Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/691

 LINEN 667 factories ; but these higher counts are only used for fine thread for sewing and for the making of lace. The highest counts of cut line flax are spun in Irish factories for the manufacture of fine cambrics and lawns which are characteristic features of the Ulster trade. Exceedingly high counts have sometimes been spun by hand, and for the preparation of the finest lace threads it is said the Belgian hand spinners must work in damp cellars, where the spinner is guided by the sense of touch alone, the filament being too tine to be seen bv the eye. Such lace yarn is said to have been sold for as much as 240 per lb. In the Great Exhibition of 1851 yarn of 760 lea, equal to about 130 miles per Ib, was shown which had been spun by an Irish woman eighty-four years of age. In the same exhibition there was shown by a Cambray manufacturing firm hand-spun yarn equal to 1200 warp and 1600 weft or to more than 208 and 278 miles per lb respectively. A large proportion of the linen yarn of commerce under goes a more or less thorough bleaching before it is handed over to the weaver. Linen yarns in the green condition contain such a large proportion of gummy and resinous matter, removable by bleaching, that cloths which might present a firm close texture in their natural unbleached state would become thin and impoverished in a perfectly bleached condition. Manufacturers allow about 20 per cent, of loss in weight of yarn in bleaching from the green to the fully bleached stage ; and the intermediate stages of &quot;creamed,&quot; &quot;half-creamed,&quot; &quot;milled,&quot; and &quot;improved,&quot; all indicating a certain degree of bleaching, have corre sponding degrees of loss in weight. The differences in colour resulting from different degrees of bleaching are taken advantage of for producing patterns in certain classes of linen fabrics. Linen thread is prepared from the various counts of fine bleached line yarn by winding the hanks on large spools, and twisting the various strands, two, three, four, or six cord as the case may be, on a doubling spindle similar in principle to the yarn spinning frame, excepting, of course, the drawing rollers. A large trade in linen thread has been created by its use in the machine manufacture of boots and shoes, saddlery, and other leather goods, and in heavy sewing-machine work generally. The thread industry is largely developed at Lisburn near Belfast, at Johnstone near Glasgow, and at Paterson, New Jersey, United States. Fine cords, net twine, and ropes are also twisted from flax. Weaving. The application of the power-loom to the weaving of linen was hindered by many obstacles which were not met with in dealing with the weaving of cotton and woollen fabrics. The principal difficulty arose through the hardness and inelasticity of the linen wefts, owing to which the yarn frequently broke under the sharp sudden jerk with which the picker throws the shuttle in power- loom weaving. The difficulties in the way of power-loom linen weaving, combined with the obstinate competition of distressed hand-loom weavers, delayed the introduction of factory weaving of linen fabrics for many years after the system was fully applied to other textiles. Competition with the hand-loom against the power-loom is conceivable, although it is absolutely impossible for the work of the spinning wheel to stand against the rivalry of drawing, roving, and spinning frames. To the present day, in Ireland especially, a great deal of fine weaving is done by hand-loom ; and the persons who first applied machinery to the weaving of linen damasks in Scotland are yet (1882) alive. Power was applied on a small scale to the weaving of canvas in London about 1812; in 1821 power-looms were started for weaving linen at Kirkcaldy, Scotland ; and in 1824 Maberly & Co. of Aberdeen had two hundred power-looms erected for linen manufacture. The power- loom has been in uninterrupted use in the Broadford factory, Aberdeen, which then belonged to Maberly & Co., down to the present day, and to that firm may be awarded the credit of being the effective introducers of power-loom weaving in the linen trade. The various operations connected with linen weaving, such as winding, warping, dressing, beaming, and drawing- in, do not differ in essential features from the like processes in the case of cotton weaving, &c., neither is there any significant modification in the looms employed. Dressing is a matter of importance in the preparation of linen warps for beaming. It consists in treating the spread yarn with flour paste, applied to it by cylinders, the lowermost of which revolves in a trough of paste. The paste is equalized on the yarn by brushes, and dried by passing the web over steam-heated cans before it is finally wound on the beam for weaving. See WEAVING. For the bleaching and calendering of such linen fabrics as undergo these processes see BLEACHING vol. iii. p. 821 ; CALENDER, vol. iv. p. 682. Linen fabrics are numerous in variety and widely different in their qualities, appearance, and applications, ranging from heavy sailcloth and rough sacking to the most delicate cambrics and lawns. The heavier manufactures include as a principal item sail cloth, with canvas, tarpaulin, sacking, and carpeting. The prin cipal seats of the manufacture of these linens are Dundee, Arbroath, and Forfar. The medium weight linens, which are used for a great variety of purposes, such as tent-making, towelling, covers, outer garments for men, linings, upholstery work, &c., include cluck, huckaback, crash, tick, dowlas, osnaburg, low sheetings, and low brown linens. Plain bleached linens form a class by themselves, and include principally the materials for shirts and collars and for bed sheets. Under the head of twilled linens are included drills, diapers, and dimity for household use ; and damasks for table linen, of which two kinds are distinguished single or five-leaf damask, and double or eight-leaf damask, the pattern being formed by the inter section of warp and weft yams at intervals of five and eight strands of yarn respectively. The fine linens are cambrics, lawns, and handkerchiefs ; and lastly, printed and dyed linen fabrics may be assigned to a special though not important class. Numerous local, fancy, and temporary names are frequently attached to linen fabrics ; but in the above list are only included such articles as occupy a standing position in the great markets. In a general way it may be said regarding the British industry that the heavy linen trade centres in Dundee ; medium goods are made in most linen manufacturing districts ; damasks &amp;lt;Tre chiefly produced in Dun- fermline and Perth ; and the fine linen manufactures have their seat in Belfast and the north of Ireland. Leeds is the centre of the linen trade of England. Linen fabrics have several advantages over cotton, resulting principally from the microscopic structure and length of the flax fibre. The cloth is much smoother and more lustrous than cotton cloth ; and, presenting a less &quot; woolly&quot; surface, it does not soil so readily, nor absorb and retain moisture so freely, as the more spongy cotton ; and it is at once a cool, clean, and healthful material for bed-sheeting and clothing. Bleached linen, starched and dressed, possesses that unequalled purity, gloss, and smoothness which, make it alone the material suitable for shirt-fronts, collars, and wristbands ; and the gossamer delicacy, yet strength, of the thread it may be spun into fits it for the fine lace-making to which it is devoted. Flax is a heavier material than cotton, but weight for weight it is much stronger, single yarn having proportionate strength in the ratio of 3 to 1 83, doubled yarn 3 to 2 26, and cloth 3 to 2 13. Of course cotton, on the other hand, has many advan tages peculiarly its own. Trade and Commerce. The application of machine power to the entire range of linen manufactures has greatly improved the position and developed the resources of the industry, so that linen now occupies a well-defined and important position among the principal textiles. Had it not been for the sudden and unprecedented growth of the jute trade, no doubt the coarser and heavier branches of the trade would have attained much greater dimensions ; and the development of the jute industry of Scotland fully accounts for the comparatively inelastic condition of the Scottish linen trade. The following table indicates the extent of the linen industries in the United Kingdom at the various dates specified : 1856. 1861. 1S70. 1S80. 417 399 500 1,288,000 1,217.000 1,553,1)00 1,367,000 8,689 14,792 35,301 41,990 14 387 31.727 52.017 Water 3,935 4,354 4,978 Persons employed Ireland ,, ,, Scotland ,, ,, England 28,753 31,722 19,787 33,525 33.599 20,305 55.039 49,917 19,816 Total 80.262 87.429 124,772