ON THE PKOGRESS OF SCIENCE. XIII 



chanical invention has yet been devised to effect this result, without 

 occasioning great waste of fibre. Machines working economically 

 and rapidly, as compared with the old hand-break and " skutch," or 

 " swingle," have been invented in great number and variety ; but no 

 one of them has come into general, or even extensive use. The 

 main reason of this probably is, that the machines are too expensive 

 for individual agriculturists, who make flax-culture but one of a 

 diversity of employments ; and in this country flax is cultivated too 

 sparsely to afford much encouragement to individuals to make its 

 cleansing by power machinery a specialty. 



In 1850, Chevalier Claussen brought prominently before the British 

 public the project of mechanically breaking up the long fibres of flax 

 into short fibres resembling cotton in their length ; of preparing them 

 for spinning by the use of cotton-carding machinery, in the place of 

 the more imperfect " heckle," and of subsequently spinning them on 

 cotton machinery, in place of employing the slower and more difficult 

 to manage flax machinery. The objects sought thereby to be at- 

 tained were an economy of time and labor in spinning flax, and of 

 making the inferior part of the fibre, denominated " tow," equally 

 serviceable and valuable as the longer and straightened fibres. The 

 project seemed feasible, and British manufacturers embarked in it 

 with great zeal and energy ; but, after expending large sums of 

 money in experimentation, the scheme was entirely abandoned. In 

 the United States, the flax-cotton scheme from the first found many 

 supporters, and in various parts of the country efforts were made 

 to produce and manufacture it. In New England, the project was 

 taken up under the auspices of one of her largest manufacturing 

 companies, and an extensive series of experiments were conducted 

 by the best mechanical and chemical talent available. The conclu- 

 sion arrived at was substantially the same as that of the British man- 

 ufacturers above referred to, viz., that the scheme, although practica- 

 ble, was not profitable. The same conclusion was arrived at by other 

 parties in the United States, who at that time tested the plan on a 

 more limited scale, and we think we are warranted in saying that 

 no one of the American experimenters attained a measure of suc- 

 cess sufficient to warrant their continuance in the business. We 

 know, at least, that no one of the many premiums offered by mechan- 

 ical and agricultural societies in this country for the production 

 of flax-cotton of good quality, in considerable quantity, has ever 

 been claimed or awarded. Yet, notwithstanding these results, the 

 feasibility of manufacturing flax-cotton is still maintained by many, 

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