\9 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



workman, who, grasping a handful of flax in the 

 middle, draws first one side and then the other 

 through the teeth till the whole is freed from all ex- 

 traneous matter, and presents a series of smooth 

 distinct filaments. Though this operation is appa- 

 rently so simple, much practice and skill are required 

 to perform it with little waste, and to produce even 

 and continuous fibres. 



Flax for cambric and fine lawn is dressed in a 

 more delicate manner. After only slightly under- 

 going the process of scutching, it is not then con- 

 signed to the teeth of the heckle, but is merely 

 scraped and cleansed with a blunt knife on a soft 

 skin of leather, thence it is carried to the spinner, 

 who, with a brush made for the purpose, dresses each 

 parcel previously to spinning it. 



An account was published some years ago in 

 Sweden, of a method used in preparing flax so as to 

 superadd all the finer qualities of cotton to those of 

 linen fibres. The plants were boiled for many hours 

 in a mixture of sea-water, birch ashes, and quicklime ; 

 then washed in the sea, and, being subsequently 

 rubbed and cleansed with soap, were laid out to 

 bleach. By this process the flax lost one-half of its 

 weight, but it is said that its superior quality more 

 than compensated for the deficiency in quantity. 



Berthollet likewise made experiments in bleaching 

 flax, and succeeded in giving to its fibres the white- 

 ness and softness of cotton. He subjected it to the 

 action of chlorine, which indeed bleached it effectu- 

 ally, but at the same time injured its fibre ; and 

 although a thread was produced from it of consi- 

 derable tenacity, yet this was a most troublesome ope- 

 ration in consequence of the shortness of staple. 



It was found that this chemical bleaching process 

 had the remarkable property of reducing the finest 

 flax and the coarsest hemp alike to one uniform fine- 



