CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 189 



destroyed in the steeping process, had given rise to an opinion, very 

 generally held by agriculturists, that flax was an extremely exhaustive 

 crop. The flax thus produced is, in this stage, adapted for the manu- 

 facture of sail-cloth, and other coarse fabrics, ropes, cordage, &c. It 

 requires, however, a more minute separation of the fibres to adapt it 

 for the manufacture of finer descriptions of fabrics. To make the sub- 

 ject perfectly familiar to the reader, it will be necessary to explain the 

 structure of the flax fibre. The stem of the flax-plant consists of three 

 distinct parts the shove, straw, or woody matter which supports the 

 plant ; the fibres, which cover the outer surface of the straw ; and the 

 gum, or resin, by which the fibres are held together. The machine 

 removes the straw only, and partially disintegrates the fibres held to- 

 gether by the resinous substance. Hence their coarseness and their 

 suitability for coarse fabrics only. In order to adapt it for the linen 

 manufacture, as also to carry it one stage further in the process of prep- 

 aration for the cotton or wool spinner, it is necessary to obtain a more 

 complete separation of the fibres. This object is to be accomplished 

 by the removal of the resinous and glutinous substance which binds 

 them together ; and, as it does not appear that mechanical power will 

 completely effect this, recourse is had to chemical action. These sub- 

 stances are, therefore, dissolved by the chemical action of fermentation 

 which takes place under the ordinary modes of steeping, whether in 

 hot or cold water ; and the application of mechanical power in the 

 process of scutching, afterwards separates the fibres, and leaves 

 them in a fit state for the various manipulations required previous to 

 flax-spinning. It is found, however, that the present process of 

 steeping not only occupies a considerable portion of time, but that its 

 effects are not sufficiently uniform to render it a fitting mode to be 

 adopted in the preparation of flax for spinning on cotton machinery, 

 and that, even when employed in the preparation of flax for the ordi- 

 nary linen manufacturer, it possesses many disadvantages which it 

 would be desirable to remove. 



To obviate the difficulties attendant upon the ordinary method of 

 steeping, the following process has been adopted by M. Claussen : 

 The flax, either in the straw as it comes from the field, or in the state 

 in which its bulk has been reduced by mechanical means, is boiled in 

 a weak solution of caustic soda. The action of the soda dissolves com- 

 pletely the resinous and other substances of the plant, while, by its 

 combination with the oleaginous matters that it contains, it produces a 

 soapy kind of liquid, which removes, at the same time, all the coloring 

 matter from the plant, leaving it, unlike flax steeped in the ordinary 

 mode, perfectly free from all stain and impurity, and thereby facilitat- 

 ing greatly the after processes of bleaching or dyeing, whether in the 

 yarn or in the finished cloth. 



The next step of the process is the reduction of the flax fibre to lengths 

 adapted for spinning on cotton machinery. These required lengths are 

 obtained by a very nicely adjusted piece of mechanism, similar in its 

 principle to the ordinary chaff-cutting machines. It is here that the 

 greatest accuracy is required, as, if any of the fibres exceed the required 

 length, the yarn produced will " bite " in the rollers, and present the 



