ii-5-i
New in Town
- Messages
- 48
- Location
- Lincolnshire, Illinois
I came across these tidbits recently.
"In her classic work, Industrial Poisons in the United States, published in 1925, Alice Hamilton reviews the general subject of mercurialism in one chapter and devotes a separate chapter to the hat industry. The latter is longer than the former, reflecting the importance attached to health hazards among hatters during the first decades of the 20th century. According to Hamilton, the process of treating the fur with mercury nitrate, the so-called secretage, "...has been traced back to the middle of the 17th century when it was a secret in the hands of a few French workmen, evidently Huguenots; for at the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 when the Huguenots fled to England, they carried the secret with them, established the trade there, and for almost a century thereafter the French were dependent on England for their felt." This statement is difficult to reconcile with that which appears in Diderot's encyclopaedia published in 1753, to the effect that in preparing fur for making hats "...the pelts are rubbed with an acid solution before the fur is removed...." It is also at variance with an account of secretage given by Lee (1968) in which he states that the process was introduced into England from Frankfurt around 1870. The latter is in consonance with Thackrah's failure to include mercury poisoning in his description of hazards in the British hat industry in the early part of the 19th century.
The complete story of the process of secretage has been difficult to ascertain, particularly for the period between the middle of the 18th and the middle of the 19th centuries. Some features are well documented while others are not. That the Huguenot hatters left France around 1685 is well established (Unwin 1904; Kellogg 1925; Cunningham 1897; Smiles 1868; Weiss 1854; Erman and Reclam 1782-94).
Aware of the loss to the French economy of the skills taken out of the country by Huguenot refugees, Louis XIV sent the Marquis de Bonrepaus to England to try to persuade the expatriates to return. The Marquis wrote from London in 1686 that "The other manufactures which have become established in this country, are those of hats of Caudebec, and the dressing, in the best manner of Chamois skins" (Weiss 1854). In commenting on this, Weiss says:
The manufacture of hats, indeed, was one of the finest branches of business with which the refugees endowed the English. In France, it had been almost entirely in the hands of 'the Reformed.' They, alone, possessed the secret of the composition water, which serves for the preparation of the rabbit, hare, and beaver skins, and they alone furnished to trade the fine hats of Caudebec, so much sought after in England and Holland. After the revocation, most of them retired to London, taking with them the secret of their art, which was lost to France for more than 40 years. It was not until the middle of the 18th century, that a French hatter named Mathieu, after having worked long in London, stole the secret, which had been imported by the refugees, took it to his own country, generously communicated it to the hatters of Paris, and founded a large manufactory in the Suburb of Saint Antoine. Before that fortunate theft, the French nobility and all those who prided themselves on the elegance of their dress, wore none but hats of English manufacture, and the cardinals of Rome, themselves, sent for their hats from the celebrated manufactory of Wandworth, which had been established by the refugees.
This account by Weiss, which is entirely credible, has often been quoted and, no doubt, the quoters have in turn been quoted, as evidence by the variations which have appeared. What is not clear is the fate of felt making in England after M. Mathieu absconded with the "secret." Thackrah's failure to note the occurrence of mercury poisoning in the early 1800's in England adds support to the assertion that mercury carroting was introduced, or rather, re-introduced after 1830.
Our anonymous informant (personal communication 1970) has provided an interesting account of the origin of the use of mercury compound in the making of felt.
The felting process began with camel hair in what is now a part of Turkey. The hair of camels was made into tough felt material for tents. It was discovered that the felting process was accelerated with the urine of the camel. The art was brought back to Western Europe by the followers of the Crusades. It become the habit for the workers to urinate on the fibres before felting them. The story goes that one particular workman (probably in France!) was being treated with mercury for a venereal disease. It was noticed that his fibres, after the treatment mentioned above, felted quicker and better than that of his more healthy comrades. This was the secret which gave the process the name of 'le secretage' in France. This may be an old wives tale, but it has been passed down in the Felt-hat Industry as the origin of the use of mercury.
