CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



Prepared by either of the plans, the flax is now 

 ready to be freed completely of its woody particles. 

 This is effected by scutching. Previous to this, 

 however, the flax is passed through a brake or 

 revolving rollers, in order thoroughly to crush the 

 boon. The brake, worked by manual labour, con- 

 sists of a frame, in the upper side of which are a 

 number of grooves ; a movable piece is hinged at 

 one end, and provided with a similar grooved 

 piece on its lower side, but so placed that the pro- 

 jections pass into the hollows of the lower. The 

 flax, placed between these, and struck by bringing 

 down the hinged part, is broken, but the fibre 

 remains uninjured. 



In the flax-breaking machine, the flax is passed 

 through a series of horizontal fluted rollers ; the 

 flutes do not touch, thus preserving the fibre while 

 breaking the boon. In Plummets machine, five 

 rollers are used, and the pressure on the flax is 

 regulated by weights suspended to 

 the axles of the rollers. Fig. 2 is a 

 diagram illustrative of this machine ; | 

 the flax to be broken is laid upon 

 the table f, and passed between the 

 rollers a, b ; from these it is led by 

 Fig. 2. the curved plate hh, to the rollers 

 b, c ; from thence to d, e, and finally 

 placed on the table g. In continental countries, 

 scutching is almost invariably performed by hand, 

 the flax being held in a groove made in an upright 

 stand, and struck by a flat blade. Machine- 

 scutching is much more certain and expeditious 

 than hand-scutching, and is, in consequence, fast 

 superseding it in this country. After passing 

 through the breaking-machine, the flax is sub- 

 jected to the action of a series of knives, b, b, 

 attached to the arms of a vertical wheel, a, fig. 3 ; 

 these knives strike the flax in the direction of its 

 length. A side-view of the arms and knives is 

 shewn at c, c, fig. 3. The process is gone through 



Fig- 3- 



three times before the flax is ready for the market. 

 Although machine-scutching is expeditious, it is 

 not capable of that pliant adaptation to the vary- 

 ing nature of the flax to be operated upon, which 

 is obtained in hand-scutching. The effect of 

 machine-scutching is to produce fineness by re- 

 ducing and impairing, rather than sustaining, the 

 character of the fibre namely, the length and 

 fineness of its ' staple ' or fibre. 



The diagram to the right of fig. 3 shews part of 

 the disk, g, to one side of which brushes (of which 

 one is seen at/) are attached : e is a front-view of 

 the brush/ 



After being scutched, the flax is made up into 

 stricks, or small bundles, and taken to the next 

 process, which is the first of what are strictly 

 called the 'manufacturing operations.' The bundles 

 are usually composed of fibres some eighteen to 

 thirty inches long ; the part nearest the ends is of 

 least, that nearest the centre of the fibre of the 

 highest, value. To obtain the most valuable 



portion of each strick, it is separated into three, 

 sometimes four parts, by means of a machine, of 

 which fig. 4 is an illustrative 

 diagram. In the centre of the 

 framing, a wheel, aa, is sup- 

 ported on a shaft or axis ; the 

 periphery of this is furnished 

 with a series of projecting or 

 cutting edges of an elliptical 

 form. On each side of this cutting-wheel, two 

 pair of grooved rollers, bb, cc, revolve. An end- 

 view is given to the right of the cut, in which only 

 the set of rollers at one side, b, b, are visible. 

 The stricks are held stretched between the adja- 

 cent pairs of rollers, b, b ; and the revolution of 

 the rollers advances the flax sidewise against the 

 cutting edges of the wheel, so that it is divided 

 into two lengths, the one, however, being shorter 

 than the other. The longer of the two parts is 

 passed through the machine a second time, and 

 thus each strick is divided into three lengths, of 

 which the middle portion is more valuable than 

 the two end portions. The three lengths thus 

 obtained are laid on separate heaps, to be ready 

 for the succeeding process of hackling. 



The object of this is thoroughly to clean the 

 fibres, and to parallelise them, the cleaned por- 

 tion being termed line, the refuse tow, which 

 last is used for coarse sacking, &c. Hackling, as 

 performed by hand, is as follows : The hackle is 

 a strong comb, composed of several rows of steel 

 teeth, four or five inches in length, fixed upright 

 in a block of wood as a base, and made fast to a 

 bench, fig. 5. The workman, taking a 

 handful of scutched flax, strikes it against 

 the pointed summits of the teeth, and 

 draws it through repeating the process 

 till the requisite fineness is obtained. 

 Coarser and wider-toothed hackles are first used, 

 and then others progressively closer, as the fibres 

 become finer by separation. 



The process, however, is now almost universally 

 effected by machinery, the nature and operation 

 of which may be briefly described. The hackling- 

 points are arranged in bands, 

 or alternate rows, a, a, fig. 6, 

 round the circumference of a 

 cylinder, bb ; the rows of points 

 are of different finenesses the 

 row at one end being coarsest, 

 the next finer, and so on. The 

 flax to be operated upon is 

 suspended above the cylinder 

 by means of a holder, c. The process is threefold 

 first, as the end of the strick of flax depending 

 from the holder is required to be hackled less 

 than the middle portion, the strick is made to rise 

 from, and approach to, the hackling-points ; as 

 the strick falls, the hackling-points pass through 

 the ends, obtaining a deeper hold the lower the 

 strick descends, and the thicker portion comes in 

 contact with the teeth ; and vice versa. The 

 strick is made to rise and fall as thus described, 

 by placing the holder which carries it upon a 

 table, dd, which, by means of a cam-movement, 

 is made to rise and fall as desired. The second 

 movement desiderated is the pushing of the 

 holders with their stricks along the table, to put 

 the flax successively in contact with the rows of 

 hackle-teeth of different gradations of fineness. 

 This is effected in a variety of ways by ingenious 



Fig- 5- 



Fie. 6. 



