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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Kentucky, post: 2759320, member: 33176&quot;]One more to get all the mercury out of my system... The term &quot;Mad As A Hatter&quot; originated with the nervous disorder Victorian hatters seemed to be prone to and has been ascribed to mercury poisoning.&nbsp; If you ever wondered what mercury would have to do with hat making, read on.&nbsp; Top hats were made from felt.&nbsp; Felt is what is known as a non-woven fabric, since it is just a mass of fibers packed together much in the manner like paper is made.&nbsp; The finest felt came from beaver hair.&nbsp; Beaver hair is not smooth, each hair has little hooks on it so they catch together and make a strong waterproof fabric.&nbsp; To get beaver hair you had to have Jim Bridger go out and trap beavers (Oh...that&#039;s why they trapped them), obviously an expensive proposition.&nbsp; Rabbit hair (or fur) is much softer and much cheaper (Elmer Fudd works for peanuts) but the felt is poor since the hairs are smooth and slip over each other easily.&nbsp; Someone found out that hair exposed to water soluble mercury chloride would split, making lots of sites for entanglement, just like the hooks on the beaver hair.&nbsp; So, to make a felt for hat making, take a bunch of rabbit hair, put it in some water with some soap to help wet it and add mercury chloride to make it split.&nbsp; Have your assistant haul out dripping armloads of this and spread it over nets to drain and dry while the assistant is dripping wet with a mercury chloride solution.&nbsp; After a few years of this, the assistants REALLY had some nerve damage.&nbsp; BTW, nerve damage has nothing to do with mental disease.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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