The Sun.
London, England, 1850-10-28 00:00:00

PREPARATION OF FLAX.

We were yesterday favoured with an inspection of
a new process of preparing flax, by which the delay,
waste, and expense connected with the present modes
of its preparation are entirely. obviated.
Our readers are probably aware that, under the or-
dinary mode, the flax is steeped for periods varying
from eight to fourteen days, and under Schenck's pa-
tent system of steeping in heated water, recently in-
troduced into Ireland, the period required is not less
than sixty hours. Under the ordinary method of
steeping great care is required to prevent the fibre of
the flax from being completely destroyed, and not-
withstanding the attention which is usually bestowed
upon this branch of the process, large quantities of
flax are constantly injured to such an extent as to
render it all but valueless. Under Schenck's system,
where the water is required to be gra-
dually heated by steam, from eighteen to
twenty hours, until it arrives at a temperature
of 85 to 90 degrees, .and.the flax remains in the water
for sixty hours—is • afterwards dried in summer by
spreadinglt thinly on grass-land, and in winter upon
ranges of shelves in a building connected with the
" vat house," and heated by means of steam-pipes--
the operations are of such a nature as manifestly to
render the system unsuitable to the great mass of the
flax- growers.
Under the new system, however, the whole of the
operation of steeping is dispensed with, and we wonder
how such a step could ever have been resorted to in
the preparation of flax, unless it were intended thereby
to increase the expenses, to seek unnecessary risks, to
waste time and labour, to deteriorate the fibre, and to
throw as many difficulties as possible in the way of its
successful and profitable preparation. The chemical
properties of the plant appear to be such as to render
totally unnecessary the application of anything like a
steeping process, while, so far from benefiting, it only
weakens, and, to a great extent, destroys the valuable
fibre. But the complete absurdity of the process is most
strikingly shown by the dye or stain which the steeping
necessarily gives to the fibre, and the large quantity
of injurious substances which always adheres to the
fibres after the operation of steeping, and which it is
necessary to remove subsequently by the tedious,
expensive, and destructive process of bleaching. In
effect it is the same as though the growers of cotton
were, previous to its being shipped, to cause it to be
saturated with a dye, and afterwards to have it rolled
about on a sandy beach, leaving it to be subsequently
cleaned by the manufacturer. One of the greatest
difficulties connected with the manufacture of linen is
that of weaving it sufficiently close in consequence of
the dirt which adheres to the fibre, and which scarcely
any amount of scutching is able to remove.

The unsteeped process of preparing the flax com-
pletely obviates all these difficulties, and places the
fibre in the hands of the manufacturer with none of
its oleaginous properties destroyed, free from dirt and
dye, and of considerably greater strength as com-
pared with steeped flax. The rapidity by which
the flax may be prepared may be judged by the fact
that, during our visit, a quantity of the stalks in the
state in which they were pulled, with the bolls of
seed upon them, passed through their several stages,
and within one hour was handed to us in the shape of
beautifull silky-looking fibre, almost as white as
the paper on which we now write. We are not at
liberty to state the process by which this result is
arrived at, as the patent for the invention has not yet
been secured ; we may state, however, that the whole
operation is so perfectly simple that a child may with
ease accomplish it, and that, although we had not
seen the process before, we were ourselves able, with-
out further instruction, to produce a small quantity
of tine fibre from the plant.
The process has, we believe, met with the cordial
approbation of Lord Clarendon and a number of
noblemen and gentlemen interested in developing the
industrial resources of Ireland, who have had the
opportunity of witnessing it. Application has been
made to the Board of Trade for a charter of incorpo-
ration to carry out the patent, the company un-
dertakieg to purchase, at the rate of 121. per acre,
exclusive of seed, the produce of 100,000 acres of flax
in Ireland. They also propose to allow the use of
the patent, to supply the machinery, and to provide
instructors to those growers of flax who may possess
the means, and who are anxious to afford employ-
ment to their own labourers in the preparation of the
fibre.

The inventor of this process also claims a patent
for a mode of saturating the seed before its being
sown, which has the effect of rendering the crop more
than usually prolific, of diminishing the extent of the
ligneous properties of the plant, and producing a
degree of fineness in the fibre which has not yet been
attained.

A quantity of the geed so prepared was last year
sown by a gentleman at Tullagh, near Cork, and the
produce exceeds three tons to the acre ; and such is
its quality, that the grower has been offered 51. per
ton for his crop, exclusive of the seed.—Morning
Chronicle.

