flax per day. The ripplers lay down their handfuls | heap, being a valuable addition there, on account of on the left-hand side, where they are tied up in sheaves, its being saturated with the water of the pool. A and carried at once to the steep-pool. The seed-bolls, person then stands in the water, lifting out the bundles meanwhile, are dried, and stored away in bags in an of flax without the use of pitchfork or hook. Others airy place. They should be well dried, or they will receive the bundles, and set them up on their buttheat. Mr. Richard Robinson, of Belfast, has invented ends to drain for twenty-four hours, after which they an improved machine for seeding flax, and also a are spread out on the closest and shortest pasture, machine for cleaning the seed. and left to be washed by showers, and softened by the action of the air. They should be evenly spread in rows, so that by means of a lath they may be turned over easily, that each side may be exposed alike, otherwise, a difference in quality and colour is the consequence. A few days or a week is occupied in grassing, after which the flax is lifted, tied up in sheaves, and packed under cover, or stacked and thatched in the rick-yard. Here it may be kept for years; the quality rather improving than deteriorating during three or four seasons after steeping. STEEPING OR RETTING. Flax is the filamentous portion of the stalk of the plant, from which it is necessary to separate the woody part termed the boon. But in order to do this, the gum or resinous sap which binds the parts together must be dissolved; and the method of doing this greatly influences the value of the fibre. The steeping of flax is carried on in some places by mere exposure on the grass to dews and rain, which is called dew-retting, rating, or rotting; in other places, by immersion in running streams. But the plan commonly adopted is that of steeping it in pools or pits filled with water; this is called water-retting. The quality of the water must be taken into consideration. It must be free from iron or other metallic | particles, or the fibre will be discoloured: it must not be hard or spring water; but, if possible, it must be water that has flowed for some distance exposed to the action of the air. Flax is improved by a very gentle current flowing over it; and although our rivers are too rapid to allow of our steeping it in them, yet the steeppool is most perfect when it is in communication with a river, and can have a slight current on the surface, sufficient to carry off the scum. If river-water be not available, spring-water should be let into the pit six weeks before the flax is put in, that it may have time to mellow and to deposit any calcareous sediment. In the steep-pool the sheaves of flax are packed loosely, resting on their butt-ends. It is best to put but one layer of sheaves into the pool. The flax must be covered from the light by sods, with the grassy side underneath, or by wheaten straw, kept down by stones or logs of wood. After a time, fermentation, accompanied with an unpleasant odour, ensues; but this is said to be innocuous. The water poisons fish; but cattle are not injured by it, as is proved on the banks of the Lys, where cattle drink freely of the water, while the river is full of flax for miles. The steeping of the flax must be continued until the gum-resin which binds the fibres together is completely loosened and separated; but it must be stopped before the putrefactive fermentation takes place. In order to this, a careful examination is necessary. One of the signs of the approach of this result is the sinking of the flax in the water, which may take place, according to the weather, after from six to twenty days' steeping, But a better test is the breaking of a few stalks of average fineness, and ascertaining whether the fibre can be easily pulled off, without breaking, from the internal woody part or boon. If so, the flax is suffusently watered, and a longer stay would make it The removal from the sterpong pool requires care. The song of straw is first removed to the manure By the old methods of water-retting and dew-retting the plant is brought to a certain stage of decay, which causes a loosening or separation of the fibres. By either procsss, from 10 days to 3 or 6 weeks is required before the flax is ready for separation from the boon, and in the meantime the waters and the atmosphere of the district are rendered offensive, and the flax itself may be stained or injured by over retting. In 1847 an improved plan of retting was introduced into Ireland by Mr. Schenck of New York, and is thus described by a writer in Newton's London Journal and Repertory of Arts, &c. for August, 1851. "The principal apartment in the building [near Belfast] contains a number of large circular vats in which the flax is steeped, and these are provided with steam-pipes connected with the steam-engine boiler. The flax to be operated upon is