Flax spinning

“ To form an accurate idea of this operation, it is necessary to see a Brabant Thread-spinner at her work. She carefully examines every thread, watching it closely as she draws it off the distaff; and that she may see it the more distinctly, a piece of dark blue paper is used as a background for the flax. Whenever the spinner notices the least unevenness, she [pg 125] stops the evolution of her wheel, breaks off the faulty piece of flax, and then resumes her spinning. This fine flax being as costly as gold, the pieces thus broken off are carefully laid aside to be used in other ways. ”

“ The flax-dresser with the shives, fibres, and dirt of flax covering his garments, and his face begrimed with flax-dirt has disappeared; the noise of his brake and swingling knife has ended, and the boys no longer make bonfires of his swingling tow. The sound of the spinning-wheel, the song of the spinster, and the snapping of the clock-reel all have ceased; the warping bars and quill wheel are gone, and the thwack of the loom is heard only in the factory. The spinning woman of King Lemuel cannot be found. ”

“ Nearly every one has seen one of the pretty foot-wheels for spinning flax thread for linen, which may yet be found in the attics of many of our farmhouses, as well as in some of our parlors, where, with a bunch of flax wound around and tied to the spindle, they have within a few years been placed as a relic of the olden times. ”

“ This may be considered the inherent evil of flax-spinning,—the spray thrown off by the wet yarn, as it whirls about with the flier of the spindles. A working dress, indeed, is generally worn by the spinners; but, unless it be made of stuff 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 ”

“ The front rollers indeed move in many such machines four times faster than the back pair. The rest of this flax-spinning apparatus resembles in every respect the throstle frame of the cotton-spinner. The thread, as it escapes from the front rollers, gets twisted by the spindle and flyer, and wound up in constant progression on the bobbin, the motion of the latter being retarded either by a washer of leather beneath its lower end, or sometimes, as shown in the figure, by a weighted lever H, suspended from a cord, which embraces the pulley-groove turned on the lower end of the bobbin. ”

“ At a later date, which cannot be fixed, the treadle motion was attached to the spinning wheel, enabling the spinster to sit at work with both hands free; and the introduction of the two-handed or double-spindle wheel, with flyers or twisting arms on the spindles, completed the series of mechanical improvements effected on flax spinning till the end of the 18th century. The common use of the two-handed wheel throughout the rural districts of Ireland and Scotland is a matter still within the recollection of some people; but spinning wheels are now seldom seen. ”

“ Having drawn out a proper number of fibres with his hand, he twists them with his fingers, and fixing this twisted part to the hook of a whirl, which [1070] is driven by a wheel put in motion by an assistant, he walks backwards down the rope walk, the twisted part always serving to draw out more fibres from the bundle round his waist, as in the flax-spinning wheel. The spinner takes care that these fibres are equably supplied, and that they always enter the twisted parts by their ends, and never by their middle. ”

“ Fritz.—How is flax prepared, father, and what is meant by steeping it?
Father.—Steeping flax, or hemp, is exposing it in the open air, by spreading it on the ground to receive the rain, the wind, and the dew, in order in a certain degree to liquefy the plant; by this means the ligneous or cortical parts of the flax are separated with more ease from the fibrous; a kind of vegetable glue that binds them is dissolved, and it can then be perfectly cleaned with great facility, and the parts selected which are fit for spinning. ”

“ It is equally necessary to hackle the flax, according to the fineness and quality of the yarn to be spun. The finer and better the yarn to be produced, the more should the tow be separated from the solid fibres. Great care should be given to the process of spinning—it is the fingers that spin, the wheel only twists. The length of the fibre contributes much to the solidity of the yarn, it is, therefore, important to place the flax upon the distaff so that the spinner can always take the fibre by the end, and not by the middle. ”

“ If we compare flax with other spinning materials, such as wool and cotton, we shall find it to possess several characteristic properties. While cotton and wool are presented by nature in the form of insulated fibres, the former requiring merely to be separated from its seeds, and the latter to be purified from dirt and grease before being delivered to the spinner, flax must have its filaments separated from each other by tedious and painful treatment. ”

“ The manufacture of linen and hemp yarn, and the tow of either, may be effected by different processes; by the distaff, the hand-wheel, and spinning machinery. It will be unnecessary to occupy the pages of this volume with a description of the first two well known domestic employments. Spinning of flax by machinery has been much more recently brought to a practical state than the spinning of cotton and wool by machines, of which the cause must be sought for in the nature of flax as above described. ”

“ 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 this hot process goes on. Being a new expedient, it receives daily changes and ameliorations. ”

“ And then the spinning-bees and spinning classes—the sewing circles of those days. Both Connecticut and Massachusetts as early as 1640 took legal steps to encourage the culture and spinning of flax, and every family was ordered to spin a certain amount of flax a year on penalty of a fine, and often prizes were offered for quantity and quality. On Boston Common the spinsters would sometimes meet with their wheels, and sit them down to spin—rich and poor alike, to the number, once, of three hundred. ”

“ All the work on the flax after the breaking was done in olden times by women and children. It is said there are in all twenty different occupations in flax manufacture, of which half can be easily done by children. Much of the work in domestic wool spinning and weaving was done by little girls. ”