Apocryphal or not, the story merits recording."
"In her classic work, Industrial Poisons in the United States, published in 1925, Alice Hamilton reviews the general subject of mercurialism in one chapter and devotes a separate chapter to the hat industry. The latter is longer than the former, reflecting the importance attached to health hazards among hatters during the first decades of the 20th century. According to Hamilton, the process of treating the fur with mercury nitrate, the so-called secretage, "...has been traced back to the middle of the 17th century when it was a secret in the hands of a few French workmen, evidently Huguenots; for at the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 when the Huguenots fled to England, they carried the secret with them, established the trade there, and for almost a century thereafter the French were dependent on England for their felt." This statement is difficult to reconcile with that which appears in Diderot's encyclopaedia published in 1753, to the effect that in preparing fur for making hats "...the pelts are rubbed with an acid solution before the fur is removed...." It is also at variance with an account of secretage given by Lee (1968) in which he states that the process was introduced into England from Frankfurt around 1870. The latter is in consonance with Thackrah's failure to include mercury poisoning in his description of hazards in the British hat industry in the early part of the 19th century.
The complete story of the process of secretage has been difficult to ascertain, particularly for the period between the middle of the 18th and the middle of the 19th centuries. Some features are well documented while others are not. That the Huguenot hatters left France around 1685 is well established (Unwin 1904; Kellogg 1925; Cunningham 1897; Smiles 1868; Weiss 1854; Erman and Reclam 1782-94).
Aware of the loss to the French economy of the skills taken out of the country by Huguenot refugees, Louis XIV sent the Marquis de Bonrepaus to England to try to persuade the expatriates to return. The Marquis wrote from London in 1686 that "The other manufactures which have become established in this country, are those of hats of Caudebec, and the dressing, in the best manner of Chamois skins" (Weiss 1854). In commenting on this, Weiss says:
The manufacture of hats, indeed, was one of the finest branches of business with which the refugees endowed the English. In France, it had been almost entirely in the hands of 'the Reformed.' They, alone, possessed the secret of the composition water, which serves for the preparation of the rabbit, hare, and beaver skins, and they alone furnished to trade the fine hats of Caudebec, so much sought after in England and Holland. After the revocation, most of them retired to London, taking with them the secret of their art, which was lost to France for more than 40 years. It was not until the middle of the 18th century, that a French hatter named Mathieu, after having worked long in London, stole the secret, which had been imported by the refugees, took it to his own country, generously communicated it to the hatters of Paris, and founded a large manufactory in the Suburb of Saint Antoine. Before that fortunate theft, the French nobility and all those who prided themselves on the elegance of their dress, wore none but hats of English manufacture, and the cardinals of Rome, themselves, sent for their hats from the celebrated manufactory of Wandworth, which had been established by the refugees.
This account by Weiss, which is entirely credible, has often been quoted and, no doubt, the quoters have in turn been quoted, as evidence by the variations which have appeared. What is not clear is the fate of felt making in England after M. Mathieu absconded with the "secret." Thackrah's failure to note the occurrence of mercury poisoning in the early 1800's in England adds support to the assertion that mercury carroting was introduced, or rather, re-introduced after 1830.
Our anonymous informant (personal communication 1970) has provided an interesting account of the origin of the use of mercury compound in the making of felt.
The felting process began with camel hair in what is now a part of Turkey. The hair of camels was made into tough felt material for tents. It was discovered that the felting process was accelerated with the urine of the camel. The art was brought back to Western Europe by the followers of the Crusades. It become the habit for the workers to urinate on the fibres before felting them. The story goes that one particular workman (probably in France!) was being treated with mercury for a venereal disease. It was noticed that his fibres, after the treatment mentioned above, felted quicker and better than that of his more healthy comrades. This was the secret which gave the process the name of 'le secretage' in France. This may be an old wives tale, but it has been passed down in the Felt-hat Industry as the origin of the use of mercury.
Apocryphal or not, the story merits recording."
