Mad as a Hatter

No agreement about a colloquial phrase that predates Lewis Caroll

‘Mad as a hatter’ is a phrase usually used to describe extreme eccentricity. It appears twice in The Clockmaker (1817) by the Canadian writer Thomas Haliburton. But here the word ‘mad’ is used in the sense of angry:

And 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. *The Clockmaker (1817) by Thomas Haliburton*.

“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. Says she, Sam, I do believe you are a born fool, I vow.”[6][9]

Lewis Carroll

Perhaps surprisingly, not used directly by any of the characters in either Alice in Wonderland (1865) or Through the Looking Glass (1871).

The Mad Hatter features in the Mad Tea Party. Later, he also appears as a witness during the trial. He is rude to Alice during the tea party. When he is called upon by the Queen, he is very nervous and frightened.

In ‘Through the Looking-Glass’, the Hatter returns as the Anglo-Saxon messenger ‘Hatta’. Although everybody labels him ‘the Mad Hatter’, Lewis Carroll always referred to him as ‘the Hatter’.

Chapter VII of Alice is called A Mad Tea Party and is attended by a hatter. The Cheshire Cat calls the Hatter ‘mad’ but ‘mad’ is normal in the world of the story.

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It is the zany antics at the tea party that are being referenced in modern usage of the phrase.

Mercury poisoning

The phrase is commonly believed to allude to the grim effect of mercury poisoning on workers (hatters) manufacturing felt hats.

Victims developed severe and uncontrollable muscular tremors and twitching limbs, called ‘hatter’s shakes’; other symptoms included distorted vision and confused speech. Advanced cases developed hallucinations and other psychotic symptoms. source

Mercury poisoning affects the nervous system, with dementia a common symptom. Daily direct contact with the metal made hat-makers particularly vulnerable to the affliction.

The use of mercury in hat making progressively declined from the 1890s onward. By the time it was formally banned in the US in 1941, it had been largely replaced by hydrogen peroxide.

The connection lived on in the public imagination, however, largely through the popularity of Alice in Wonderland.

A real Mad Hatter?

The model for Teniell’s famous illustration of Hatta is believed to be Theophilus Carter, an eccentric furniture dealer in Oxford. According to the Rev. W. Gordon Baillie:

All Oxford called him the Mad Hatter. He would stand at the door of his furniture shop…always with a top hat at the back of his head.

For the Great Exhibition of 1851, Carter invented an elaborate clock contraption. Its USP was that it could tip you straight out of your bed into a cold bath.

Strangely, this enterprising product did not catch on. It is currently unavailable on Amazon.