186 REPORT—1858. 
We now come to the introduction of a very important improvement in the spin- 
ning process as applied to flax. I have adverted to the gummy matter which in raw 
flax unites or glues together the fine ultimate fibres into much coarser ones, and which 
it is the object of the heckling process to subdivide by mechanical means. The divi- 
sion so effected can only be imperfect ; and it was found that the fibres could be more 
completely separated by saturating the material with water, which dissolves or softens 
the gummy matter in the spinning machine itself, when in the actual process of being 
drawn out and spun. 
There is a somewhat singular history attached to the origin and progress of this 
invention of wet spinning. During the great war between England and the first 
Napoleon, it became a leading object of his policy to exclude English manufactures, 
and to encourage those of France. England had taken a decided lead in the cotton 
manufacture, but at that time, about the beginning of the present century, little had 
been done in England in applying machines to the linen trade. The linen trade of 
France has always been a very important branch of industry, linen being more ex- 
tensively used by the bulk of the population in France than in England. Napoleon 
therefore wished, by encouraging the application of machinery to the linen trade in 
France, to make it a rival to the cotton trade of England. He offered a reward of 
a million francs for the successful application of machinery to the spinning of flax. 
This inducement brought forward Girard, who produced designs for a series of 
machines for preparing and spinning flax of great ingenuity and originality, inclu- 
ding this plan of wet spinning. But what was the result so far as the linen trade of 
France was concerned? Girard could find no one in France with the enterprise and 
capital requisite to perfect and apply his invention. He had to come to England,—he 
had to come to the town of Leeds. A patent was taken out for his inventions in 
England, especially for the wet spinning, under the name of Hall, in 1816, and was 
taken up by Robert Busk of Leeds. Mr. Busk put up a considerable quantity of 
machinery on this plan, and produced by it yarn much finer than that usually spun. 
But he kept the new plan to himself; it was not tried by others; the improvements 
in the preparatory processes were not then sufficiently advanced to make fine spinning 
advantageous; the plan did not answer commercially, and was given up and forgotten. 
In 1826, however, it was revived in the shape of a new patent, with some modifica- 
tions by Mr. Kay of Manchester. The validity of the claim to a new patent was 
disputed by the body of flax spinners, and finally set aside. The first spinning ma- 
chine on this plan was put up at the works of Messrs. Hives and Atkinson of Leeds, 
and by them and by Messrs. Marshall chiefly the whole plan of wet spinning, with 
the requisite improvements in the preparing processes, was soon perfected and carried 
out. 
A very wide horizon for the extension of flax spinning was now opened; yarns 
could now be spun much finer than before (from 50 up to 200 leas), and also cheaper, 
so as effectually to exclude hand-spun yarns from the whole range of linen manufac- 
tures except those of the finest cambrics and lace. For a time large quantities of these 
wet-spun yarns were sent from Leeds and Lancashire to the north of Ireland, and to 
France. 
But the new mode of spinning soon spread into Scotland, Ireland, and finally into 
France, where it is now carried on (under the stimulus of a protective tariff, however) 
to a large extent. 
Thus the object of the first Napoleon was at length accomplished, but not in the 
way that he intended; the result was a benefit to France, but only as the consequence 
of a still greater benefit to England. The present Emperor not long since rewarded 
the descendants of Girard for his invention, the fruits of which were so long post- 
oned. 
? The later improvements which have followed the wet spinning have consisted in 
the application of the combing machinery, which has done so much for the worsted 
manufacturer, to flax-tow, so that a material capable of being spun to the finest yarn 
can be obtained from what is otherwise only of small value; and various processes 
have been tried for cleansing and softening the raw flax previous to its being spun. 
The manufacture of sewing thread from flax commenced not long after the intro- 
duction of flax spinning by machinery, and has since increased and been a branch of 
the linen trade of considerable importance, a large proportion of the thread manufac- 
ture being carried on at Leeds. 
