FLAX 419 



seven analyses of oil-cake, giving nitrogenised matters, 28'47; fatty matters, 12-90; 

 gum and other soluble matters, 39'01. 



The third portion separated by the scutching process is termed ' scutching-tow t ' in 

 Ireland ; in Kussia and Prussia, ' codilla ; ' in France and Belgium, ' etouppe de teillagc,' 

 described above. These branches of the trade consume annually many thousand tons, 

 imported chiefly into Scotland, from Kussia and Prussia. In Franco, Belgium, and 

 Holland, the codilla or scutching-tow is chiefly retained by the growers or factors at 

 home, for a domestic manufacture of similar goods, and of coarse blouses and trowsers. 

 It has also been employed for conversion, by Claussen's process, into a finely-divided 

 mass of fibres, capable of being mixed with wool and spun along with it into yarn, 

 the fabric made from this yarn being chiefly hose. 



Before proceeding to treat of the processes to which flax fibre is subjected subse- 

 quent to scutching, it may be well to glance at the uses to which the seed is applied. 

 This valuable product of the plant furnishes two articles of much utility, and of very 

 extensive use, the oil and the cake. When the seed has been separated, dried, and 

 threshed out, it is either sold again for sowing or for conversion into cake and oil. 

 Of course the former purpose only consumes a small proportion of the seed produced 

 throughout the world, and in many countries it is not of a quality suitable to the chief 

 flax -growing localities. Thus, while northern Russia, Germany, the Low Countries, 

 and France either export seed for sowing, or consume their own produce to a considerable 

 extent for this purpose, the southern provinces of Russia, the States along the Medi- 

 terranean, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, and the East Indies, while large exporters of seed 

 for crushing, cannot sell any for sowing. The supply of the seed-crushers of the 

 United Kingdom is more largely obtained from Russia and Hindoostan than from any 

 other countries. The entire annual import of seed into the British Islands averages 

 600,000 to 800,000 quarters, value between a million and a half and two millions 

 sterling. The conversion of flax seed into oil and cake is carried out by different 

 methods. In France, Belgium, Holland, and the north of Europe generally, where 

 a large quantity is crushed, the apparatus employed is very simple and yet very effec- 

 tive. Lille, in France, Courtrai and Ghent, in Belgium, Neuss, in Prussia, and the 

 province of Holstein, are the great seats of this manufacture. See LINSEED. 



The seed is pounded in a kind of wooden mortar, cut out of solid timber, and at 

 the bottom lined with thick copper. By means of a revolving shaft, furnished 

 with projecting notches of wood, beams of oak 20 feet high, having the ends shod with 

 channelled iron, are alternately raised up and let fall into the mortars, where, in a 

 short time, they convert the seed into a pulpy mass. When sufficiently pounded, this 

 is removed and put into woollen bags, which are then wrapped tip in a leathern 

 case, lined with a hard twisted web of horse-hair, covering both sides and ends, but 

 open at the edges. These are then ready to be pressed, and for this purpose are 

 packed perpendicularly in an iron receptacle, narrow at the bottom, and -widening 

 towards the top. Packings of metal are then put in, and in the centre of the bags is 

 inserted a beech wedge. A beam similar to that employed in pounding the seed is 

 then set in motion, and at each descending stroke it drives the wedge in tighter, thus 

 squeezing the bags of seed against the iron sides of the press. When the wedge has 

 been driven home, another is introduced and battered by the beam, until it will drive 

 no farther. At the bottom of the press are holes through which the oil thus pressed 

 out of the seed runs into a receptacle beneath. In order to loosen the wedges and 

 admit of the bags being Temoved from the press, a wedge of a different form, wide at 

 bottom and narrow at top, and already a fixture in the press, but raised up and fastened 

 by a rope during the driving of the other wedges, is released from the rope, and another 

 beam drives it home, thus partially starting the differently-constructed wedges and 

 loosening the mass. The bags with the pressed seed are then taken out, and the 

 latter, having lost the greater part of its oil while subjected to so considerable it 

 pressure, is found in a thin hardish cake, taking the form of the leathern case, and off 

 it the woollen bag is readily stripped by the workman's hands. The oil obtained by 

 this process is the purest and most limpid ; but another process has to be performed 

 before the seed yields all that the pressure is capable of extracting from it. The 

 cakes, therefore, when taken out of the bags, are broken up and put into the mortar, 

 where the same pounding operation takes place. When again brought into a com- 

 minuted state, the powder is put into a circular iron pan or kettle, under which is a 

 fire, and slowly roasted in it, being kept from burning by means of an iron arm which 

 is moved round inside by the machinery, constantly turning the ground seed. When 

 sufficiently warmed by this operation, during which it is made to part more freely 

 with the oil, the mass is again filled in bags and pressed as before, after which they 

 are finally, the bags being stripped off, pared at the edges, put in a rack to dry, and 

 stored for sale. The oil thus obtained is darker in colour than that by the cold pro- 

 cess, and contains more mucilaginous matter. Many foreign oil-millers, however, only 



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