[Fig. 415, 416, 417 enlarged] (127 kB)

The brake machines afford a far preferable means of cleaning flax than the above hand tools. The essential part of such a machine, consists in several deeply fluted rollers of wood or iron, whose teeth work into each other, and while they stretch out the flaxen stalks betwixt them, they break the wood or boon, without doing that violence to the harl which hand mechanisms are apt to do. The following may be regarded as one of the best constructions hitherto contrived for breaking flax. [Fig. 415.] is a view of the right side of this machine. [Fig. 416.], the view from behind, where the broken flax issues from between the rollers. The frame is formed by the two side pillars or walls a, a, which are mortised into the bottom b, b; and are firmly fixed to it by braces. Two transverse rods d, d, secure the base, two others d′ d′′, the sides. In each of these a lateral arm e, is mortised in an oblique direction; a cross bar f, unites both arms. [Fig. 417.] shows the inside of the left side of the frame, with the subsidiary parts. The three rollers g, i, k, may be made of red beech, with iron gudgeons, and fluted in their length, each of the flutes being 5⁄12 of an inch broad, and 4⁄12ths deep. The large roller g, bears upon the right side, a handle h, which on being turned, sets the whole train in motion. The side partitions a, a, are furnished with brasses in whose round holes l, g, [fig. 417.], the gudgeons g work. For the extremities of the two smaller rollers, there are at a and e, slots in brasses, as may be seen in [fig. 415.] Within the partition a, there are movable brasses l, for the pivots of i and k, shewn in [fig. 417.] Each brass slides in a groove, between two ledges. A strong cord made fast at m to the partition a, runs over the brass of i, next over that of k, then descends perpendicularly, and passes over the cross bar n, [fig. 415.] and [416.] This construction being repeated at both ends of the rollers, the rod n, binds both cords. Against the cross bar d′ of the frame, a lever o is sustained, which lies upon the rod n, and carries a weight p. The farther or nearer this weight hangs towards the end of the lever, it stretches the cord more or less, and presses by means of the brasses l, the rollers i, k, towards the main roller g. A table q, serves for spreading out the flax to be broken, and a second one r, for the reception of the stalks at their issuing from between the rollers. Both tables hang by means of iron hooks to rings of the frame s, t, [fig. 415.] and [417.], and are supported by the movable legs u, u, u, [fig. 415.] and [416.] In using the machine the operative lays an evenly spread handful of flax upon the table q, introduces their root ends with his left hand between the rollers g and i, and turns round the handle h, with the right. The stems are first broken betwixt g and i, then between g and k, and come out upon the table r. The handle is moved alternately forwards and backwards, in order that the flax may be rolled alternately in the same directions, and be more perfectly broken. The boon falls down in very small pieces, and the harl remains expanded in parallel bands. This should be drawn over the points of a heckle, then laid for a couple of days in a cellar to absorb some moisture, and afterwards worked once more through the machine, whereby the flax acquires a peculiar softness.

The advantages of this brake machine are chiefly the following:—

It takes up little room, and from its simplicity is easily and cheaply constructed; it requires no more power to work, than the ordinary hand-brake; it tears none of the filaments, and grinds nothing except the boon, in consequence of the flutings of the rollers going much less deep into each other, than the sword of the hand-brake; it prevents all entanglements of the flax, whence in the subsequent heckling the quantity of short fibres or tow is diminished; and it accomplishes the cleaning of even the shortest flax, which cannot be well done by hand machines.

The comminution of the boon of the stems, which is the object of the breaking process, can however be performed by threshing or beating, although in this way the separation of the woody matter from the textile fibres is much less completely effected.

It is the practice in Great Britain, instead of breaking, to employ a water-driven wooden mallet, between which and a smooth stone the flax is laid. In that part of Belgium where the preparation of flax has been studied, the brake is not used, but beating by means of the Bott-hammer, to the great improvement, it is said, of the flax. The Bott-hammer, [fig. 418.], is a wooden block, having on its under face, channels or flutings, 5 or 6 lines deep, and it is fixed to a long bent helve or handle. In using it, a bundle of the dried flax stalks is spread evenly upon the floor, then powerfully beaten with the hammer, first at the roots, next at the points, and lastly in the middle. When the upper surface has been well beat in this way, it is turned over, that the under surface may get its turn. The flax is then removed, and well shaken to free it from the boon.