Narhuth's flax-breaker, requiring great power, and working at a high speed, is used in Hungary in preference to all others. An outline of it is shown in Fig. 674. The drum is replaced by a series of rollers b, 5 in. in diameter, moved by one large spur-wheel D, and gearing into the breakers a, carried by the frame A, and oscillating with the latter round the axis C. The oscilla tion, which is transferred from the main-shaft, through the rods F P, and eccentric G, is very rapid. Motion is given from shafting to the pulley 0, and from H to M, whence a bolt passes to the over the slides of all the bearings ; the rope runs beneath the machine, over the guide-pulleys e, and is fastened to the beam!, which is turned into position by levers, and secured by the pine. The feed and delivery tables are h and i.
It is of the utmost importance that the breaking should be well performed, as this will reduce the amount of scotching required, and thus result in a lessened proportion of tow.
Boutching.—Beutching is the last process with which the culti vator is concerned. By it, the fibre is freed from the broken particles of woody matter, and rendered fit for market. It is of great import ance that the stems be fed in a uniform manner to the seutcher ; the more regular the length of the stems, the more evenly their ends terminate, and the straighter the stems, the less will be the loss of fibre in scutohing. The operation is performed in several ways. Both on the Continent and in Ireland, the primitive method of hand-scutch ing is only partially retained, and it is doubtful whether any mechani cal appliance could equal the quality of the work done by the skilled operatives of Belgium and Holland, chiefly by reason of the judgment required to be displayed in accommodating the seutching to the ever-varying condition of the straw. Nevertheless, mechanical seutching is coming into extensive use, on account of its greater rapidity, and will in time doubtless usurp entirely the position of the older system. It may be carried on in two ways : (a) by seutehing-mills ; (b) by seutehing-machines.
(a) Seutching-mills consist of long rooms divided into a number of "berths'' or partitions, gene rally not exceeding 50 ; they are built of brink, and well lit by side windows. Throughout their length, runs a wrought-iron shaft a, fixed in bearings on a row of wooden or iron pillars b. At each berth,
this shaft carries a wheel, termed a " wiper-ring" e, provided with a number (usually 5) of wooden blades d, as shown in Fig. 676.
Parallel with the shaft, and at a little distance from it, is placed the partition e, made of iron as a protection against fire, firmly bolted at foot, and stayed at top by a bracket f from the beam g, which unites the row of pillars. The seutching.
blades work against pro jected wedge-shaped openings h in the partition, the lower edge being horizontal, and a little above the centre of the wiper-shaft. The wiper-rings are fixed at distances of about 2 ft. 9 in., and as the projected openings are about 9 in. wide, each workman has a "berth" of 2 ft. to stand in. The floor on the pillar side of the partition is much lower than on the other, to afford space for the woody dust, tow, &c., without impeding the blades. Every care must be taken in the fitting to prevent the duet entering the workmen's berths, as it is highly pernicious. After leaving the breaker, the flax is well shaken by hand, to free it as much as possible from the boon, and is then taken into the soutching-room, and placed in suitable handfuls or " streaks " on the table i. The workmen stand in a row between this table and the partition, one in each berth, with the left band against the partition, and the wedge-shaped slot in front. Each takes a handful or streak of the broken straw from the table, and inserts one end of it in the slot throngh the uncovered part of the projection, resting the middle of the streak on the bottom edge of the slot, and sliding it gradually forward, so as to bring it well under the action of the scutching-blades, which strike-it in the direction of its length. When the shove or woody boon has been beaten out of one-half of the flax, he withdraws it, and inserts the other half, to be similarly treated. He then passes the handful, thus roughly scutched, to his neighbour, who treats it in exactly the same manner, and finishes the operation. The scutching blades in the second operation are set closer to the slot than in the first, and consequently there is more thorough scutching. It is customary for the men to work in pairs : the one who performs the first opera tion is technically called a "buffer "; the other, a " finisher " or " cleaner." The finished flax is finally moved from the table and carried away to store.