147

the pipes, so that the temperature of the water rises to 80° or 90°, which it is not allowed to pass. In this way the fermentation proceeds rapidly and uniformly, and in about sixty hours the fibre has become completely purified. The water is then drawn off, and the flax straw taken out of the vats, the sheaves untied, and the stems placed between flat wooden sticks, fastened at the ends, and hung up to dry in open sheds constructed for the purpose, after which it is scutched and sold to the spinners.

This method of steeping is now employed pretty extensively in Ireland, there being last year eighteen retteries, at which the produce of about 8,000 acres were purchased, there are many different opinions as to the most judicious mode of carrying it out. The principle is universally approved of, the advantages of the division of labour being here, as in everything else, fully apparent. In place of the individual growers taking up the critical operation of steeping once in the year, there is a regularly organized establishment, where this business is constantly carried on, and the workers, consequently, become very expert; as an instance of which it may be stated, that in one of the Irish retteries fifty persons now can do the work that eighty were required for at first, so greatly have they acquired the facility of manipulation from a twelvemonth’s practice. The uncertainty, caused by variations of temperature and atmospheric changes, is avoided, by the maintenance of the water at a regular heat, and the process being conducted under cover, the grower is relieved from all trouble, by his crop being purchased at maturity. In so far the advantages of the plan are obvious, but there are different views as to the best mode of carrying it out. Some maintain that 80° is too high a temperature, and state that they obtain a better and stronger fibre by employing less heat. Some steep the straw twice, others once, and others again wash it, after steeping, by letting off the saturated water, and allowing it to soak for some hours in a fresh charge of water. Others, before hanging it up to dry in the sheds, spread it for a few days on the grass. But all these points must be decided by experience, and no doubt the retteries will ultimately arrive at the best and most economical modes of conducting the various processes.

A curious method of retting has been recently invented by Mr. Bower, of Rawcliffe, in Yorkshire. The straw is placed in an iron cylinder, from which the air is exhausted by a steam-engine. Hot water is then driven in, and immediately forces itself into the hollow stems, thoroughly macerating them, and rendering the fibre in a few minutes capable of being separated by scutching. It is spread on the grass for some days before scutching. As yet this process is not sufficiently tried and developed to enable me to express a decided opinion on its merits.

I have already adverted to the mechanical separation of the fibre, without previous steeping, as probably the earliest means employed. This plan has at different periods revived, and has lately been again brought forward by Mr. Donlan, and others. The fibre, thus obtained, cannot be considered suitable for the manufacture of any fabric requiring to be bleached, since the gum would have to be got rid of afterwards; and of course it is better to begin with a fine fibre than with one loaded with foreign substances, certain to be decomposed in the wet-spinning, the boiling of the yarn in alkaline ley, the boiling of the linen in the same, the alternate dips in acidulated water and solutions of chloride of lime, the washing with soap, and the final bleach on the grass. It would be impossible to obtain a close, compact, and strong web, if the fibre containing the gum were employed. But it has been stated, and with every appearance of accuracy, that for all coarse purposes, where no bleach is required, such as for ropes, cordage, bagging, sack and truck covers, wagon tilts, &c., &c., the dry-prepared fibre may, with advantage, be employed, as it possesses great strength. In many of these cases, the oiling, painting, or pitching of the fabrics, would further secure them against the effects of moisture on the decomposable matter.

There remains only to notice M. Claussen’s process by which he proposes to convert cut flax-fibre, through the alternate action of certain acids and salts, into an article resembling cotton, and capable of being spun on cotton machinery; and likewise, by similar means, to reduce it to a fibre resembling wool, and possessing its properties of felting. On the details of this process it is not necessary for me to enter, as it has been so frequently brought before the public. Until sufficient proof of the correctness of the inventor’s expectations, founded on the actual working of the process, be adduced, it would be unbecoming in me to lay before you any opinion of my own concerning them, further than to say that, should experience verify the inventor’s statements, a greatly increased demand for flax would take place.

Having detailed the different modes of preparing flax-fibre for manufacture, I may allude briefly to the mechanism employed in the final, or scutching process, which is that by which the fibre, freed from its impurities, is separated from the woody stem, and rendered fit for the spinner.

Throughout the Continent, in all flax-growing countries, hand-labour is employed for scutching flax, and the instruments by which it is accomplished are very simple. The straw, when steeped and dried, is beaten with a wooden mallet, until the woody parts are bruised and broken up. The fibre is then freed from the wood by being struck repeatedly with a narrow wooden blade, and is sometimes afterwards scraped with a blunt knife, to free it from any bits that may still adhere, and to split up the broad ribandy knots of fibres into their component filaments. Much employment is afforded by this process, especially in the winter months, when all out-door labour is in abeyance.

In Ireland, while a considerable portion of flax is scutched by hand, the process is chiefly effected by machinery. In common with all other departments of labour, where the action of machinery can be substituted for the human arm, it is rapidly taking the lead, and successive improvements in the principal of the mechanism are bringing the process nearer perfection, both as to the neatness and regularity of the workmanship, and the avoidance of waste. The machinery consists of two distinct parts;—the first for breaking or bruising the flax-stems, and the second for cleaning out the fibre. The bruising is effected by passing the straw through several pairs of metal rollers, fluted or grooved to different widths;—the first pair having these grooves about two and a half inches wide, and the others decreasing to half an inch. The wood of the flax-stems is thus at the same time crushed flat by the weight and pressure of the rollers, and nicked or broken at intervals by the action of the grooves, while the fibre remains uninjured. The second, or scutching process, is an adaption of the plan employed in hand-labour, the wooden blades being attached to the extremities of arms inserted, like the radii of a circle in an axle, and when driven by power. They revolve with rapidity, striking, with considerable force, on a handful of the bruised stems, presented to their action by a workman who skilfully twists or spreads them, so that the blades may act upon every part.

There are some inventions intended to combine the action of a scraper or a brush, with a view to cleaning off any remains of the bark or gum, and of splitting up the bundles of fibres. The machine invented by Mr. Plummer, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and shown in the Exhibition, displays the adaptation of brushes of wire, hair, and whalebone, to the scutching-blades.

A machine lately brought out by a Belgian, and adopted to a small extent in Ireland, being to a certain degree self-acting, possesses the advantage of dispensing with skilled labour, and thus reduces the cost of working. In it the beaters are two long sets of iron bars, rotating in opposite directions; and the