Commercial qualities of yarn range from about 6 lb. tow yarns (8 lea) up to 16o lea line yarn. Very much finer yarn up even to 400 lea may be spun from the system of machines found in many mills; but these higher counts are only used for fine thread for sewing and for the making of lace. The highest counts of cut line flax are spun in Irish mills for the manufacture of fine cambrics and lawns which are characteristic features of the Ulster trade. Exceedingly high counts have sometimes been spun by hand, and for the preparation of the finest lace threads it is said the Belgian hand spinners must work in damp cellars, where the spinner is guided by the sense of touch alone, the filament being too fine to be seen by the eye. Such lace yarn is said to have been sold for as much as £240 per pound. In the Great Exhibition of 1851, yarn of 760 lea, equal to about 13om. per lb. was shown which had been spun by an Irish woman 84 years of age. In the same exhibition there was shown by a Cambray manufacturing firm hand-spun yarn equal to 1,200 warp and 1,600 weft or to more than 204 and 272m. per lb. respectively.
A large proportion of the linen yarn of commerce undergoes a more or less thorough bleaching before it is handed over to the weaver. Linen yarns in the green condition contain such a large proportion of gummy and resinous matter, removable by bleaching, or by benzine previous to bleaching, that cloths which might present a firm close texture in their natural un bleached state would become thin and impoverished in a perfectly bleached condition. Nevertheless, in many cases it is much more satisfactory to weave the yarns in the green or natural colour, and to perform all bleaching operations in the piece. Many manu facturers allow about 20 to 25% of loss in weight of yarn in bleaching from the green to the fully bleached stage, but some bleachers can obtain the desired degree of whiteness with a much lower percentage of loss; and the intermediate stages of boiled, improved, duck, cream, half bleach and three-quarters bleach, all indicating a certain degree of bleaching, have corresponding de grees of loss in weight. The differences in colour resulting from different degrees of bleaching are taken advantage of for produc ing patterns in certain classes of linen fabrics.
Linen thread is prepared from the various counts of fine bleached line yarn by winding the hanks on large spools, and twist ing the various strands, two, three, four or six cord, as the case may be, on a doubling spindle similar in principle to the yarn spin ning frame, excepting, of course, the drawing rollers. A large trade in linen thread has been created by its use in the machine manu facture of boots and shoes, saddlery and other leather goods, and in heavy sewing-machine work generally. The thread industry is largely developed at Lisburn, near Belfast, at Johnstone, near Glasgow, Bridport, Dorsetshire, and at Paterson, N.J., United States. Fine cords, net twine and ropes are also twisted from flax.
The difficulties in the way of power-loom linen weaving, combined with the obstinate competition of hand-loom weavers, delayed the introduction of factory weaving of linen fab rics for many years after the system was fully applied to other tex tiles. The principal difficulty arose through the hardness and in elasticity of the linen yarns, owing to which the yarn frequently broke under the tension to which it was subjected. Competition with the hand-loom against the power-loom in certain classes of work is conceivable, although it is absolutely impossible for the work of the spinning wheel to stand against the rivalry of drawing, roving and spinning frames. To the present day, in Ireland espe cially, a great (mai of fine weaving is done by hand-loom. Warden states that power was applied on a small scale to the weaving of canvas in London about 1812; that in 1821 power-looms were started for weaving linen at Kirkcaldy, Scotland ; and that in
Maberly and Company, of Aberdeen, had two hundred power looms erected for linen manufacture. The power-loom has been in
uninterrupted use in the Broadford factory, Aberdeen, which then belonged to Maberly and Company, down to the present day, and that firm may be credited with being the effective introducers of power-loom weaving in the linen trade.
The various operations connected with linen weaving, such as winding, warping, dressing, beaming and drawing-in, do not differ in essential features from the like processes in the case of cotton weaving, etc., neither is there any significant modification in the looms employed. (See WEAVING.) Dressing is a matter of im portance in the preparation of linen warps for beaming. It consists in treating the spread yarn with flour or farina paste, applied to it by flannel-covered rollers, the lowermost of which revolves in a trough of paste. The paste is equalized on the yarn by brushes, and dried by passing the web over steam-heated cylinders before it is finally wound on the beam for weaving.
Linen fabrics are numerous in variety and widely different in their qualities, appearance and applications, ranging from heavy sail-cloth and rough sacking to the most delicate cam brics, lawns and scrims. The heavier manufactures include as a principal item sail-cloth, with canvas, tarpaulin, sacking and car peting. The principal seats of the manufacture of these linens are Dundee, Arbroath, Forfar, Kirkcaldy, Aberdeen and Barnsley. The medium weight linens, which are used for a great variety of purposes, such as tent-making, towelling, covers, outer garments for men, linings, upholstery work, etc., include duck, huckaback, crash, tick, dowlas, osnaburg, low sheetings and low brown linens. Plain bleached linens form a class by themselves, and include prin cipally the materials for shirts and collars and for bed sheets. Under the head of twilled linens are included drills, diapers and dimity for household use; and damasks for table linen, of which two kinds are distinguished—so-called single or five-leaf damask, and double or eight-leaf damask, the pattern being formed by the intersection of warp and weft yarns at intervals of five and eight threads of yarn respectively. The fine linens are cambrics, lawns and handkerchiefs; and lastly, printed and dyed linen fabrics may be assigned to a special though not important class. In a general way it may be said regarding the British industry that the heavy linen trade centres in Dundee and the adjoining counties; medium goods are made in most linen manufacturing districts; damasks are chiefly produced in Belfast, Dunfermline and Perth; and the fine linen manufactures have their seat in Belfast and the north of Ireland. Leeds and Barnsley are the centres of the linen trade in England.
Linen fabrics have several advantages over cotton, resulting principally from the microscopic structure and length of the flax fibre. The cloth is much smoother and more lustrous than cotton cloth; and, presenting a less "woolly" surface, it does not soil so readily, nor absorb and retain moisture so freely, as the more spongy cotton; and it is at once a cool, clean and healthful ma terial for bed-sheeting and clothing. Bleached linen, starched and dressed, possesses that unequalled purity, gloss and smoothness which make it alone the material suitable for shirt-fronts, collars and wristbands; and the gossamer delicacy, yet strength, of the thread it may be spun into fits it for the fine lace-making to which it is devoted. Flax is a slightly heavier material than cotton, while its strength is about double.
Flax, Tow and Jute Spinning (P. Sharp, J. P. Mathew & Co., Dundee) ; T. Woodhouse and T. Milne, Jute and Linen Weaving (2nd ed., 1914) ; The Finishing of Jute and Linen Fabrics (2nd ed. 1928) ; T. Woodhouse, Jacquards and Harnesses: Card Cutting, Lacing and Repeating Mechanism (1923) T. F. Bell, Jacquard Weaving and Designing (1895) ; F. Bradbury, Jacquard Mechanism and Harness Mounting (Halifax). (T. W.)