wind that shakes the bough
He moves me with a smile
The difficult I'll do right now
The impossible will take a little while
I say I'll care forever
And I mean forever
If I have to hold up the sky
Crazy he calls me
Sure I'm crazy
Crazy in love am I
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