2. Unretted stalks deliver in the breaking and heckling a somewhat greater product than the same weight of flax which has been retted; but there is no real advantage in this, as the greater weight of the unretted flax consists in the remainder of ligneous or glutinous matter, which being foreign to the real fibre, must be eventually removed. In the bleaching process, the water and the alkaline lyes take away that matter, so that the weight of the bleached fibre is not greater from the unretted than the retted flax.
3. 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.
4. The yarn of unretted flax feels harder, less glossy, and rougher; and, on account of these qualities, turns out worse in the weaving than the retted flax. Nor is the yarn of unretted flax, whether unbleached or bleached, in any degree stouter than the yarn of the retted flax.
5. Fabrics of unretted flax require for complete bleaching about a sixth less time and materials than those of the retted. This is the sole advantage, but it is more than counterbalanced by the other drawbacks above specified.
In Mr. Wordsworth’s improved apparatus for heckling flax and hemp, a succession of stricks is subjected to the operation of several series of revolving heckles of different degrees of fineness, for the purpose of gradually separating or combing the long fibres, and dressing them smooth; while at the same time, the tow or entangled refuse portions of the material taken off from the stricks by the heckle points are removed from the heckles by rotatory brushes and rollers covered with wire cards, and discharged into suitable receivers, whence it may be taken to a carding engine, to be worked in the ordinary way.
[Fig. 426 enlarged] (103 kB)
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The accompanying figures represent in plan and section, the heckling machine which is made double, for the purpose of allowing two series of stricks of flax to be acted upon at one time. [Fig. 426.] is a horizontal view of the machine; [fig. 427.] is an end view, the whole being represented in working order, and the respective letters of reference pointing out corresponding parts of the machine.