FLAX MACHINERY. 



347 



appliance. Through the rooms, from end to end, runs a wrought-iron 

 shaft to which are attached, at intervals of a few feet, systems of 

 wooden beater blades, which revolve rapidly. 



The workmen stand in small compartments partitioned off" from the 

 room, but open on one side, the flax being presented to the action of 

 the wooden blades through a bevel-edged slit in the side of the parti- 

 tion. The blades as they revolve strike the already broken flax, held 

 firmly in the hand, knocking out the shive or waste matter, when the 

 opposite end is cleaned in the same manner. The accompanying illus- 

 tration, from Spon, will explain the device. See fig. 103; a is the shaft; 

 b the supporting pillars of iron or wood; c the wiper ring, to which the 

 blades d are attached ; e is the partition ; / the bracket at top, by which 

 it is stayed to the beam g, which connects the line of pillars; h is the 

 opening through which the flax is presented 

 to the blades. These blades are sometimes 

 long and narrow, somewhat resembling the 

 blade of an oar. 



The fiber of flax surrounds a slender stem, 

 straw-like or sometimes woody, which, by 

 retting, is easily broken, and the filaments 

 partially separating from the crushed bits 

 are readily freed from them by the opera- 

 tion of beating. A perfect machine, there- 

 fore, would be one that would break the 

 straw or wood into fragments without inju 

 ry to the fiber, separate the long filaments 



from all waste matters perfectly, doing 

 away with hand labor, and accomplishing 

 the work without waste of fiber and at eco- 

 nomical cost. It would seem a simple prop- 

 osition, but from the fact that none of the 

 many improved machines that have been 



brought to public notice have been largely a dop ted by mill men, and 

 the old-fashioned berth scutching described above is still practiced even 

 in this country, we may infer that the machine scutchers are not fully 

 practicable. These differ in form and the manner in which they operate 

 as well as in the quality and quantity of flax produced, but they need 

 not be described here. Machines that the Department has taken cog- 

 nizance of are described in Fiber Investigations Series, Report No. 1, 

 pages 21 to 26; Report No. 4, same series, page 70; Annual Report, 

 United States Department of Agriculture, 1893, page 578. See also 

 Spoil's Encyclopedia, pages 970-975. 



An improved scutching machine to prepare the fiber for market is a 

 desideratum, but two other machines are needed in establishing the 

 flax industry in the United States — an economical thrasher to save 

 the seed without injury to the straw, and a flax-pulling machine to do 



Fig. 103.— Flax scutching device. 