placed in these vats, and filled up to a given height; strong cross-bars of wood, forming a kind of framework, are then laid above the flax and secured to the respective vats, the object of this framing being to keep the flax down in the vat, as otherwise it would rise as it swelled in fermenting, and protrude above the water. When a mass of flax is thus secured, water is run into the vat, and as it becomes absorbed, more is added. Steam is next admitted into and made to circulate through the steam-pipe at the bottom of the vat, so as to raise the water to about 90° Fahr., and maintain it at that temperature. In a few hours acetous fermentation is established in the vat, and the decomposition of the resinous or gummy matter in the stalk proceeds with rapidity. After about 60 hours the decomposition is completed, and that without the exudation of any odorous or noxious effluvium. The water surcharged with the mucilage is then drawn off, the framing is removed, and the flax is taken out of the vat to be dried, either in the open air or by artificial means. . . . When the weather is favourable for drying in the open air, the flax, tied up in tufts or handfuls, is suspended in rows, tier above tier, in an open framing, covered in at top by a penthouse roof." In damp weather the flax is piled loosely in a drying chamber into which a current of heated air is passed, which quickly carries off the moisture, the waste steam from the engine being | answer the same purpose, and give more power. After economically used for heating the air. Mr. Bower of Leeds has patented a process for improvements in retting flax. The patentee has found that by the ordinary method of water-retting a portion of the glutinous matter still adheres to the fibre, and renders it unfit for the scutching. By the improved process the flax is steeped in water, warm or cold, and after a few days (six, if cold water be used) taken out and passed between pressing rollers, for the purpose of expressing the glutinous matters from the interior of the plant. The steeping is then continued for a few days, when the rolling is repeated. The flax is then dried and treated in the ordinary way, when it will be found to be much clearer of the glutinous matter than if steeped in the ordinary way for a much longer time. For the finer descriptions of flax, the plant is steeped in a solution of caustic ammonia, common salt or Glauber salt. 1lb of caustic ammonia, or of any of the neutral salts, is added to every 150lbs. of rain water, and with this solution, at any temperature from 90° to 120°, the operation will be completed in about 30 hours. A portion of one of these solutions will greatly assist the retting process first described. Another improvement consists in operating upon the flax in a vessel exhausted of air; the flax being first steeped in water or in an alkaline solution, the air is exhausted, and the solution acts upon the flax so quickly and efficiently that two solutions and two exhaustions suffice to get rid of the glutinous matter in the course of a few hours. BREAKING AND SCUTCHING. Nothing now remains but to fit the flax for the market by separating it entirely from the wood. This is performed in Russia, Holland, and Belgium almost entirely by manual labour, employing a great number of persons. This is partially the case in Ireland; but machinery is also largely employed. The flax prepared by hand is first bruised in a machine called a brake, where two small rows of iron grooves, A, A, Fig. 938, meet on the flax, which is placed between them; so that each convex part of the upper row falls into the concave part of the under row, and bruises the wood without cutting or injuring the fibre. This is worked by the foot pressing upon a flat movable piece of wood, B, which is attached by A Fig. 938 THE BRAKE. a chain or string to an iron spring, c, fixed at the extremity of the machine; or a spring-pole, D, will bruising in this machine, the woody part of the stem will separate freely from the fibre in the operation of scutching, leaving it in reeds. Scutching is performed with a broad flat blade of wood, Fig. 939, or Fig. 940, held in the right hand, while with the left a handful of bruised flax stems is introduced into the groove Bof the stand A, Fig. 942, and beaten with the scutch-blade so as to strike away the bits of woody matter. A buffleather belt is stretched between the stand and an upright stake c, which is inserted into the flat bottom; and after the blade strikes the flax, it falls on and rebounds from the leather, which saves much fatigue to the worker. Any remaining bits of wood are cleared away with a broad blunt knife, Fig. 941, the flax being laid across the worker's leg, which is covered with a piece of leather, and scraped in that position. An active scutcher can turn out from eight to fourteen lbs. of clean flax in the day, provided it be well watered and in good condition. The process by