144 FLAX CULTURE AND I'liKI'ARATlON 



and 18 and 20. Any increase of tension can be obtained by 

 adjusting or increasing the weights W. 



The whole of the parts 5 to 23 are adjustable laterally at 

 right angles to direction of the rotation of the scutching blades. 



The space between the buffing blades 4 and the front of 

 the pulleys 14 and 16 is fin., and that between the finishing 

 blades, 4', is 1 J in. The respective distances, between the 

 blades and the gripping belts for the second half unit of this 

 machine, which scutches the reverse and top ends of the flax 

 straw, are A in. to f in. approximately, dependent upon the 

 quality and condition of the retted and rolled straw. 



There are other minor, but important, details of adjustment 

 which do not necessarily effect the fundamental principles of 

 this machine. 



120. Principle and Operation of Automatic Scutching. The 

 boy, girl, or other unskilled attendant places the stricks of straw 

 in repeated succession between the grips of the belts in their 

 initial contact on the pulley 12, as indicated in the position 24. 

 Fully half of the root end of the straw must project in front 

 of the gripping belt, in which condition it is conveyed forward 

 to and between the pulleys 14 and 16 and 18 and 20. Each 

 strick of straw, as it passes between the gripping points 

 x and y, receives a series of successive blows from the rapidly 

 rotating blades 4 and 4', by which means the woody part is 

 separated from the fibre. 



When the flax, with the root end completely scutched, 

 emerges from the grip of the belts, as indicated at the posit ion 

 25, it is taken by a second attendant, who then reverses tin- 

 straw and continuously feeds the stricks into the second and 

 adjacent half unit of the machine ; here the operation is 

 simultaneously and correspondingly performed. Frequently 

 two stricks are put together in this machine which scutches the 

 " tops "in the same way as the finisher does in hand scutching. 



The production of this machine is equal to about eight stands 

 of the usual type with experienced scutchers, but at a 

 considerable saving in cost. 



