LINKS. 



LINES UK INTKKXL'HMKNT. 



Th pun ymrn is applicable either for nuking thread or for wearing 

 Mo UBea food*. Tit* quality of flax ymrn is denoted by numbers 

 aesnrlhing the number, of feu ( measure of 300 nidi) cuoUinod in 



i number* of Inu (a measure of 300 yards) ouoUtned in 

 ich pound weight Thus a pound of No. (JO yarn measures 60 lew or 

 18,000 yards; Xo. 5 has only 1600 yards to the pound ; while No. 200 

 ha* M much M 60,000 yard*. FUz yarn i* Mldom spun of greater 

 BMOM. than No. 200, which U fitted for making cambric of good 

 quality. The improremenU effected in the manufacture have greatly 

 inernsMJ the average fineness and lowered the price. 



More flax U apun in Leedi than in any other town ; but the wearing 

 U carried on elsewhere. In and around Barnaley are woven linen, duck, 

 check, drabbet, tick, huckaback, diaper, drill, towelling, and other kind* 

 of flat goods. Dundee U famoua for sailcloth, dowlas, sheeting, and 

 other strung textile goods ; and Aberdeen is taking up a position in the 

 me department. Dunfermline and its vicinity produce finer fabrics, 

 euch M shirtings, damasks, and table-cloths. Belfast is the great 



centre for good linen, and for the finer kinds of textile goods. Of these, 

 duck U made in widths from three to five quarters of a yard ; drill U 

 a twilled linen, white or coloured, mostly used for summer trowsers ; 

 sheetings are known in the trade by the names of Irish, Russia, Imita- 

 tion Russia, Lancashire, Yorkshire, Union Irish, and Union Lancashire, 

 (the union cloth having a mixture of cotton with the flax) ; some of the 

 sheetings are mostly or partly of hemp ; damask is noticed under 

 i DAMASK ; diaper is a figured fabric of lower quality ; huckaback is a 

 ! durable and economical kind of towelling. The best cambric is 

 ] imported from France. Silesia is a sort of fine Holland, used for 

 . window blinds. It may be stated here that many of the above-named 

 < fabrics are made either of flax or uf hemp, according to the prices at 

 l which they are to be sold. The broad and well-made fabric for sail- 



cloth is dressed with starch or flour before weaving, by the machine 

 shown in the annexed cut ; indeed most kinds of flaxen and hempen 

 fabrics require some such dressing. The wet yarn, by passing over 



Fig-. 4. DreMlng Yarn for Sailcloth. 



and under two steam-heated metal boxes, becomes very quickly 

 dried. 



