12
PROGRESS REPORT OF THE FLAX COMMISSIONERS.

the principles of percussion, friction, pressure, and scraping. In this machine, the leaf is first pressed
by iron rollers, then struck by the beaters, which break the skin across and loosen the tissue; then by
rapidly changing its direction as the drum revolves, the beater acts as a scraper, while it moves in the
direction of the length of the leaf, and tears off the greater portion of the tissue and the whole
of the gum, while at the same time the beaters, by their diagonal position, push the loosened fibres first to
one side and then to the other, and so open them out. The truth of this can be easily proved in those
machines like Gibbons' or Fraser's which admit of experimental plates or bars for beating against
being put in. If the face of the plate is made sharp and convex to the beaters, they act only as
hammers and break up the tissue, but do not remove it; but if the face is flat, or slightly hollowed, so
that it is concentric with the drum, and this flat or hollowed surface has a breadth of two or three
times the distance at which the blows are delivered on the leaf, the tissue will not only be broken but
almost entirely torn away form the fibre.

The fault of the pressure principle was that the leaves were not sufficiently broken up, especially
near the tip; the fault of the hackling and scraping principles was the great wear and tear on the
machine, and the hackling principle was also found to tear or cut the fibres across; while the fault of
the friction and percussion principles was that the process was too slow to pay. The present machine
probably reduces all these faults to a minimum. Pressure is used only to break up the thick butts of
the leaves, and to hold them while being scraped by the drum. The wear is reduced by the percussion
of the beater first breaking the skin across before the tissue is scraped away, and by dressing the flax
between two strong smooth metallic surfaces; while the speed is so great that a single machine can
easily dress 5¼ cwt. of green flax, or about 2,000 leaves, in an hour; whilst the fastest hackling
machine could only dress 4¾ cwt., and the fastest percussion machine 3 cwt. per hour.

The speed with which the leaves can be passed through a machine is of the greatest importance, for the machining
is the only process in which each leaf has to be handled separately. In the machines now in use the
speed could be greatly increased if mechanical means were devised for taking away the leaves as they
pass through and arranging them in hanks, with the butts all laid together. A difficulty consists in
the leaves being of different lengths, but this will no doubt be overcome in time. It is thought by
some people that machines by some makers can pass more leaves through in a certain time than those
of other makers. This, however, is a mistake, if no stoppages occur, as the feed-rollers of any machine
can be run at any speed the manufacturer wishes, provided the machine is strong enough to stand the
strain. It is simply a question of size of pulleys.

What I have already said about slightly hollowed beating-plates making the best flax, makes me
prefer soft iron plates to hard ones, for they quickly wear to the same curve as the beaters follow,
which is the best shape they can have, while they also save the wear of the beating-drum. I have kept
a soft cast-iron plate in a machine for a week, and at the end of that time it was making just as good
flax as when it had been in only for an hour or two. The face, when I took it out, was about five-
eighths of an inch in breadth, and hollowed to the curve of the beaters. Of course it will take rather
more power to drive a machine with a hollowed plate, but our object is to turn out good fibre.
Constant attention is necessary to see that the machines do not get out of adjustment, otherwise an
uneven quality of fibre will be produced. I find that when a machine is in proper adjustment, and
running with considerable speed, it will strip off nearly the whole of the tissue from the leaf without
injuring the fibre, but that if the speed is reduced it will cut the fibre. However, I prefer the fibre
being slightly cut to being under-dressed. No doubt there will be greater waste and more tow made,
but the remaining fibre will be soft, while, if under-dressed, it will always be harsh and wiry; and
manufacturers should never forget that their best policy is to produce as good an article as possible,
even if it should be at a less immediate profit. Phormium fibre is now suffering an undeserved
depression in the London market, owing to the quantity of trash that has been sent there. Badly
dressed, badly washed, and badly dried, it looked, when shipped, more like a material for brooms than
for ropes, and when landed in England it was fit for nothing but manure. It is the manufacturers of
this inferior material who have caused the cry of spontaneous combustion, who have raised freights
and lowered prices, and who have caused the strongest and whitest of prepared fibres to be classed
with coir and jute.

SOAKING.

After machining, the leaves, now reduced to the state of fibre, must be placed in water, but
different opinions obtain as to the proper mode of doing this ; while in some mills, I believe, the fibre
is not washed at all. This, however, is a great, indeed a fatal mistake.

We have seen that the interior cells of the leaf contain a bitter principle which is readily soluble
in water, and it is this bitter principle; which, if allowed to dry on the fibres, stains them to a reddish
brown. It is found in all parts of the leaf, but is most plentiful in the butts, where larger quantities
of cellular tissue exist; and it must not be confounded with the red colouring matter found also at the
butts of some leaves, and which can also be removed by soaking in water, but with greater difficulty.
The bitter principle is colourless while in the cells of the leaf, but turns reddish brown on exposure to
water or moist air, and dries up of the same colour, while the red fluid is red when in the cells of the
leaf, but loses its colour when exposed to the air and sun, and dries pinkish-yellow. That such is the
case may be shown by taking a quantity of leaves, some of which are red at the butt and some white,
running them through the machine, and drying them without any washing, when it will be found that,
notwithstanding their different colours when fresh from the machine, they will all dry to nearly the
same reddish-brown colour, and this colour will extend more or less to the tips of the leaves; while, if
some leaves with red butts are passed through the machine and then soaked in running water until
they have no bitter taste, the fibre will be found to dry nearly white, although red at the butt when
taken out of soak.

Simply washing, however much the fibre may be manipulated, will not altogether remove this
bitter principle; time is absolutely necessary to accomplish it, and, unless it is entirely removed, the
fibre will not have that purity and brightness of colour which belong to it when properly prepared.