machinery is as follows: The retted and dried flax is carried to the rolling or crushing mill, and there passed by hand between rotating horizontal rollers which crack the boon, already loosened by the retting process, and spread or partially separate the long fibres. The flax as it is delivered out of the machine, is gathered up by boys and handed to others, who submit it by handfuls to the action of rotating knives. These knives are attached to the face of a vertical wheel, several of which are mounted on one and the same shaft, at about 3 feet apart, and receive motion from the engine. There is an attendant stationed at every wheel, whose duty it is to submit the flax to the action of the knives, by holding it over a fixed bar contiguous thereto, and allowing the rotating knives to strike the flax in the direction of its length. When the boon on one half length of the flax is broken away or knocked off, the flax is turned over and the other end is subjected to a similar treatment. Further to clean the flax of the woody particles, it is again submitted to a similar operation before another set of wheels, the action of the knives being in this instance more thorough and searching, as the flax has now approached nearer to a strick of fine fibres. The accompanying figures will show the action of great markets for flax, to supply the spinning trade Mr. MacAdam's machinery. The bruising is effected by metal grooved rollers, four pair being necessary, fluted in different breadths. The flax is spread out on a flat table a, Fig. 943; the first pair of rollers taking it in, and passing it to the others in succession, when it issues completely bruised. The scutching is performed by a number of blades, c, of wood or iron, attached to arms, d, and carried round by a shaft, e, which is turned by the motive power. The flax is held by workers in a groove f, and the blades in revolving strike it quickly. The latter process is gone through three times, at different grooves, before the flax is considered finished. It is then ready for sale, and in this state it enters the flax-mill, to be acted upon by the heckling machine, for the removal of the tow or short staple, before undergoing the various operations of preparing and spinning to convert it into yarn. Flax is tied up in bundles of 16 or 24 lbs., the former termed the English, the latter the Scotch stone. These bundles are tied round with three or four bands, and, if well made up, can be tossed about without receiving any injury. The of the three kingdoms, are, respectively, Leeds, Belfast, and Dundee. There are commission-merchants in each, to whom flax may be sent for sale. Two other methods of preparing flax are given by Mr. MacAdam in his valuable essay; one of which consists in drying the flax, after pulling, in stooks of a peculiar construction, then beating off the seeds, and steeping afterwards; the other, in drying as above, and then storing, the seed being beaten off during winter, and the flax not steeped till the following summer. A patent has been taken out by Robert Plummer, Esq. of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, for several new implements and machines, for the more effectual dressing of flax. Last in the order of his inventions, but first as it respects actual use, is the flax-breaking machine, which is so contrived that the flutes on one roller do not quite touch those on another; hence the flax-straw in passing between them is less damaged, while, at the same time, it is more completely crushed and prepared than in any other machine. Figs. 946 and 9471 give a back and side view of the flax-break a 943. PLAN OF MACADAM'S FLAX-ROLLING AND SCUTCHING MACHINERY. Fig. 944. PRONT ELEVATION OF THE SAME. ing machine, in which the rollers, five in number, are placed in two vertical series, one before the other, the front one of two rollers, the back one of three. The flax-straw, fed into the machine at a, passes between the top and middle rollers be of the back series, and is directed downwards by the back plate g, so as to pass between the middle and bottom rollers cd of the same series, and it then passes through the two rollers ef of the front series. The rollers are all driven, and the ends of them have plain parts truly turned, which bear upon each other, so that the flutes of one roller work into the spaces of the next adjoining roller, and leave a space for the flax-straw to pass through; the rollers are weighted, and the pressure can be regulated as required. In the scutching and preparation of flax for the spinning-mill, Mr. Plummer is of opinion that the machinery hitherto used for these processes has been applied on the principle of seeking to attain fineness, by reducing and destroying the character of the fibre, rather than on that of sustaining whilst cleaning it. Instead of the rigid tools to which it is usually submitted, he therefore applies brushes of whalebone, split into various degrees