FLAX 431 



chains a ; and at each end of each hackle bar is a stud or guide pin I', which, when 

 the hackles arrive near the small drums c, c, take into the groove in the guide plates. 

 The object of these guide plates is to support the hackle bars in passing over the 

 small rollers c, and during the operation of striking into the strick of flax or other 

 fibrous material to be operated upon. The holders, with the stricks depending from 

 thorn, are placed within the rails i, i, and these rails are made to rise and fall and the 

 holders are made to pass from one end of the machine to the other, in the usual 

 manner. When the machine is at work, the drums c and d revolve in the direction 

 of the arrows in Jiff. 944, and the hackle bars being attached to the belts, sheets, or 

 chains a, and supported by the guide plates, cause the hackles to enter the stricks of 

 fibrous material at or nearly at right angles to the fibres thereof, and to retain that 

 position at the commencement of their downward motion ; whereby as the belts, 

 sheets, or chains continue to descend, the hackles are drawn through the fibrous 

 material for the purpose of removing the short fibres and extraneous matter. Another 

 great advantage resulting from this improved mode of attaching the hackle bars b to 

 the belts, sheets, or chains a, is, that the hackles can be made to enter the fibrous 

 material at a point closer to the holder than in any of the sheet machines now in use. 

 When the hackles are passing round the drums d, d, they are cleansed by the 

 revolving brushes j, j, which deposit the material removed from the hackles on to 

 the card drums k, Jc. These drums are cleansed or doffed by the combs I, /, or in any 

 other convenient manner. 



This machine is also used to a very large extent, and well liked for dressing half- 

 line and full-length flax. For this purpose the sheets require to be made 6 inches 

 longer from centre to centre, and the head or trough to lift 3 inches higher, and the 

 top rollers to approach and recede from each other simultaneously with the rising 

 and falling of the head. 



Combe, of Belfast, has produced another edition of Wordsworth's machine. Its 

 novel feature consists in dispensing with bars altogether, in carrying the hackles 

 and in fixing them directly on the leather sheets. By this means a very true action 

 is obtained, and the working parts are so light that the machine bears any speed 

 with scarcely any wear and tear. In this invention there are also combined convenient 

 modes of regulating the lift and severity of the cutters to suit different kinds of flax, 

 and the holders are carried through the machine by a separate apparatus for that 

 purpose, while they are at their highest elevation, instead of during the whole process 

 of lifting, as had always been the case in other machines. 



The cutting of flax already referred to, is effected by a machine consisting of a 

 species of circular saw about 20 in. in diameter ; but, instead of a single blade, it is 

 constructed of 3 or 4 plates of steel, each about in. thick, and having angular pro- 

 jections from their circumference. This revolves at a considerable velocity, while 

 the flax, firmly grasped in each hand by its ends, is still further held and slowly 

 carried against the saw by two pair of grooved pulleys pressed together by a con- 

 siderable weight. It is thus partly sawn and partly broken through. Flax may 

 be cut into 2, 3, and sometimes 4 divisions : and sometimes the dead harsh fibres 

 that are frequently found at each of its ends only are cut off and used as tow ; 

 but more generally the different portions are hackled and used for the purposes they 

 are sorted for. 



Description of ^lax-cutting machine (figs. 948, 949). A A, framing ; B, the grooved 

 pulleys for holding and carrying the flax ; c c, the driving pulley ; D, saw or cutter ; 

 E, F, wheels for gearing together the pair of holding pulleys ; G, H, i, K, pinions and 

 wheels for producing the proper relative speeds between the cutter and pulleys ; X, 

 weight, which by levers M and N, causes the pressure of the holding pulleys. 



Preparing. By this term are understood those preliminary operations through 

 which both line and tow must pass after the hackling and before the spinning 

 process. 



The mechanism and modes of proceeding for this purpose, which consist of repeated 

 drawings, are similar for long ' line or ' cut ; ' though the dimensions and fineness of 

 the machinery must be made suitable for their various lengths and qualities. But in 

 the preparation of tow a peculiar additional operation is demanded, as a consequence 

 of the different state of the fibres of which the material is composed ; this operation, 

 termed 'carding,' has for its object to bring the highly irregular and entangled mass 

 into a somewhat more homogeneous and uniform state, previously to its being after- 

 wards drawn and equalised in a manner similar to line. 



In the preparation of line the first operation is called ' spreading,' or first drawing ; 

 nnd the machine employed a 'spreader:' those subsequently are the second and 

 third ' drawings ' (sometimes a fourth is used), and lastly the ' roving.' It is upon 

 the spreader that the separate stricks of line are first combined and drawn into long 

 uniform bands or ribbons, called ' slivers,' of determinate lengths. This is effected 



