244 



On Clausseris Flax- Cotton. 



uniform in strength, and entirely free from colour ; that the flax 

 can be bleached in the straw at very little additional expenditure 

 of time or money ; that the former tedious and uncertain modes 

 of steeping are superseded by one perfectly certain with ordinary 

 care ; and that in consequence of a more complete severance of 

 the fibres from each other, and also from the bark and boon, 

 the process of scutching is effected with labour considerably 

 less than that usually employed. 



These advantages apply only to the preparation of the flax 

 for the linen manufacturer, and to the production of a long fibre 

 suited to the requirements of the flax machinery. The great 

 difference in the length of the staple of cotton as compared with 

 flax renders necessary a very different arrangement of the parts 

 of the mechanism employed in spinning the two materials. The 

 first step required to be taken in order to spin flax upon cotton 

 machinery is therefore to effect such a reduction in the length of 

 the fibre as may suit it to the machinery upon which it is to be 

 spun. This operation, apparently very simple, is, nevertheless, 

 an exceedingly difficult one, the greatest accuracy being required 

 in cutting, as, if any of the portions of fibre exceed the required 

 length, they will bite" in the rollers, and the yarns produced 

 from them will be unequal in strength, and present the appear- 

 ance of being overworked." A very nicely-adjusted machine, 

 similar in its operation to the ordinary " chaff-cutter," has now, 

 however, been constructed, and the difficulty has, we believe, 

 been successfully overcome. The required lengths may be 

 obtained either by cutting the flax in the straw as it comes from 

 the field ; — with its bulk reduced by the partial removal of the 

 straw; — or even after it has undergone the boiling process just 

 referred to. 



Had nothing more, however, been required, in order success- 

 fully to spin flax upon cotton or woollen machinery, than merely 

 to reduce the length of the fibre, the spindles of Lancashire and 

 Yorkshire would long since have been employed in spinning flax 

 where now cotton or wool alone is spun. There is a vast difference, 

 however, between the harsh and elastic fibres, and the specific 

 gravity of flax, as compared with the soft down-like substance of 

 the cotton-pod, which must be removed before the one can be 

 substituted for the other upon the same description of machinery. 

 Even after having passed through the boiling process, the flax 

 fibres are coarse and harsh as compared with cotton, while the 

 quantity in length of yarn obtained from equal weights of the 

 two materials will, in consequence of the difference of specific 

 gravity between the two substances, be so greatly in favour of 

 cotton as completely to preclude the possibility of its profitable 

 substitution by flax. Thus, for instance, 1 lb. of fair- bowed 



