The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1910-08-22
new INDUSTRY COMING
Waste Flax Straw to Be Used to Make
Linen Mattresses.

Against practically every state
in the West, Minnesota has won
out in its fight to have the Oxford
Linen Mattress company, a $780,
600 Maine corporation, settle in its
midst. ...-..-,..
Robert G.. Gould, president of the
company, a few days ago signed
contracts for the purchase of large
tract of land at Winona, upon which
suitable buildings of fireproof con-
struction will be erected forthwith.
Several of the unsuccessful bidders
for the enterprise, which it is be-
lieved will in time make American
made linen rank with cotton as one
of the worlds greatest textile in
dustries, offered attractive bonuses
to the company to establish itself in
their States.
Minnesota was selected as the site
of the mattress company after an,
exhaustive inquiry into the merits
of the claims presented by a dozen
other western states which sought to
secure the new industry, because of
its superior shipping facilities by
both rail and water and its accessi-
bility to the heart of the fax growing
country. I'D 81
The Oxford Linen Mattress COM
pany is a subsidiary of the Oxford
Linen Mills of North Brookfeld,
Mass. This company controls the
process of Benjamin Cushing Nudge,
an ingenious Yankee, whereby flax
can be converted into linen for
manufacture in "a hours. In view
of the fact that it takes from 20 to
80 weeks to effect this change by the
processes used in Europe. the Nudge
discovery foreshadows a revolution
in the linen industry akin to that
wrought in cotton more than a cen
fury ago by the invention of Eli
Whitney's cotton gin. H.
While one of the greatest of the
worlds consumers of linen, the
United States up to the intro
duction of the Nudge process has
never been able to manufacture
linen proftably because of the great
cost of labor here as compared with
Ireland, Scotland and Belgium.
By means of the Nudge pro-
cess the ten million tons of flax
straw annually destroyed by the
farmers of this country as waste will
now be available for use and have a
distinct commercial value.
In the collection of the flax for
weaving, a method new to the lin
en- industry will be employed. To
facilitate the gathering of the flax
fibre, the company will use port
able decorticating machines for
separating the fibre from the flax
stalks, moving them from farm to
farm as required. The best grad
es of fibre thus secured will be
shipped to North Brookfeld, for
use by the present company in the
manufacture of fine linen dress,
table and household goods, which
is now being successfully turned
out at the New England mill by
the Nudge process for the first
time in the historyof this country.
The lower grades will be used for
making linen mattresses, for which
there is large market in both
this country and Europe. These
mattresses have been approved by
the health authorities of the prin-
ciPal cities of the country as
more sanitary, cooler and cleaner
than either hair or cotton, now so
extensively used throughout the
country. s1E.- F. ~
President Gould and his family
and the families of the other officers
of the company, who have been liv-
ing in New England since the in
dustry started, intend to make their
permanent homes in Minnesota.