Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1851-05-22
Agricultural.
Manufacturers of Flax Cotton.

The manufacturers of Great Britain are
making extraordinary efforts to engage in
the different processes from gAowing and
manufacturing the flax of this new specula-
tive industry. We are confident, from the
attention we have given the several improve
ments in machinery, and the general atten-
ton which the inventive fraternity are Civ
ing the subject, that the enterprise will be
eventually successful. Should it prove so,
1t will cause an extraordinary revolution in
the commerce of the world. No people
are more interested in the perfection of the
project than those of our northern, eastern.
middle and western States. In those States
flax can be grown in such quantities that
we could supply the whole civilized world.
We have the proper climate and soil, and
vast quantities of land that would be i'm
mediately laid down for the production of
the raw material, at very light figure of
cost. Our cotton spindles can, as has been
demonstrated at Manchester, and other
English mills, be put Immediately into the
spinning of the thread, at very small cost
for alteration and within the next FIVE years
we can safely look for such a change in the
manufactures OF the country as will add
untold millions to the property and value Of
the United States. The Scientific Ameri~
can hazards the opinion that the success of
this great experiment would be anything
but favorable to this country because it
would lead to decrease in the production
and export of cotton. 1t does not SO strike
US. 1t would give vast addition to the
field of paying labor in the country, it would
reduce the price OF clothing; give addition
al comforts to the mass, save the manufac-
turing community and the consumer the
cost of freight from the cotton fields to the
manufacturer, and relieve good portion of
this continent from an onerous dependence
upon one section for an indispensable arti-
Gle to the comfort and convenience of the
whole civilized world. 1t remains to be
seen whether or not our exports of the flax
would not in the main be found full as profit
able to the whole country as is the present
export of raw cotton. We believe that it
will be found so, upon the same ground that
our exports Of flour, corn, beef, pork, and
a great variety of other produce, is now
carried forward to supply the vacuum Of
these articles, even in agricultural England
and other transatlantic States. We have
no fear that the United States will be the
looser in the discovery and application of a
new and important branch of industrial pur-
suits
The use of flax cotton, manufactured
according to the process of Chevaler
Claussen, is now in progress upon an ex.
tensive scale at Bradford in Yorkshire, and
at Cork, in Ireland, large mlI-owners at
those places having entered into contracts.
'Hhe principles of the invention, by which
flax is adapted for spinning upon cotton,
wool and silk machinery, consists in the de-
struston of the cylindrical character of the
fibre by the expansive power of carbonic
acid gass. The first process, however, is
the removal of the resnous matter peculiar
to the plant. This is effected by boiling it
for three hours in water, containing one
halfper cent. of common soda, after which
it is dipped in water slightly acidulated with
sulphuric acid. The flax is then thoroughly
saturated in solution Of bi-carbonate of
soda, and being subsequently immersed in
a solution of diluted sulphuric acid, lib
Grafton of gass takes place, which causes
the tubes of which the plant is composed,
to split, when the material instantly losing
its rigidity, becomes aight, expansive mass
of cottony texture, increasing in size like
leavening dough or expanding SPONGE
Lastly, for the purpose of being bleached,
it is plunged into bypochlorte of magnesia,
: when it instantly becomes white. A very
general opinion prevails that the invention
will lead to rapid and extraordinary results.
Sixty tons of the cotton are now being pre-
pared for the Manchester market.