478 



UNKN. 



greater regularity with which supplies of the raw 

 material were obtained from the Northern powers, 

 the trade began rapidly to increase, and the imports 

 of flax have increased from about 3,000 tons in 1814, 

 to 15,000 tons in 1830. Tin- exports of manufac- 

 tured goods have increased in a corresponding pro- 

 portion. In the year ending the 31st of May, 1833, 

 the imports of flax amounted to 18,777 tons, besides 

 3,380 tons of hemp. The shipments of linen, sail- 

 cloth, c., have increased in a corresponding ratio; 

 ami were valued, in the year now mentioned, at about 

 1,600,000, as much as is exported from all Ireland, 

 and has increased at Dundee more rapidly than the 

 cotton manufacture has increased at Manchester. 



The entire produce of the manufacture in the 

 I'nited Kingdom may be valued at .7,500,000 ; and 

 the total number of people employed about 172,000. 

 An Account of the Quantity of Flax and Tow Imported into 

 and Exported from the United Kingdom, the Quantities en- 

 tered for Home Consumption, and the Net Produce thereof, in 

 tath Year, commencing bth January, from 1820 to 1831, both 

 inclusive. 



Manufacture. The first process that the flax has 

 to undergo, is that of heckling. This operation 

 consists in drawing a handful of the flax, lengthways, 

 over a sort of comb formed of iron or steel teeth, so 

 as to separate the coarse part, or the tow, from the 

 fine fibres, properly called flax. These combs or 

 heckles are of various degrees of fineness, the flax 

 being passed through them in succession, commenc- 

 ing with the coarsest. The heckling is performed 

 either by the hand, or by machinery, according to 

 the particular kind of yarn that is intended to be 

 spun ; but, it is probable, that ere long, such 

 improvements will be made in the heckling machine, 

 (which is extremely simple in construction), that 

 heckling by the hand will be entirely done away. 



The flax, thus prepared, is taken to the spread- 

 ing machine, represented in plate 48. figs. 1 and 2. 

 Fig. 1 being a side, and fig. 2, an end view. The 

 process is somewhat similar to the spreading in the 

 cotton manufacture,' a description of which has been 

 given under the article Cotton manufacturer. The 

 object of spreading the flax is, to form a sliver of uni- 

 form thickness, or such, that a foot in length taken 

 at any one place will be equal to a foot in length, 

 taken at any other place, or as nearly so as possible. A 

 handful of the heckled flax is taken up by the atten- 

 dant, and laid upon an endless cloth, A A fig. l,the 

 upper surface of which is kept continually moving 

 towards the body of the machine, by means of the 

 two rollers B B. The attendant, by practice, knows 

 the proper quantity to spread on the cloth in a given 

 time, in order to produce the sliver of the requisite 

 grist. In cotton-spinning, the attendant is not in- 

 trusted with this, as the cotton is all weighed into pro- 

 per parcels, before it comes to the spreading frame. 

 The endless cloth, by moving forward, carries the 

 spreaded flax to the rollers C C, which are called 

 retaining rollers. The undermost of these rollers is 

 put in motion by communication with the wheel- 

 work, the spindle on which it revolves, being fur- 

 nished with a pinion on the end, and the upper one 

 receives motion, by being pressed upon the lower 



one, by means of a lever, which is seen rising above 

 it, tlu- pressure being regulated by a screw at the 

 top. So far the flax spreading resembles the cotton 

 spreading, but at this point a new feature is exhi- 

 bited in the process for flax. The flax having passed 

 through the retaining rollers, is led over a series of 

 heckles, seen at D. This heckling department is, 

 perhaps, the most curious part of the machine. It is 

 an endless chain of heckles moving in the same direc- 

 tion as the endless cloth. The chain is formed of 

 brass links, fashioned so as to be caught by protub- 

 erances, or flattened teeth ; in the two wiper wheels 

 in m, the one further from the retaining rollers being 

 put in motion by the wheel-work, as may be seen by 

 inspecting fig. 1. The other is a sort of friction 

 roller, and is put in motion by the chain passing over 

 it. Each link of the chain carries a kind of fork, 

 closed at the top, the space between the prongs 

 being designed as a guide to the end of a rod, 

 stretching across the machine, so that the rod may 

 rise or fall. The ends of these rods pass through 

 these fork-formed guides, and pass into a groove g g, 

 cut in a side piece of the machine. In the engraving-, 

 the ends of the cross rods, which are called the gill 

 barrs, are seen in the side view. The groove is 

 somewhat irregular in form, or, to speak more pro- 

 perly, is not like any simple geometrical figure. In 

 the under part, it passes in a direct line between the 

 wheels, and then round their circumferences, after 

 which it takes a sudden rise up to the points g g, at 

 a considerable height above, the wheels keeping this 

 elevation from g to g. By this arrangement, it will 

 be seen, that as the endless chain moves along, the 

 gill barrs or cross-rods will move with it, being car- 

 ried along by the forked guides on the links, and at 

 the same time, these gill barrs will rise up or down, 

 according to the direction of the groove. Tims, 

 when the gill barrs are under the wheels m m, 

 they will be very near to the links of the chain, but 

 when they turn round the wheel m, nearest to the 

 endless cloth, they will begin to rise, and being car- 

 ried along, at the altitude g g, will fall, when they 

 come near to the other wheel. Now, as these gill 

 barrs carry the gill?* or heckle teeth, they will of 

 course have a similar motion. Hence, the gills or 

 heckle teeth, do not rise above the forked guides, 

 until they arrive at that part where they should come 

 into contact with the flax. The flax having passed 

 through the chain of heckles, is received by the 

 drawing rollers E E, the lowermost of which is driven 

 by the wheel-work of the machine, and the upper 

 one put in motion by being pressed upon it. From 

 the drawing rollers, the flax is led through the inter- 

 mediate rollers F F, and from these, it passes through 

 the delivering rollers G G, and thence into a can 

 (not shown in the plate, to save room), in the form 

 of a sliver, or flat band of flax fibres. The machine is 

 put in motion by a band led from a shaft connected 

 with the first mover, the band being passed round the 

 pullies at H H, one of which is fast, and the other 

 loose, so that by shifting the belt, the machine may 

 be put either in or out of geer. These pullies are 

 shown in fig. 2, which is a front elevation of the 

 spreading machine. 



The can containing the sliver is now taken from 

 the spreading machine, and carried to the back of the 

 preparing or drawing frame. This frame is repre- 

 sented in plate 49. figs. 3 and 4, fig. 3 being an 

 end elevation, and fig. 4 a ground plan. The prin- 

 cipal difference between this machine, and the cot- 

 ton-drawing frame, consists in the introduction of 

 heckles, fashioned in the same way as those in the 

 flax-spreading frame. The chain, in this case, lying 

 horizontally, instead of obliquely, as may be seen at 

 C, fig. 3. The can H, from the spreading frame, is 



