The processed felt subsequently used for hat making continued to emit mercury vapour for some time after carrotting. After carrotting, the resulting matted fur was shrunk in boiling water and then dried. (Aside: before the 17th century, carrots were predominantly purple, not orange.) The specific benefit to the mercury nitrate here was to cause the stiffer outer hairs to soften and become limp, allowing the hatters to pack them together more easily.
#Mad as a hatter skin#
The specific felt production method here was to use mercury nitrate in a solution used to strip fur from animal skin (usually from a rabbit or beaver) in a process known as “carroting”, so called because of the orange-ish colour of the mercury-nitrate solution. The method in question seems to have been developed by the Huguenots of France who, after Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685, which had previously given them certain religious freedoms and rights, were forced to flee to Britain where they soon shared their little trade secret with British hatters, with it spreading from there. it was a phenomenon that continued into the mid-20th century for reasons we’ll get into in a bit.Īs to the underlying cause of mad hatters’ syndrome, in the 17th century in France, expensive hats made of felt began being produced using mercury nitrate. It continued to be a problem for hat makers through the 19th century in much of the Western world, though in the U.S.
#Mad as a hatter full#
The symptoms associated with this condition were first described in full detail in 1829 by a Russian physician, the same year the first known instance of the expression came about. The leading theory as to the origin of the phrase is that it refers to a genuine condition that began afflicting certain hat makers in the 17th century called “mad hatters’ syndrome” or “hatters’ shakes”. Says she, Sam, I do believe you are a born fool, I vow. (And later in the same work) Father he larfed out like any thing I thought he would never stop – and sister Sall got right up and walked out of the room, as mad as a hatter.
The next known documented instance of it appears in the 1835 work The Clockmaker, by Canadian Thomas Chandler Haliburton:Īnd with that he turned right round, and sat down to his map and never said another word, lookin’ as mad as a hatter the whole blessed time… TICKLER (aside to SHEPHERD.): He’s raving. NORTH: Many years – I was Sultan of Bello for a long period, until dethroned by an act of the grossest injustice but I intend to expose the traitorous conspirators to the indignation of an outraged world. The first documented instance of the phrase can be found in the 1829 short story, Noctes Ambrocianæ, published in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine: (The Hatter is referred to as “mad”, along with his little tea party, but he is never explicitly called “Mad Hatter” in Carroll’s works nor is the phrase “mad as a hatter” used.) So where did the phrase “mad as a hatter” actually come from? Lewis Carroll’s) 1865 novel, Alice in Wonderland, contrary to popular belief, Carroll neither coined the phrase nor did he use it in his works. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.Baki J asks: Why are people who are doing something crazy called mad as a hatter?Īlthough the phrase “mad as a hatter” is, and will likely long be, associated with Charles Dodgson’s (a.k.a.
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