NEW MODE OF PREPARING FLAX. 



193 



but it must be dry. He had it passed through his 

 machines, and cleaned of the wood or shives on which it 

 has been produced ; he immerses it for an hour in cold 

 water, and discharges by this process (by a wringing machine 

 and plenty of clean water) all the green colouring matter ; 

 he then boils it two hours by steam in a given portion of cow's 

 urine and water, wrings it out, and then washes in hot water. 

 He then prepares a certain weight of the best soap to a 

 certain weight of the fibre, and by another two hours' 

 boiling— up to 210 degrees- — the fibre is perfectly white, and 

 freed from all the resinous substances that are found to be 

 only partially got rid of by the old system of steeping. He 

 argues that the simple articles he uses cannot injure the fibre, 

 and that as no decomposition or rottenness has been allowed 

 to set in or act on the fibre, it must be found a better article 

 than retted Flax, when spun into yarn. Another part of his 

 argument is, that as the fibre is perfectly free of the resin, 

 without the oily nature of the plant being injured, it splits 

 from the hackle, and will make a closer and better thread 

 than retted Flax, inasmuch as it will be a pure, solid fibre, 

 and it will take more of it to spin a thread of the same 

 thickness or number than it will do if the same be made 

 from retted Flax. Again, the Flax or yarn being perfectly 

 white, it will not boil down as soon as yarn from retted 

 Flax does, and consequently a stronger and better web must 

 be produced, and the bleaching altogether dispensed with. 

 Should Mr. Dickson's process be found to answer expec- 

 tations, it may go far to make the community of Britain 

 independent of Russia, in the article of hemp especially, and 

 may be the means of retaining within our own territorial 

 possessions seven millions of hard cash, which have been 

 hitherto yearly transmitted to Russia." 



To the above it should be added that I used another 

 article, secretly, which counteracted the effect of the alkali in the 



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