The statistics of this trade divide themselves into three parts, 

 relating to the seed, the fibre, and the woven goods. About 4,000,000 

 bushels of linseed are imported annually ; one-fifth for sowing into a 

 flax-crop, and four-fifths for pressing linseed-oil. Three-fourths of the 

 whole supply is from Russia ; the sowing-seed is very carefully pre- 

 pared, and is imported in casks officially branded ; but the crushing-seed 

 is coarser, and is imported either in bulk or in mat-bags. The flax 

 imported in 1844 wss about 1,600,000 cwta., in 1850 about 1,800,000 

 cwts., and in 1858 about 1,800,000 cwts.; the quantity varying 

 considerably in different years. The price has varied still more 

 widely, depending chiefly on the Russian crops. The computed 

 value of the seed and fibre imported in 1858 was 2.700.000/. The 

 woven linen goods, taking that term in its widest acceptation in 

 reference to kind and quality, varied from 14</. to 214. per yard on 

 an average in the years for 1835 to 1853 ; in later years it has 

 generally been near the lower of these two limits. In respect to 

 woven goods, the bounties allowed on the shipment of linens were 

 graduated according to their quality and value, and ranged from a 

 half penny to a penny halfpenny per yard. In 1825 the rates were 

 diminished one-tenth by an act then passed, and an equal propor- 

 tion was to have been taken off in each subsequent year, so that 

 the whole would have ceased in 1834; but by the act of 1828, 

 when one-half the bounties had been removed, this course was modi- 

 fied by continuing for three years the rates of allowance payable in 

 1829, and thereafter repealing the bounty altogether ; so that the pay- 

 ments ceased in 1832. Since then the export trade has rested on its 

 own resources. In 1828 the declared value of the exports of these 

 goods was 2,100,0001. ; in 1837 it was 2,500,0002. In 1844 the exports 

 (white or plain linen, printed and dyed flaxen goods, sailcloth, thread, 

 and yarn) reached a value of 4,000,000*. ; in 1850, 4,800,000/. ; and in 

 1858, 5,00,00V. The quantities in the last-named year were, 

 120,000.000 yards of piece goods, and 35,000,000 Ibs. of thread and 

 yam. The import of woven flaxen goods is very small. The export 

 to France steadily increased until 1842, in which year the French 

 Dvemment, influenced by a demand for protection, raised the import 

 duty considerably; and the English trade in this commodity has 

 raftered ever since. The flax and linen manufacturers of England are 

 hoping for an extension of their dealings with France, consequent on 

 UM new treaty of commerce (I860). The number of mills and opera- 

 tives engagtd in this trade, in the United Kingdom, is noticed under 

 FAOTOKIU. 



LINES, in Music, are the five parallel lines forming, together with 

 the intermediate spaces, the staff on which the notes and other 

 characters are pUoed. [StAfr ; LtotB 1 



LINES OF INTKENCHMENT. In the article EKCAMPIIK.T it 

 hM been stated that armies in the field are not now, as formerly, 

 surrounded by fortification* consisting of a continuous line If works ; 



and that, in general, a few breastworks or redoubts merely are con- 

 structed at intervals for the defence of the position. It will be suffi- 

 cient, therefore, leaving out the consideration of those means of defence 

 which are afforded by the natural obstacles of the country, as escarp- 

 ments, rivers, marshes, &c., to describe briefly the nature of those 

 intrenchments which were once, in all circumstances, considered indis- 

 pensable, and which are still, to a certain extent, necessary when on 

 army is to remain strictly on the defensive. 



In the first place it may be said that a continuous breastwork would 

 be advantageous for the protection of portions of a frontier, when the 

 absence of natural obstacles might favour the enemy's marauding 

 parties in making inroads for the purpose of levying contributions or 

 laying waste the country ; a parapet A B, broken by the redans c, c, 

 from whence the defenders may annoy the enemy in flank on his 



approach, termed a Redan Line, is the simplest form. The distances 

 of the redans from one another may be about 150 yards, or not ex- 

 ceeding the range of musket shot : such was the construction recom- 

 mended by Vauban, and since his time, it has been modified occasion- 

 ally by giving to the curtains the form indicated by the lines ac,bc, 

 in order that the ditch might be more effectually defended from the 

 faces of the redans. All the faces should be so disposed that, if pro- 

 duced to an extent equal to the range of artillery, the lines of direction 

 may fall on ground where the enemy could not establish batteries for 

 the purpose of enfilading them ; since, in the event of such enfilading 

 taking place, the defenders would be compelled to abandon the para- 

 peU ; artillery, if placed there, would be dismounted ; the palisades in 

 the ditch would be destroyed; and little resistance could be made 

 should the enemy subsequently assault the line. In general the' 

 redans may have the form of equilateral triangles, and the lengths of 

 their sides may bo about 50 yards. The entrances are usually in the 

 middle of the curtains. 



Instead of simple redans the advanced parts of the line have occa- 

 nionally been formed of works resembling two united together, as D; 

 which by the French engineers are called qmutt d'hyronda. or double 

 i. .Lin-. 



Again, when the nature of the ground does not permit the intrench- 

 ment to be formed with points so for advanced as the vertices of the 

 redans c, c ; when, for example, it is required to follow a bank of a 

 river or one side of a road, it is proposed, in preference to a simple 

 straight or curved line, to form the parapet with a series of branches 

 in the positions indicated by a 6, c d, Ac., to p. A line of this kind is 

 said to be d crtnuullitm : and in such situations a succession of fires 

 from the branches at, td, ate., may be directed Against the enemy 



