The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous ... - Cd3wd.com

HEMP BY THE ANCIENTS. 391
by which the adhering tow is removed from them. Tlie siniplest and most common
construction is to place the Iieckles upon the surface of a horizontal cylinder,
while the flax is held either by mechanical means or by the hand during its expo-
sure to the heckle points. Many machines have been made upon this principle.
It is proper in this case to set the heckle teeth obliquely in the direction in which
the cylinder turns, whereby they penetrate the fibres in a more parallel line, effect
their separation more easily, and cause less waste in torn filaments. To conduct
the flax upon the cylinders, two horizontal fluted rollers of iron are employed,
which can be so modified in a moment by a lever as to present the flax more or
less to th« heckling mechanism. The operator seizes a tress lock of flax with her
hand and introduces it between the fluted rollers, so that the tips on which the
operation must begin, reach the heckles first, and by degrees the advancing flax
gets heckled through two thirds or three fourths of its length, after which the tress
or strick is turned, and its other end is subjected to the same process. By its
somewhat rapid revolution the heckle cylinder creates a current of air which not
only carries away the boomy particles, but also spreads out the flax like a sheaf
of corn upon the spikes, effecting the same object as is done by the dexterous
swing of the hand. The tow collects betwixt the teeth of the heckle, and may,
when its quantity has become considerable, be removed in the form of a flock of
parallel layers.
Flax has been for a long period spun wet in the mills ;
a method no doubt cop-
ied from the practice of housewives moistening their yam with their saliva at
the domestic wheel. Within a few years the important improvement has been
introduced of substituting hot for cold water, in the troughs through which the
fibres in the act of spinning pass. By this means a much finer, smoother, and
more uniform thread can be spun than in the old way. The flax formerly spun
to twelve pounds a bundle is, with hot water, spun to six. The inconvenience of
the spray thrown from the yarn on the fliers remains, aggravated by increased
heat and dampness of the room where tliis hot process goes on. Being a new ex-
pedient, it receives daily changes and ameliorations. WTien first employed, the
troughs of hot water were quite oj)en ; they are now usually covered in, so as al-
most entirely to obviate the objections to which they were previously liable. With
the covers has been also introduced a new method of piecening or joining on any
end, which may have been run down, namely, by splicing it to the adjoining ro-
ving, whereby it is carried through the water without imposing a necessity on the
epinner to put her hand into the water at all. In some places she uses a wire,
for the purpose of drawing through the end of the roving to mend a broken yam.
This may be considered the inherent evil of flax-spinning,—the spray thrown
oflf by the wet yam, as it whirls abcit with the flier of the spindles. A working
dress, indeed, is generally worn by the spinners ; but, unless it be made of stuflF
impermeable to water, like Mackintosh's cloth, it will soon become uncomfortable,
and cause injury to health by keeping the body continually in a hot bath. In
some mills, water-proof cloth and leather aprons have actually been introduced,
which are the only practicable remedy ;
for the free space which must be left round
the spindles for the spinner to see them play, is incompatible with any kmd of
fixed guard or parapluie.