“ At last it was put on the spinning-wheel. “Whirr, whirr,” went the wheel, so quickly that the flax could not collect its thoughts.
“Well, I have been very happy,” he thought in the midst of his pain, “and must be contented with the past;” and contented he remained till he was put on the loom, and became a beautiful piece of white linen. All the flax, even to the last stalk, was used in making this one piece. “How wonderful it is that, after all I have suffered, I am made something of at last; I am the luckiest person in the world—so strong and fine ”

“ The flax was now ready for the process of hackling or hetcheling, which required great dexterity on the part of the hetcheler. The flax fibres were carefully drawn towards the hetcheler through the teeth of the hetchel (see illustrations, pages 35 33 and 34, taken from originals in the Litchfield Historical Society) , thus pulling out the fibres into long continuous threads and combing out the shorter threads. This implement has given its name to that process of “heckling” so familiar, for instance, to hen-pecked husbands when lectured by irate wives. ”

“ Flax and Hemp Brakes, machines by which the woody and cellular portion of the flax is separated from the fibrous portion, produced in practical shape in the century, and flanked by the improved pullers, cutters, threshers, scutchers, hackles, carders, and rovers, have supplanted Egyptian methods of 3,000 years’ standing, for preparing the flax for spinning, as well as the crude improvements of the 18th century. ”

“ In wet spinning the general sequence of operations is the same, but the rove, as unwound from its bobbin, first passes through a trough of water heated to about 120° Fahr.; and the interval between the two pairs of rollers in which the drawing out of the rove is accomplished is very much shorter. The influence of the hot water on the flax fibre appears to be that it softens the gummy substance which binds the separate cells together, and thereby allows the elementary cells to a certain extent to be drawn out without breaking the continuity of the fibre ”

“ The atmosphere of the flax mills, in which the children of these virtuous and tender parents work, is so loaded with dust and fibre from the raw material, that it is exceptionally unpleasant to stand even 10 minutes in the spinning rooms: for you are unable to do so without the most painful sensation, owing to the eyes, the ears, the nostrils, and mouth, being immediately filled by the clouds of flax dust from which there is no escape. ”

“ We decided that Flamingo Marsh would be the best spot for the operation of steeping or `retting' the flax, and next morning we set out thither; the cart drawn by the ass, and laden with the bundles, between which sat Franz and Knips, while the rest of us followed with spades and hatchets.
I described to my boys as we went along the process of retting, and explained to them how steeping the flax leaves destroys the useless membrane, while the strong fibres remain. ”

“ The flax is fastened on an upright board, and the fingers of the left hand gather the fibres and begin the formation of a thread. The right hand twirls the spindle, and by skillful manipulation a good thread is formed with considerable rapidity. ”

“ A single day too long often injures the flax not a little. We may judge that the retting is sufficient when the harl separates easily from the boon by the fingers, when the boon breaks across without bending, and when several stalks knotted together sink to the bottom upon being thrown into the water. For this completion, a shorter or longer time is required according to the quality of the flax, the temperature, &c., so that the term may vary from five to fourteen days. ”

“ Flax, nevertheless, is a lucky plant, for in Thuringia, when a young woman gets married, she places flax in her shoes as a charm against poverty. It is supposed, also, to have health-giving virtues; for in Germany, when an infant seems weakly and thrives slowly, it is placed naked upon the turf on Midsummer day, and flax-seed is sprinkled over it; the idea being that as the flax-seed grows so the infant will gradually grow stronger. ”

“ When long gray strips of clouds drifted across the sky they said she was weaving, for she too was supposed to be a very diligent weaver, spinner, and housekeeper. It is said she gave flax to mankind and taught them how to use it, and in Tyrol the following story is told about the way in which she bestowed this invaluable gift:
Discovery of flax. ”

“ Even the smallest details give him delight through something beautiful, or perfect, or characteristic in them—the blue fields of waving flax, the yellow gorse which covers the hills, even tangled thickets, or single trees, or springs, which seem to him like wonders of nature. ”

“ The United States grows very little flax and only for the coarser purposes. This is for the reason that labor is very expensive; and flax, like silk, needs much care if weeded and grown for fiber. The care of the worms makes silk expensive. Flax grown for seed or coarse purposes does not require so much care.
Fig 103.—The flax plant grows 20 to 40 inches in height.
What is the flax plant? Perhaps your teacher will buy some flax seed which you can plant in the school garden. The Pleasant Valley girls did, and it grew quite tall. Then you can really see how the growing plant looks. ”

“ Other passages, referring to the use of flax for weaving in [Pg 380] Palestine, are Levit. xiii. 47, 48. 52. 59, where linen garments are four times mentioned in opposition to woollen.
Proverbs xxi. 13. The virtuous woman, so admirably described in this chapter, “seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.” (See Part First, Chapter I. p. 13.) . This proves, that flax was still an important article of cultivation in Palestine.
In 1 Chron. iv. 21. there is an allusion to a great establishment for dressing the fine flax, called Butz, or Byssus. ”

“ The parting of the fibres in the unretted stalks is imperfectly effected by the heckling, the flax either remains coarser as compared with the retted article, and affords a coarser thread, or if it be made to receive greater attenuation by a long continued heckling, it yields incomparably more torn filaments and tow. ”

“ One day some men came with sharp reap hooks. They took the flax by the head and cut it off at the roots. This was very painful, you may be sure.
Then the flax was laid in water and was nearly drowned. After that it was put on a fire and nearly roasted. All this was frightful. But the flax only said, "One cannot be happy always. By having bad times as well as good, we become wise." ”