The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1860-04-28
NEW INVENTIONS
[From the New York Tribune

From the New York Tribune
FLAX TO SUPERsEDE CoTroN.--H has
been the settled belief of the most intelli-
gent minds connected with the linen manu-
iacture for more than twenty years past,
that the time could not be far distant for the
advent of some new process by which fax
could be converted into cloth as cheaply as.
cotton. The superior cost of manufactur..
ing fax consists in the greater expense of
rotting, breaking out and preparing the
fiber for market; the cost of breaking, or
dividing the 6laments and separating the
long from the short fbers, and the greater
cost of the preparing machinery, not tie
machinery for merely spinning it. The an
ticipated improvements, it is now believed,
have been accomplished. and are gradually
being put in operation in the fax growing
regions of the West. They consist of ma
cbinery for breaking the fax without rot
ting or wetting; for washing out the glnt-
ineus matter and separating and purifying
the fbers; for classifying the long aad short
fbsrs, by which an expert boy can do the
work of fifty hackers, and in far better
manner, and in the general simplieation of
the preparing machinery, such as the draw
ing and rowing farmers, so that linen
factory will require no more capital than
one for cotton. Experience with this inn
proved machinery has shown that flax straw
at IS per tun can be converted into fine
linen fiber which will cost only 81 cents
per pound, and that TO go on and fit it for
spinning it as cheaply as cotton, the whole
cost will be only 5 cents. At these figures.
linens will be as cheap as cottons.e Ma
chimes are now in use at Eaton. Dayton,
Xenia, Piqua and other places in Ohio. for
breaking unrotted fax, costing about $500
each. which break out two tuns of unrot-
ted fax per day, enough to make, when re-
fined and purified, some 400 pounds of lin
en- goods. At Eaton, the fax thus produced
is, for the FIRST time in that region, convert
ed into an admirable article for covering
cotton bales. In these machines the flax
straw passes through succession of tluted
rollers, which hold, crush. and carry for
ward the sheet of straw, which is simulta-
neously acted on by several pairs of sharp
steel-toothed combs, which divide the fiLers
without upturnipg them, and clearing away
the shoves. The flax comes from the roll
ers in the form of a beautiful and compare
lively clean silver, felted together like cot
ton from the drawing frame of cotton fac
tory. e fs
Now this machinery has not yet been ap-
piled to manufacturing linens, but it soon
will be. There is no good reason for linens
being two to three times dearer than cotton
goods when the. cost of the raw fiber of
both. is so nearly equal. Flax will not be-
grown extensively in this country, until the
farmers can be relieved of all trouble of
preparing it for market. But as new mills
are established, supplied with this cheap
American machinery, the case will be diff
feIent. The seed alone pays well to grow
it, and what may be realized from the straw,
now thrown away, will be SO much clear
gain. Cotton grows only in hot countries,
but fax in all climates. Europe consumes
far more linen than we do, because the price
there is only one-half what it is with US.
Whoever, therefore, sets up the frst linen
factories in this country, will probably re-
alize enormous profits, just as the earlier
English cotton. spinners amassed princely
fortunes. AS every State can grow fax,
the consumption of linen would be so great
as,to weaken the only prop which Ameri-
can Slavery possesses.
A hook for a whiffie-tree, from which the
trace never can get loose, however slack it
may be, while in use, while it is also as
handy to hitch and unhitch as one of the
ordinary kind, is new and successful con-
trivance. This hook IS attached to the Whit
he-tree by an iron strap, and plays loosely
up and down, turns quite round behind the
whiffie-tree, where alone the trace can be
hitcbed and unhitched. AS soon as it slips
from that position the hook fits close to the
iron at every other point, whether pulled
tight or left slack. Naturally, when the
trace is slack, the hook falls and hangs by
its own gravity below the white tree, but
it is almost. if not quite impossible, that it
should turn round upon the rear side so as
to unlock. A patent is applied for.
A corn knife, or tree-pruning knife, in
shape somewhat like the sickle, has been
shown US. The improvement consists of
an iron attachment tosthe end of the handle,
which is made to reach up along the under
side of the arm nearly TO the elbow, where
it is loosely buckled. This gives all the
strength and leverage of the forearm to re-
lieve the strain upon the wrist. Of course
it is a Yankee invention, and though SO ex-
ceedingly simple. viii no doubt prove equal
ly acceptable with, those of greater skill and
cost.
"A new churn has appeared. which. we
believe, will give greater satisfaction than
any of its almost innumerable predecessors.
Heretofore. we have found no substitute for
the old hardworking. but effective dashef
churn; but one has, we think, at last been
invented. This new churn will make more,
aud better butter, from given quantity of
cream. than any other we have ever seen.
and in reasonable time. usually less than
half an hour. Nor has it any machinery to
adjust or keep in order, and nothing but a
plain, smooth barrel, inside and ont, to keep
clean. A child can fill it. churn it, empty
it, wash il. with less strength than il takes
to lift a bucket of water. It has no dash
or hut is simnlv a Main barrel of anY.re-