In the Victorian Era, Mercury was used for making felt hats. The hat makers, inhaling the toxic vapors, often suffered from neurological disorders and died. The symptoms that hat makers displayed gave rise to the phrase “mad as a hatter”pic.twitter.com/7HBu0oEcln
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Mad as a hatter wasn’t coined by Lewis Carroll. The saying turns up in Blackwood’s Magazine in 1829
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Wow, so he was based on a real person... The theory about mercury poison looked right and believable ! Thanks for your correction on this !
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I've always loved this story but unfortunately it's apparently not true
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It was an affliction of early photographers. Daguerreotype plates were fumed with mercury. I believe Hawthorne made reference to that in House of the Seven Gables.
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Oh, that's dark...
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It's also why the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland is as crazy as he is.
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Now this character makes sense for me...
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I've heard it's a really old phrase that predates the use of mercury. "Mad" meant poisonous or dangerous and "hatter' is a corruption of "adder". Anglo Saxon meaning was "venomous as a snake". Maybe it was repurposed for mad hatters in the 1800s?
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(sorry to be an etymology pedant. Love your tweets!)
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Can you imagine walking in: “Excuse me, might I peruse your selection felt hat-“ “HAVE YOU SEEN THE SEVENTH MOON ON THE EVE OF SANGUIS LUPIS!” “Righty’o I’ll just take this one here.”
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Gracias por la información
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The more you know
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Mercury fumes also used to develop early Daguerreotype photos. Early photographers were also afflicted.
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No way! Well there you go!
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