of fineness, bristles, or other (1) In Fig. 947, the back plate for bending the straw downwards is not shown. suitable materials, for nearly all the preparatory processes. The rotary disc scutching mill is intended to imitate more closely than has yet been done by machinery, the process of hand scutching in its pliant adaptation to the varying quality and conditions of the material to be scutched. Fig. 948 is a front elevation of this machine; and figs. 949, 950, represent one of the forms of scutching discs with the brushes fitted to it. A, fig 948, is an axle with its bearings in an independent metal framing, kk', (the upper portion being made to open,) with a lining of deals, 17; the metal piece mm at the front end, being secured by three bolts, can be easily removed for the purpose of changing the brushes in the discs. The framing is stiffened by cross pieces, nn, at the back end by three long bolts, and metal ferules or pipes between each stand and portion of the frame, and the whole is screwed together by nuts at each end of the bolts. A free space is left at the back end of the casing, to allow the air to be thrown off, and at the top the space is contracted, to prevent, as much as possible, the air | worn before the brush need be renewed. The top, i, from being carried round in the same direction with the disc. The back end of the disc casing may be connected with an exhaust pipe, to carry off the dust from each stand. The axles A, are moved by a band passing over the pulley b (b' being loose). In the ordinary scutching machines this axle carries a number of radial arms, with naked knives or blades attached to them, as in fig. 943. For these arms Mr. Plummer substitutes the disc, fig. 949, with sets of brushes fixed either to one side or to both sides of the disc, as in fig. 950, in which latter case each disc has two stands, as in fig. 948. The disc form is better than that of radial arms, as in the ordinary scutching mill, because these arms in their revolution produce cross currents of air, and cause the flax to rise from the scutching board and curl round the edges of the knives or blades, to the great damage of the staple. The brushes may be attached to the discs at any or various angles of inclination, by means of a spring catch, so that they can be readily taken out or put in, or changed from one side of the disc to the other. The outer ends of the brushes wear more rapidly than the inner, or those nearer the centre of the disc, and they are so made that the ends may be changed, and thus both ends be equally of the scutching board, h, on which the flax to be scutched is laid, is placed a little above the centre of the axle A, so that a straight line, z, drawn from the centre of the axle, would intersect the middle of the top line of the scutching board, or nearly so, instead of passing below it, as would be the case were the scutching board placed as usual, and as is indicated by the dotted line j. The comb o' is of steel wire, and is used to clear the brushes of any fibres adhering to them: the points of the comb may reach only to the face of the brushes, or may penetrate a short way into the brushes: the back of the comb is fixed to a door formed of a plate of iron, turning on a hinge, and secured by a catch with a handle, so that at any time the heckle may be readily cleared without stoppage to the machine. The comb may be fixed to any convenient part of the framing, and at any required angle. The flax, while being scutched, is held in a holder instead of in the hand, as in the ordinary mills. By this means it is more fully and evenly spread out, and more thoroughly acted on by the brushes. Mr Plummer has also invented a double cylinder brushing machine, of which fig. 951 is a side elevation, and fig. 952 an end view. In these a a is the frame-work, bb are two cylinders, each of which revolves inwardly upon an axis; ce are sets of brushes affixed to the peripheries of the cylinders, so that the sets of brushes of the one cylinder shall take into the vertical intervals of the sets of the other cylinder, and thus give at one and the same time a front and a back stroke to the streaks of flax let in between them: d, d, are the stripping bars, which extend along the whole length of each cylinder, and rest freely in slotted bearings ec;ff are semicircular guards, which, during a little more than half of each revolution of the cylinders bb', confine the stripping-bars to the inner ends of their slotted bearings, and thereby regulate, as usual, the depth to which the brushes or heckles shall penetrate the streaks, but after passing a line drawn horizontally through the centres of the cylinders, allow the bars to strike out to the full extent of their slotted bearings, and thereby to doff and throw down the tow left adhering to the brushes which have just been in action: b2b are two smaller revolving cylinders, which are fitted with rows of brushes g, g, of a |