The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.
(c)1998-2002; (c)2002 by Gale. Gale is an imprint of The Gale Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Gale and Design and Thomson Learning are trademarks used herein under license.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: "Social Concerns", "Thematic Overview", "Techniques", "Literary Precedents", "Key Questions", "Related Titles", "Adaptations", "Related Web Sites". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
All other sections in this Literature Study Guide are owned and copyrighted by BookRags, Inc.
A legend concerning the invention of felt begins with a group of merchants traveling on foot. After many hours their feet became sore and chafed and, seeking relief, they padded their shoes with soft fur plucked from their camels' coats. When they removed their shoes that evening the moisture, heat, and pressure had compressed the fur into a new material--felt. While the authenticity of this tale is dubious, it demonstrates the basic method for preparing felt.
For thousands of years felt has been made by cultures that domesticate wool-bearing animals, such as sheep. The natural wool fibers are scaly, so that they will become interlocked when meshed together. In order to make felt, a quantity of shorn wool is dampened and pressed; heat is often applied as well. The thickness of the felt depends upon the quantity of wool and the amount of pressure used; the resulting felt can be soft and thick, or very thin and rigid (such as the felt used to cover piano hammers). Felt is a versatile material: it can be used for clothing, upholstery, carpeting, and hats.
While felt, unlike woven fabrics, cannot fray, its meshing will begin to unravel if it is not stitched or quilted in some way. Felt can also be easily shaped, just by pressing the loose wool against a mold. Because it is created through a single-step process, felt is an inexpensive material to manufacture, and simple felt "planking" was carried on until the 1970s. Recently, attempts have been made to replace wool felt with felt made from synthetic fiber s, called bonded-fiber fabrics. Because the artificial fibers (usually polyester or acrylic) do not possess scales, an adhesive must be used to make them mesh together.