BLEACHING 389 



12. Put in chloride of limo as before. 



13. Soured, in hydrochloric acid of 1012'5 specific gravity, or 2i Twaddle. 



14. Lies six hours on stallages. Astillage is a kind of low stool used to protect tho 

 cloth from tho floor. 



15. Washed till clean. 



16. Squeezed in rollers. 



17. Dried over tin cylinders heated by steam. 



This is the process for calico generally ; some light goods must bo more carefully 

 handled. The usual time occupied by all these processes is five days. They are 

 sometimes dried in a hydro-extractor ; after singeing, laid twenty-four hours to steep, 

 then washed before being put into the lime Oder. 



BLEACHING OF LINEN. 



Linen contains much more colouring-matter than cotton. Tho former loses nearly 

 a third of its weight, while the latter loses not more than a twentieth. Tho fibres of 

 flax possess, in tho natural condition, a light grey, yellow, or blond colour. By tho 

 operation of rotting, or, as it is commonly called, water-retting, which is employed 

 to enable the textile filaments to be separated from the boon, or woody matter, the 

 colour becomes darker, and, in consequence probably of the putrefaction of the green 

 matter of the bark, the colouring-substance appears. Hence, flax prepared without 

 rotting is much paler, and its colouring-matter may be in a great measure removed 

 by washing with soap, leaving the filaments nearly white. Mr. James Lee obtained a 

 patent in 1812, as having discovered that tho process of steeping and dew-retting is 

 unnecessary, and that flax and hemp will not only dress, but will produce an equal if 

 not greater quantity of more durable fibre, when cleaned in the dry way. Mr. Lee 

 stated that, when hemp or flax-plants are ripe, the farmer has nothing more to do 

 than to pull, spread, and dry them in the sun, and then to break them by proper 

 machinery. This promising improvement has apparently come to nought, having 

 been many years abandoned by the patentee himself, though he was favoured with a 

 special Act of Parliament, which permitted the specification of his patent to remain 

 scaled up for seven years, contrary to the general practice in such cases. 



The substance which gives steeped flax its peculiar tint is insoluble in boiling 

 water, in acids, and in alkalis ; but it possesses tho property of dissolving in caustic 

 or carbonated alkaline lyes, when it has by previous exposure been acted on only by 

 chlorine. This process is effected in great measure by the influence of air in combina- 

 tion with light and moisture acting on the linen cloth laid upon the grass : but chlorine 

 hastens tho operation. In no case, however, is it possible to dissolve tho colour com- 

 pletely at once, but there must bo many alternate exposures to oxygen or chlorine, 

 and alkali, before tho flax becomes white. It is this circumstance alone which renders 

 the bleaching of linen an apparently complicated business. 



Old Method. A parcel of goods consists of 360 pieces of those linens which are 

 called Britannias. Each piece is 35 yards long, and weighs, on an average, 10 Ibs.; 

 the weight of the parcel is, in consequence, about 3,600 Ibs. avoirdupois weight. Tho 

 linens are first washed, and then steeped in waste alkaline lye, as formerly described 

 under these processes ; they then undergo the following operations : 



1. Bucked with 60 Ibs. pearl -ashes, washed, exposed on the field. 



2. Ditto 80 ditto ditto ditto ditto. 



3. Ditto 90 potashes ditto ditto ditto. 



4. Ditto 80 ditto ditto ditto ditto. 



5. Ditto 80 ditto ditto ditto ditto. 



6. Ditto 50 ditto ditto ditto ditto. 



7. Ditto 70 ditto ditto ditto ditto. 



8. Ditto 70 ditto ditto ditto ditto. 



9. Soured one night in dilute sulphuric acid ; washed. 



10. Bucked with 50 Ibs. pearl-ashes, washed, exposed on tho field. 



11. Immersed in the chloride of potash or lime 12 hours. 



12. Boiled with 30 Ibs. pearl-ashes, washed, exposed on the field. 



13. Ditto 30 ' ditto ditto ditto ditto. 



14. Soured, washed. 



The linens are then taken to the rubbing-board, and well rubbed with a strong 

 lather of black soap, after which they are well washed in pure spring- water. At this 

 period they are carefully examined, and those which are fully bleached are laid aside 

 to be blued, and made up for tho market ; while those which are not fully white are 

 returned to be boiled, and steeped in the chloride of limo OP potash ; then soured, 

 until they are fully white. 



