A Seventh "What In the World Is It?"

Unfortunately, no Patch reader identified the sixth What Is It? item, which was nearly identical to similar items in the collection of the Millburn-Short Hills Historical Society. The wood object is a hat block, for millinery use. Millburn got its name from our many mills on the 'burn,' the Scottish word for a river or stream. The community's water-powered, early mills manufactured paper and, somewhat later, some of them became fulling mills. A fulling mill was a mill where handwoven cloth could be put in condition for use, blocked, pressed, dyed, etc. Millburn historian Marian Meisner explains the history of the evolution of the mills: "...Captain Eaglesfield or Mr. Condit, or perhaps both of them, acquired exclusive ownership of the Wells patent, a revolutionary method of manufacturing fur hat bodies by machinery, and eventually felt hat making became even more important here than papermaking, and brought many other well-known names, such as William Pettigrew, Albert D. Traphagen, William Bodwell, and Charles A. Lighthipe, into our history. 

Under Mr. Condit's ownership the Eaglesfield-Condit mill changed to fur hat bodies; William Pettigrew's mill, built in 1849, at Church and Main Streets, later known as Graves, produced 30 dozen felt hats daily at the height of its business. Butler's Hat Factory, started by William Bodwell in 1861, at the corner of Spring and Church Streets; Summer's Hat Factory, erected by Stephen A. Meeker on Spring Street in 1870, later conducted by O.H. Summers; Wickman's near the Springfield line; Edwards on Main Street; William Dillon's on Main Street; Shaw and Duffy's on Ocean Street; Brown's on Main Street, and Fouratt's on Mechanic Street, employed hundreds of people and turned out more than 300 dozen hats or hat bodies a day. The Lighthipe Hat Body Factory once turned out 1800 hats a day."

With the proliferation of mills making felt for hats, there followed a proliferation of hat makers and hat shops. One of the last hat shops still standing was behind a house on Forest Drive and can be seen here. The shop was demolished before the house was sold to the present owner, but the historical society was able to salvage some significant architectural elements of the shop.

The first two (a bit quirky) videos here provide considerable information about hat blocks and the third video demonstrates how they were used:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7NYjQDBaVA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=uGaPDCEK6as

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psK2UCttYAQ&feature=related

This week's item is about 4" long, has a 2" diameter, and is hollow--exactly like a toilet paper tube. Can you guess what it is?

We will use this blog to highlight unusual objects at the Millburn-Short Hills Historical Society museum. The objects will be posted with only minimal information, so we encourage you to guess what the object is or what its purpose was. In approximately one week, information about the object will be revealed and a new object will be posted.

The first person with a correct guess will receive a small custom gift from the historial society and is invited to contact us at mshhs@comcast.net, to let us know whether to mail/deliver the gift or expect a visit to the museum (we appreciate pickups).

[Many thanks to Millburn High School volunteer Anna Gracey for scanning the objects and composing the introduction.]