Felt

(fill.) [A.S.] (Manf.) Coarse wool, fur, or hair, matted together in a peculiar way, and used in the making of hats, . The method of working up such materials into a species of cloth, independently of either spinning or weaving, is called felting, and consists in causing the hairs to interlace with each other, which they readily do by virtue of their tendency to curl, and of the minute serratures with which they are ringed throughout their length. For this purpose, they are intimately mixed together by the operation of bowing, which is effected by means of the vibrations of an elastic string, the rapid alternations of whose motion are peculiarly well adapted to remove all irregular knots and adhesions among the fibres, and to dispose them in a very light and uniform ma . This, when pre ed under cloths and leather, readily unites into a fabric of some firmne ; and this is brought to the pro por shape by various subsequent operations. [s. 1]