Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 January 1888 — Preparing and Spinning Flax. [ARTICLE]

Preparing and Spinning Flax.

Flax gives us two classes of yarn, namely, linen or line yarn and tow yarn. The processes of preparing linen yarn are very similar to those of preparing worsteds; of course, the machines are different in their construction, because of the difference in the length and character of the fiber. Flax is “hackled,” beat or crushed, to make it flexible; it is then “scutched,” an operation equivalent to combing. In some cases the fibers are too long to work; they are then broken by a “saw. ” After the scutching the short'fibers are carded for “tow” yarn in the same manner as the “noil,” or short fibers of wool after combing, are carded for woolen yarn.