Experimental and Applied 279 



elusions arrived at in the earlier sections of this work may 

 be applied. 



SPINNING PROCESSES. The various spinning processes for 

 converting into yarn the fibres obtained as above described are 

 for the most part purely mechanical operations. They depend 

 in an important way upon the minute structure of the spinning 

 unit, whether that is an ultimate fibre (cotton, rhea cellulose) 

 or a complex filament (flax, hemp, jute, &c.) ; and therefore? 

 indirectly upon the chemical properties of the fibre-substance. 

 These questions are exhaustively treated by Vetillart in his 

 work upon the Vegetable Textile Fibres. There is one process 

 only which directly involves the question of the chemical com- 

 position of the fibre-substance, and that is, the ' wet process ' 

 of flax spinning The history of flax spinning shows three 

 periods of development : (i) At first the fibre was spun dry in 

 the same manner as jute is at this day. (2) It was found that 

 the drawing properties of the fibre were much improved by 

 maceration in cold water, and the wet spinning enabled the 

 fibre to be spun to much finer qualities of yarn. (3) A still 

 further advance was made by the introduction of hot water, 

 this treatment taking place on the spinning frame, the roving 

 running through a trough of water kept at 50-60, and receiv- 

 ing its final drawing and twisting immediately as it emerges 

 from the trough. This may be considered the universal pro- 

 cess of spinning fine flax line yarns at the present day. 



There have been numerous attempts to realise a still 

 further improvement by alkaline treatments of the most varied 

 kind, either on the spinning frame itself i.e. by adding the 

 alkaline reagent to the * spinning trough ' or by a previous 

 treatment of the roving. Such processes, however, have only 

 come into limited use. A more successful attempt to still 

 further raise the spinning qualities of flax is that of C. C. 

 Connor, of Belfast, who patented in 1888 a process based upon 



