MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 49 



right angles with its growth, bringing the lower portion of the stalks 

 into the bite of the vertical rollers, ranged iust back of the angles 



^J V 



formed at the base of the wedge-shaped projections, and delivered on 

 the ground in rows to be bundled. The rollers are driven by gear- 

 wheels, on a shaft receiving motion from the two large wheels, to 

 which the whole frame is adjusted. 



CLEMENS' FLAX DRESSING AND BREAKING MACHINE. 



This machine, invented by Mr. S. A. Clemens, of Springfield, has 

 been gradually perfected, and introduced during the past year into 

 the flax growing districts with great success. 



The apparatus is about eight feet in length, by four feet in width, 

 and three feet high. The entire weight is nearly one ton. It can be 

 driven by a horse power machine, or otherwise, as is convenient. 



In operating the machine, the flax straw is spread in successive 

 layers upon a feed apron, which advances it lengthwise upon the bite of 

 feed rollers, which carry it to a vibrating beater of peculiar construc- 

 tion, by the action of which, aided by currents of air from a fan 

 blower, the woody parts of the stalks are broken into minute frag- 

 ments, and separated and blown away from the machine on one side. 

 From the beater, the fiber without waste passes outward from a 

 discharging apron in successive layers, which are removed by an at- 

 tendant and finished upon a scutching wheel, attached to one side of 

 the machine, in a position convenient for the purpose. This rapidly 

 removes any remaining woody fragments, and the fibers are laid and 

 condensed, which completes the process of dressing. By the best 

 modes of dressing flax with labor-saving machinery, hitherto employed 

 in this, and European countries, the straw is first repeatedly passed 

 between rollers deeply and sharply fluted. The broken stalks are 

 then rough scutched, which removes the greater part of the shives, 

 and along with them, a large quantity of coarse tow. The flax is af- 

 terwards finished on the scutching wheel, which removes the remain- 

 ing shives, and the tow produced is of cleaner quality. Aside from 

 the expenditure of time and labor, from the necessity of repeated 

 handling, it is obvious that by this process a great waste of material 

 results from the peculiar action of the rotary breakers, the deep 

 sharp flutes of which not only operate to crush the woody parts of 

 the stalks, and make the shives of the long slender form which ad- 

 here so tenaciously to the fibers, but the fibers themselves, being 

 comparatively non-elastic, are greatly strained, bruised and broken 

 by the same action. From this arises the great amount of tow pro- 

 duced, when the flax is submitted to the action of the scutching knives 

 and the heckle. 



In Clemens' machine, each stalk is broken at regular intervals of 

 about one thirty-second of an inch, and the woody fragments as they are 

 broken off, are forced from their fibrous envelope and thrown off, 

 with comparatively no injurious strain upon the staple. As the layer 

 of ttroken flax pa/sees "between the beating surfaces, for the spae of 



