FLAX 



pose should always be made of a somewhat superior description of line to that em- 

 ployed for the same number of yarns for weaving, and have rather less twist. They 

 are generally taken while wet on the spinning bobbins to the twisting frame, and, 

 when combined together, the union is effected by a torsion in the opposite direction to 

 the original twist of the separate yarns. 



Reeling. This operation consists in winding the yarn off the bobbins of the 

 spinning or twisting frames, and forming it into hanks or skeins. The various deno- 

 minations of the skeins into which yarn is reeled, and then the forms or combinations 

 they are made up into, are as follow : 



The lea containing 300 yards 

 10 leas making 1 hank 



20 hanks ,, 1 bundle 



6 bundles 



1 packet. 



It is by the standard lea of 300 yards that the description of yarn is known from the 

 number contained in 1 Ib. weight ; thus, No. 20 contains 20 leas or 6,000 yards for 

 1 Ib. weight. In Scotland, the subdivisions are rather different from the foregoing, 

 which are employed in England and Ireland; the lea, however, remaining the 



38 leas make 1 spindle 

 6 ,, 1 rand 

 12 rands 1 



The reeling is performed upon exceedingly simple machines, generally put In mo- 

 tion by the hand of the person attending them, though sometimes they are driven by 

 the motive power of the factory. The reel is made sufficiently long to receive twenty 

 bobbins, and the barrel upon the yarn is wound in one length ; the diameter, however, 

 varies so as to suit the different sizes yarned to be reeled. For the coarsest yarns and 

 down to 16 and 20, the largest circumference is used of 3 yards ; from that to about 

 No. 100, 2 yards ; and for the finest yarn l yard is found most convenient. These 

 various circumferences are compensated either by putting a great number of threads 

 into each ' tye,' or increasing the number of tyes, so that opposite to each one of the 

 20 bobbins an entire hank should be formed before taking the yarn off; thus at each 

 1 stripping,' one bundle is turned off. To facilitate the stripping, one of the rails of 

 the barrel is made to fall in, and thus slacken the hanks ; care is taken to leave the 

 lea bands very loose, in order to allow the yarn to be spread out in drying and 

 bleaching. The determinate lengths of yarn, when wound on the reel, are notified by 

 the ringing of a bell connected with the axle of the barrel. Fig. 981 below shows the; 

 form of an ordinary hand-reel. 



981 



A A (fig. 981), framing; B B, reel barrels; c, box or trough to receive empty 

 bobbins, &c. ; D D, bobbins in position of being reeled ; E fi, guide rails, moveable so 

 as to place the leas side by side on the reel ; //, bell wheels ; g g, bells for each 

 reel barrel suspended on springs. 



To these hand-reels there are many objections ; for it is evident that the correct- 

 ness of measure depends entirely upon the attention of the reeler, and the stoppages 

 arising from the breaking of a thread or the finishing of a bobbin interrupt the work of 

 all the others. These objections rendered it necessary to attempt some ameliorations 



VOL, II, G G 



