hand, and rapidly repeating the strokes with It is then scutched by means of a board set While this hot water process has been under examination, Mr. Donlan has introduced a dry process, by which the fibre is separated from the stalk without any steeping whatever. The mode of proceeding is not yet made public, as it is not yet patented ; but its advo cates assert that it is as much superior to the hot water process as that is to the old mode of steeping in cold water. The experiments which are now being carried on will speedily determine the relative merits of all the three systems.
To skew how remarkably this subject is calling forth the energies of different persons, we need only state that the Chevalier Claussen is carrying out improvements in a direction differing from all those hitherto noticed. He takes the flax fibre afterit has been prepared to a certain stage, and so modifies its substance as to make it susceptible of being spun by the usual cotton machinery. It is known that flax or linen goods have a coldness which other textile fabrics have not. M. Claussen has tried to give to flax, instead of this coldness, the warmth. of woollens, the softness of cottons, and the glossiness of silks ; and hence he has prepared four kinds, which be calls flax fibre, flax cotton, flax wool, and flax silk. The flax fibre is fit to be spun into beautiful linen thread or yarn; the flax cotton is intended to be combined with cotton, and to be spun with it into a mixed yarn ; and so in like manner the flax wool with wool, and the flax silk with silk. The processes comprise, among others,
the bursting or opening of the cylindrical tubes which form the minute fibres of flax, by ex posing them to carbonic acid gas.
Application has been made to the Crown for a trading charter to a Flax Company ; by the terms of which, the company engage to give for Irish flax a price better than can now be obtained under any other arrangement ; which flax is to be prepared up to a certain stage by Donlan's process, ready to be carried forward to its ultimate results by Claussen's process. This charter has not yet been granted ; but the application is receiving the favourable consideration of the government.
The reader will hence see that flax culture and manufacture are now in a highly inter esting phase of their history. In Ireland especially the subject is being favourably taken up. Besides the culture, the spinning is there on the increase. There were 41 flax mills in Ireland in 1841, and 73 in 1850.
Further details will be found under LINEN 111/1.NurAcTufms. The flax imported in 1850 amounted to 97,082 cwts., of which more than two-thirds were from Russia. The flax seed imported in the same year amounted to 132,343 quarters.