54 



DICKSON ON THE RESIN-BOUND FIBRES OF 



have such parties to encounter, respecting the advantages of the 

 system practically proved by experiments on tons weight of raw 

 material, as I^have been employing four Irish scutchers, and 

 from sixteen to twenty women in my factory, and I am 

 enabled to say, that the old system of steeping Hemp and 

 Flax, according to the custom in Great Britain and Ireland, 

 Russia, Belgium and Holland, [is iv?vng in principle, and is as 

 contrary to common sense as it is wasteful in practice. That it is 

 wrong in principle to steep and decompose Flax-straw in 

 water, and expect the decomposition will not tender the fibre 

 (which we require and value because of its strength) in order 

 to separate the fibres from the woody parts. I now depend 

 upon the proofs that I have with me of plain, unvarnished 

 facts— these are the yarns — No. 30 to SO's lea, prime yarns, 

 spun by Messrs. Hives and Atkinson, from Flax made from 

 green straw, in thirty minutes, Yorkshire Flax, had from that 

 eminent firm known to be the best spinners of waip yarns in 

 England, and grown by Mr. John Boyle, who thoroughly 

 understands how Flax should be cultivated to suit my purpose. 

 Twenty-one pounds passed through my patent machines, pro- 

 duced in clean, long, green fibre, five and a quarter, and one 

 pound of tow ; and this when put through the patent liquid, 

 produced two pounds eleven ounces of long, clean Flax, and 

 half a pound of tow ; whilst Mr. Arthur Marshall, of the ex- 

 tensive Flax preparing firm at Patrington, in his reports to the 

 Royal Flax Society, of Belfast, states that in three trials, he can 

 only produce from twenty-one pounds of Flax-straw, one and 

 three-quarter pounds of long scutched Flax. Now, this is 

 not my only instance of producing nearly double the quantity 

 from a given weight of green Flax-straw by my patents, 

 compared to every other system yet discovered ; but, as I find 

 there is a party in Leeds reporting unfavourably, it is with 

 pleasure I refer to the noble and highly distinguished indi- 

 viduals whose names I place before you, in all twenty, who 



