Well I was always told it was to keep the hats shiny. Seemed to make sense, they always looked shiny and silvery.
then since your reply
I googled it out of interest
OMG
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erethism
or
"this was common among old England felt-hatmakers who used
mercury to stabilize the wool in a process called felting, where hair was cut from a pelt of an animal such as a rabbit. The industrial workers were exposed to the mercury vapors, giving rise to the expression “mad as a hatter.”
[1] Some believe that the character
the Mad Hatter in
Lewis Carroll's
Alice in Wonderland is an example of someone suffering from erethism, but the origin of this account is unclear. The character was almost certainly based on
Theophilus Carter, an eccentric furniture dealer who was well known to Carroll.
[2]"
and
Especially in the 19th century,
inorganic mercury in the form of
mercuric nitrate was commonly used in the production of
felt for hats.
[17] During a process called carroting, in which furs from small animals such as rabbits, hares or beavers were separated from their skins and matted together, an orange-colored solution containing mercuric nitrate was used as a smoothing agent. The resulting felt was then repeatedly shaped into large cones, shrunk in boiling water and dried.
[13] In treated felts, a slow reaction released volatile free mercury.
[18] Hatters (or
milliners) who came into contact with vapours from the impregnated felt often worked in confined areas
quoted ex google
life.
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