FLAX 



451 



Fig. 983, front view; fig. 984, profile. A A A, frame; B, table or flat top of 

 frame; c, rising table; D D, iron uprights fixed to B; E E, bars hinged at one 



983 



984 



end to uprights D D, to shut across the press, and be caught and latched down 

 by the spring catch t, fixed to the upright D along one side of the press ; F F, racks 

 for lifting the table c by the pinions on shaft a ; H, crossed levers for turning the 

 shaft G ; i, ratchet wheel engaging the detent K, and thus retaining the shaft G in 

 any required position, and thus of course maintaining the pressure of table c against 

 the top cross-bars E. 



Weaving is the operation by which the yarns are combined into textile fabrics, 

 such as canvas, linens, lawns, drills, damasks, &c., and a great variety of other deno- 

 minations of articles for use and ornament. 



Hitherto the weaving of linens has been carried on by the ancient and well-known 

 hand process, so ancient and so well known as to place the operative practising it 

 among the worst paid of any other art. Now, however, there are several extensive and 

 thriving establishments where machinery has taken the place of much squalid misery, 

 and at much cheaper rates produce to consumers superior articles, and still afford good 

 payment to the operative. The improvements in power-weaving which have led to 

 this result are not founded upon one or even a few successful inventions or contri- 

 vances, but are the combination of a great many that have occupied much time to 

 mature. Many difficulties had to be overcome in the weaving of flax, that did not 

 exist in that of other materials ; and for a considerable period the expense of linens 

 rendered their consumption so limited, as to make their production by power- weaving 

 but a very secondary object. The greatest obstacle of a practical nature to the intro- 

 duction of the power-loom weaving of linens was, the stubbornness or want of elasticity 

 in the yarn, which caused frequent breakages and much confusion. In woollen or 

 cotton goods, if a thread or yarn should chance to be a little tighter than the others in 

 the warp, its elasticity will allow it to come up to the general bearing of the others 

 when the weft is struck up by the reed ; but in linen, from the want of that elasticity, 

 a thread so situated would break, and by crossing some others, cause those also, if not 

 to be broken direct by that circumstance, at all events to produce an obstruction to the 

 shuttle that would lead to further mischief. Hence it was most material in linens to 

 have such a method of winding the yarns upon the warp beams that should insure the 

 greatest regularity ; but strange to say, that point, though now attained, was at first 

 wholly lost sight of. That circumstance, as well as the great mistake of attempting 

 to use the same looms as are found suitable for cotton, produced so much discourage- 

 ment in the earlier attempts as to give rise to a high degree of prejudice against the 

 possibility of success in this undertaking, which may account for the backwardness in 

 which this branch of the flax manufacture was found till quite recently. 



The roving machine, called by the ingenious inventor, Mr. W. K. Westley, of 

 Leeds, the Sliver Roving Frame, seems to be a philosophical induction happily 

 drawn from the nature of the material itself, and accommodated to its peculiar consti- 

 tution. It is remarkable for the simplicity of its construction, and, at the same time, 



G G 2 



