3-102-257 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Shaping hats and helmets: the hydraulic presses at work, 1909. 'Caps and the Man. The hats and the pith helmets are moulded in iron "basins," or moulds, by hydraulic pressure. It is interesting to note that the particular firm under discussion has no fewer than two thousand different knives or models in stock for the cutting and finishing of brims alone. Mr. Nathaniel Jacobson, head of the Clarence and the Imperial Hat Works, Manchester, recalls that when he commenced the manufacture of caps in 1863 it was a trade which employed scarcely twenty men in the whole of the city, while the workpeople now employed by this firm alone number 700 skilled men and women.' From "Illustrated London News", 1909.