SPINNING OF FLAX. 



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manufacturers. It is not because a spinner has paid £80 or 

 £100 per ton for Flax, that it must make 80s. or 90s. lea warp 

 of prime quality ; it is not because it has turned out from the 

 hackle silk-like in appearance, oily and fine, that it can be run 

 up to 80 or 90 lea, and worth 7s. 6d. or 8s. 6d. as a warp 

 article : quality I am aware is requisite ; but we must have 

 strength of fibre to make warp yarn. I know it is difficult to 

 spin good clean warp yarn ; why is it so ? — I will answer— 

 We generally want yarns clean and free from what is termed by 

 the manufacturers, c NEAP ' on the thread, which we see at 

 once by shaking out a hank opposite a window and looking 

 through it; but we seldom find it clear and free of this 

 defect and also strong. If we find it clear and free from fault, 

 we generally find the yarn silk-like, the Flax being oily and 

 kindly, as it is termed. Such is easily hackled, and as a 

 consequence the shorts bring with them all the particles that 

 remain on a more husky fibre ; for example, I will state what 

 I know of this, from years of experience. I never found yarns 

 above 60 lea from any but white French Flax, that would 

 make prime strong warp ; and I never found: # quite clear, and 

 free from the neap I mentioned. It is always, when strong, 

 difficult to hackle or clean out, although it appears oily. The 

 warp yarn undergoes all the working of the machinery, 

 and stress of weaving and dressing, in which operation the 

 weaver can clear off stubs or defects in the yarns, when 

 stretched out by the yarn beam of the loom being drawn back, 

 while the weft yam only bears the swing of the shuttle from 

 one end of the slays to the other, — say one and a half yard. 

 It is driven into its place in the warp without any stress, 

 therefore strength in the weft is not such a matter of conse- 

 quence. To be clean, level, and round, is what I call perfection. 

 The same is required in warp yarns ; but it is difficult to make 

 it so, and have what is of more importance, strength in the 

 thread. 



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