190 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



appearance of being " overworked," and will also be unequal in strength. 

 The flax may be cut for this purpose either in the straw as it conies 

 from the field, with its bulk partially reduced, or after it has under- 

 gone the boiling process. But in order to spin flax successfully upon 

 cotton machinery, something more is required than the mere reduction 

 of the length of the fibre. After having undergone the boiling or 

 steeping process, and when the glutinous matter which binds them 

 together is removed, the fibres, however fine, are still harsh, coarse, 

 and elastic, when compared with cotton ; and the quantity in length of 

 yarn obtained from equal weights of flax and cotton, would be so greatly 

 in favor of the latter, as completely to preclude the possibility of the 

 former being substituted for it. For instance, one pound of fair bowed 

 Georgia cotton, spun into 30's, will yield 25,200 yards ; while one 

 pound of flax spun into " line " of a number about equal to that of the 

 cotton yarn, would produce but 21,000 yards, giving an advantage of 

 4,000 yards in the pound to cotton over flax. In addition to this, the 

 yarn would be produced from the raw cotton, by cotton machinery, at 

 an expense of less than three-pence, while that of the flax would be 

 about ten-pence the pound when prepared by the flax machinery. This 

 is a difficulty which has hitherto lain at the root of every attempt to spin 

 flax successfully and profitably upon cotton machinery. A minute's 

 attention, however, to the structure of the flax fibre, suggested to the 

 Chevalier Claussen a mode by which it might be successfully over- 

 come. The fibre of flax is cellular, and is formed by the union of bundles 

 of smaller fibres, which may be compared to the Roman fasces. If by 

 any process the character of the fibre could be altered if the minute, 

 hair-like, cellular substance could be further divided it is obvious 

 that the required increase in length and diminution of bulk could be 

 obtained. 



This achievement, apparently impossible, has been accomplished by 

 M. Claussen, by a process exceedingly simple, and with rapidity. It 

 has been already stated, that, in the processes required for the prepara- 

 tion of the flax for the flax-spinner, it was boiled in a solution of caustic 

 soda. To still further perfect the flax for the cotton-spinner, it is placed 

 in a vat containing a solution of carbonate of soda, where it is permit- 

 ted to remain until the whole becomes thoroughly saturated with the 

 salt. The mass is then transferred to a bath of weak acid ; this com- 

 ing in contact with the carbonate of soda, taken up and contained in 

 the interior of the fibres, generates carbonic acid gas, which, by its 

 expansive force, splits and divides the fibres into a vast number of rib- 

 bon-like filaments, the whole mass gradually being changed from the 

 damp, rigid aggregation of flax, to a light, expansive mass of cottony 

 texture, increasing in size like leavening dough, or an expanding sponge. 

 This, when examined under the microscope, presents all the appear- 

 ance of raw cotton. When carded and spun, it will be found that the 

 produce in yarn of the pound of flax, thus treated, instead of being less 

 in quantity than that of cotton, will be considerably more the differ- 

 ence varying according to the character of the fibre operated upon, and 

 the strength of the materials employed. One great advantage in con- 

 nection with this mode of preparing the flax and it is one of the 