[ADVERTISEMENT.I
Messrs. HARDING and Co., 81, fall-mall, beg to
intimate to the public that, in consequence of the rebuilding
of their premises, it has become imperative on them to
dispose of the whole of their valuable Stock, which they.
have determined to offer for immediate Sale, at a very con-
siderable reduction of price. Messrs. H. and Co. offer to the
public the assurance that the Sale thus announced is bona
.fide. Their entire Stock, consisting of Silks, Ribbons, Lace,
Embroidery, Shawls, Scarves, Cloaks, Mantles, Gloves, and
the recherche Selection of Millinery, for all of which their
establihment is so eminently distinguished, will be unre-
servedly subjected to the reduction. The Sale will be con-
tinued for a limited period.

[ADVERTISEMENT.]—A dangerous Case of Erysi-
pelas, attended with Swelling and Inflammation, cured by Hol-
loway's Pills and Ointment.—Extract of a letter, dated East
Kiel, Spilsby, Lincolnshire, October 8, 1845 :—" I beg to an•
nounce to you a most wonderful cure wrought upon myself by
your pills and ointment. I had a very revere attack of erysi-
pelas in my right foot and ankle, with swelling and inflamma-
tion to an alarming extent. I was unable to move without the
assistance of crutches. I consulted an eminent physician to
no purpose. However, in less than two weeks, by the use of
your ointment and pills, I was cured, to the surprise of all who
knew me. Signed, Joseph Gildon, a farmer."—Sold by all
Druggists and at Professor Holloway's Establishment, 244.
Strand, London.

TIIE GREAT AGRICULTURAL MOVEMENT IN THE
GROWING Os' FLax.—A company, compris'ng many of the
leading nobility and landowners, is seeking from the Govern-
ment a royal charter to give encouragement to agriculturists
and farmers to bring into immediate cultivation at least
one hundred thousand acres of land in Ireland, for the pro-
duction of flax straw, which substance the promoters of this
charter have (by new and peculiar processes never hitherto
adopted) the power to convert into a fit state to hold com-
petition with the best flax imported from foreign countries,
without the aid of steeping, kiln-drying, or mill-scutching.
The machinery by which the fibre is separated from the
stalk without steeping is of a very simple and inexpensive
kind, requiring no previous knowledge to work it. The un-
steeped thax is uniform in strength, and free from stains, as
that all the after processes of manufacturing and bleaching
may be conducted with a facility and exactness not hitherto
attainable.

OBTAINING MONEY UNDER. FALSE PRETENCES.--
At the public office, Birmingham, on Thursday, Mr. Paul
Birch (who has been for upwards of twenty years in the ser-
vice( of Messrs. Wheeler and Co., jewellers, of Bartlett's-
buildings, Holborn, London, and of St. Paul's-square, Bir-
mingham), was brought up on a charge of having committed
a number of frauds upon his employers, under the following
circumstances :—The defendant was employed as foreman at
the Birmingham establishment, and a part of his business
was that of paying the men their wages weekly, taking a
proper account of the time each man worked, and to trans-
mit a weekly statement of all moneys received and disbursed
to his employers in London. For some time past suspicions
were entertained that Birch was in the habit of rendering
fraudulent balances by a system of charging for men's wages
a greater amount than he had paid them in consideration of
the number of hours they had worked. In order to test this
Messrs. Wheeler sent on a particular day for a workman
named Mordaunt to town unknown to the defendant; not-
withstanding this, in his weekly balance Birch charged for
Mordaunt six days' work (1/. as.), although he had only
paid to him 11. 10d. Other frauds of a similar character were
brought forward, and from the evidence it appeared that
this sptem of fraud had been carried on for some time. The
prisoner was committ, d for trial. At the time he was taken
into custody he had 7001. of his own money in the hands of
his employers.

OCT. 23.—0 n Tues-
day night, at about eleven o'clock, the schooner Thetis, of
Preston, Strickland master, from Dieppe, left this port for
Liverpool, with a cargo of flour, was run into by the
schoorur Shepherdess, of Llanelly, Morris master, from Ply-
mouth for Wales, she having, at six A.m., come out of
Mount's Bay. The concussion was received by the Thetis in
her waist, immediately after which she turned on her beam-
ends, when her captain and his wife, and the crew, consisting
forof
Falmouth,
aclmr
whereov er , bottom up.
landed
,four handY, got into the boat and took refuge on board the
Shepherdess, the poor woman escaping in her night-dress.
A boat shortly after went from the Shepherdess to endea-
vour to pick up or take off some of her stores, and, when
ewpeini
etryd her,efessetthfreonmmade she aeeeunrehd,
the unfortunate people on the following morning. It ii
likely, from the nature of the cargo of the Thetis, that she
will not go down, but will be made a prize of by some E f the
i
Mount's Cey fishermen. The collision took place
between the Lizard and the Lingships. Then a line
Theabou
Shepherdess
ht
stem of the
Shepherdess was split, and she makes water.