INDIA, HEMP AND ELAX, AT LEEDS. 55 



were eye-witnesses for hours in my factory of the working of 

 my patent machines, producing similar results, the stuff being 

 weighed before and after dressing, and I may state that those 

 machines (my first patents) were not so perfect as those I have 

 lately patented. The other yarns are 30, 35, 40, and 50 lea, 

 spun from Indian Rheea fibre (my patent vegetable silk) first 

 coloured green, blue, black, orange, &c., before being spun 

 and although spun through hot water, by Messrs. Hives 

 and Atkinson, Messrs. Benyon and Co., Messrs. Briggs and 

 Co., and Messrs. Hill and Son, the colours are scarcely, if at 

 all changed, and the strength far exceeds that of Flax -yarns 

 of the same number. The Aloe, Rheea, and Pine-apple fibre 

 is to be had at 15, 18, and 21, in London and Liverpool. 

 That it is contrary to common sense to so decompose Flax- 

 straw, and dye the fibre dark, which must be made (and is 

 naturally) white, is equally apparent, inasmuch as by the de- 

 composition of the wood or stalk, the green fibre, as it softens, 

 extracts and absorbs the dark slate -coloured matter out of the 

 stalks or wood ; and as the wood rots into dust, the dust sticks 

 fast like glue to the green, gummy fibre, so that, when the 

 stalks are dried neither breaking, scutching, nor even hackling, 

 will remove this worse than useless and expensive dye a 

 dipping in sulphuric acid must be commenced or resorted to 

 before the weaver can work it into cloth, and then it is only 

 brown cloth. Again, the additional expense of 2d. per yard 

 must be incurred in the bleaching, thus adding at least 3d. 

 per yard to an article that only costs on an average 9d. before 

 it is made into a marketable state. Now, as I take my five 

 and a quarter pounds of green Flax, and wash it out white in 

 thirty minutes, producing two pounds eleven ounces, in place 

 of the one and three-quarter pounds of dark slate colour, pro- 

 duced from the same weight ol straw by Messrs. Marshall 

 and Co., I must allow those who hear my statement to draw 

 their own conclusions from the facts, and from the respecta- 



