LINEN AN Linen (French, Tissue de Lin ; Spanish, Teta de Lisa ; German, Linnes ; Dutch, Lynsrara ; Italian, Teta ; Russian, Poloist!) is a general name for cloth woven with the fibres of the flax plant (Linen un'tatissionenn), a manufacture of so ancient a date that its origin is unknown. Linen cloths were made at a very early period in Egypt; as we see from the cloth wrappings of the mummies, which are all of this substance. It appears also that linen wan, in the time of Herodotus, an article of export from Egypt. (ii. 105.) In the present day, linen as a generic term includes woven fabrics of hemp as well as flax, except the special kinds known as canvas, sail-cloth, and a few others.
England has manufactured linen from an earl but unknown date. The growth of the manufacture in Ireland is ascribed to the legislative obstruction raised in the reign of William III. to the prosecution in that part of the kingdom of the woollen manufacture, which it was alleged interfered prejudicially with the clothiers of England; the linen weavers being at the same time encouraged by premiums of various kinds distributed by public boards authorised by parliament, and by bounties paid on the exportation of linen to foreign countries. It is known that linen was woven in Ireland as early ea the 11th century ; that Louis Crommelin, driven from France by the revocation of the edict of Nantes, established the manufacture on an improved basis; that in 1711 the Duke of Ormonde, lord-lieutenant, ordered that funeral hat-bands and scarfs should be made of linen, as a means of encouraging the trade; that a little machinery began to be applied to the manufacture in 1725; and that Dr. James Ferguson, of Belfast, greatly improved the processes by a method of bleaching adopted soon after tho middle of the century. Messrs. Mulholland, of Belfast, began to spin flax by machinery in 1820. In 1823 the Linen Board was dissolved; and in 1841 a society wan founded for encouraging the growth of fiat in Ireland. We bar() no certain means fur ascertaining
the growth of the linen manufacture in that country. The only facts by which we can approximate to its amount aro afforded by custom house record., which do not reach back to an early date, and are wanting for the years subsequent to 1825, when the intercourse between Great Britain and Ireland was put upon the footing of a coaating trade. The avenge quantity of linen exported annually from Ireland, prinei. pally to England, in the three years ending March, 1790, wets 34,191,754 yards ; In the three years ending March, 1800, the yearly average was 36,112,369 yards ; and the average annual exports in tho bet three years of each of the neat two deconnary periaL was 40,751,889 yards, and 48.215,711 yards, respectively. la 1820, the quantity was 42,605,929 yards; and In 1825, it amounted to 52,560,92a yards. An estimate made by the Irish railway commiesioners in 1835, put down the quantity at 70,209,572 yards of linen, the value of which was 3,730,8544 Since the lad-named date, the means of forming an estimate have been very doubtful.
Its linen manufacture was Introduced into Scotland early in the art century ; and in 1727 a board of trustees was appointed for its mperintendence and encouragement. Notwithstanding this and the tirther stimulus afforded by premiums and bounties, the progress of the manufacture in that part of the kingdom was for a long time com paratively unimportant. At Dundee, the great seat of the Scotch Linen trade, the whole quantity of flax imported in 1745 was only e.4 tons. In less than half a century after that time the annual impor tation of flax, was 2500 tone, and there were exported 8,000,000 yards of linen beyond the quantity used at home. At this rate the manu facture continued nearly stationary until after the peace In 1815, when a new impulse was given to it. Improved fiscal arrangements after wards greatly increased the production in Scotland, especially at Dundee.