Page:The Laboring Classes of England.djvu/96

 ready for spinning. I believe that tow is invariably spun dry.

The heckled flax, or line, after being separated from the tow, is sorted, according to its fibre, for various degrees of fineness. This is done by young men called line-sorters. Girls termed line-spreaders, are employed to unite the bunches of line into one sliver, and thence it is roved and spun.

In spinning the fine line, it is necessary to allow each thread to pass through a trough of hot water, (from 110 to 140 degrees of Fahrenheit,) which is placed at the back of the spindles. This is called wet spinning. The hot water enables them to spin the line much finer than it could be done without it, on account of the fibres sliding more easily among each other. As the line is spun it is wound on to the spindles, and as they revolve very rapidly, they throw off a continual sprinkling of water along the whole front of the frame. Now as there is another frame at no great distance, the spinners, who are mostly young women, are exposed to this small rain both before and behind; which is quite sufficient to wet them through in a few hours, especially when the frames are placed too close to each other. They stand on a wet floor, which is so constructed as to let the water run off into pipes below, and thence into a common sewer. They have no protection from the hot water except a blanket-apron, which is soon wet through, and they generally work without stockings and shoes. Most of the time their hands are dabbling in the hot water, in piecing broken threads, and rectifying any error of the machinery.

I have seen these rooms so filled with steam from the hot water, (a fresh supply of which is constantly running into the troughs,) in the depth of winter, as to oblige them to keep the windows open to let it out.

The consequences of all this are frequent colds, occa-