LINEN AND LINEN MANUFACTURES. Under the name of linen are included all the yarns spun and fabrics woven from flax fibre. (See FLAX.) From the earliest periods of human history till almost the close of the i8th century linen manufacture was one of the most ex tensive and widely disseminated of the domestic industries of European countries. The industry was most largely developed in Russia, Austria, Germany, Holland, Belgium, the northern provinces of France, and certain parts of England, in the north of Ireland, and throughout Scotland ; and in these countries its im portance was generally recognized by the enactment of special laws, having for their object the protection and extension of the trade. The inventions of Arkwright, Hargreaves and Crompton in the later part of the 18th century, benefiting almost exclusively the art of cotton-spinning, and the unparalleled development of that branch of textile manufactures, largely due to the ingenuity of these inventors, gave the linen trade as it then existed a fatal blow. Domestic spinning, and with it hand-loom weaving, imme diately began to shrink ; the trade which had supported whole vil lages and provinces entirely disappeared, and the linen manufac ture, in attenuated dimensions and changed conditions, took refuge in special localities, where it resisted, not unsuccessfully, the further assaults of cotton, and, with varying fortunes, rearranged its relations in the community of textile industries. The linen in dustries of the United Kingdom were the first to suffer from the aggression of cotton ; more slowly the influence of the rival textile reached other countries.
In 1810 Napoleon I. offered a reward of i,000,000 francs to any inventor who should devise the best machinery for the spinning of flax yarn. Within a few weeks thereafter Philippe de Girard patented in France important inventions for flax spinning by both dry and wet methods. His inventions, however, did not receive the promised reward and were neglected in his native country. In 1815 he was invited by the Austrian Government to establish a spinning mill at Hirtenberg, near Vienna, which was run with his machinery for a number of years, but it failed to prove a com mercial success. In the meantime English inventors had applied themselves to the task of adapting machines to the preparation and spinning of flax. The foundation of machine spinning of flax was laid by John Kendrew and Thomas Porthouse, of Darlington, who, in 1787, secured a patent for "a mill or machine upon new princi ples for spinning yarn from hemp, tow, flax or wool." By innumer able successive improvements and modifications, the invention of Kendrew' and Porthouse developed into the perfect system of machinery with which, at the present day, spinning-mills are furnished ; but progress in adapting flax fibres for mechanical spin ning, and linen yarn for weaving cloth by power-loom was much slower than in the corresponding case of cotton.
Modern Methods of Manufacture.—The modern manufac ture of linen divides itself into two branches, spinning and weav ing, to which may be added the bleaching and various finishing processes, which, in the case of many linen textures, are laborious undertakings and important branches of industry. The flax fibre
is received in bundles from the scutch mill, and, after having been classed into various grades according to the quality of the ma terial, is labelled and placed in the store ready for the flax mill. The whole operations in yarn manufacture comprise (I) hackling, (2) preparing, and (3) spinning. For commoner types of yarn, a process known as carding replaces that of hackling.
Hackling.—This first preparatory process consists not only in combing out, disentangling and laying smooth and parallel the separate fibres, but also serves to split up and separate the strands of fibre which, up to this point, have been agglutinated together. The hackling process was originally performed by hand, and it was one of fundamental importance, requiring the exercise of much dexterity and judgment. The broken, ravelled and short fibres, which separate out in the hackling process, form tow, an article of inferior value to the spinner. A good deal of hand-hackling is still practised, especially in Irish and continental mills ; and it has not been found practicable, in any case, to dispense entirely with a rough preparation of the fibre by hand labour. In hackling by hand, the hackler takes a handful or "strick" of rough flax, winds the top end around his hands, and then, spreading out the root end as broad and flat as possible, by a swinging motion dashes the fibre into the hackle teeth or needles of the rougher or "ruffer." The rougher is a board plated with tin and studded with spikes or teeth of steel about pin. in length, which taper to a fine sharp point. The hackler draws his strick several times through this tool, working gradually up from the roots to near his hand, till in his judgment the fibres at the root end are sufficiently combed out and smoothed. He then seizes the root end and similarly treats the top end of the strick. The same process is again repeated on a sim ilar tool, the teeth of which are sin. long and much more closely studded together, and for the finer counts of yarn a third and a fourth tool may be used, of still increasing fineness and closeness of teeth. In dealing with certain varieties of the fibre, for fine spinning especially, the flax is, after roughing, broken or cut into three lengths—the top, middle and root ends. Of these the middle cut is most valuable, being uniform in length, strength and quality. The root end is more woody and harsh, while the top, though fine in quality, is uneven and variable in strength. From some flax of extra length it is possible to take two short middle cuts ; and, again, the fibre is occasionally only broken into two cuts. Flax so prepared is known as "cut line," in contradistinction to "long line" flax which is the fibre unbroken. The subsequent treatment of line, whether long or cut, does not present sufficient variation to require further reference to these distinctions.