Chapter LI: Flax and Linen

_Historical, Manufacturing, Hygienic, and Medical._

The manufacture of linen cloth from flax was well known to the ancient Egyptians and other Eastern nations. Reference to linen frequently occurs in the Celtic literature of Ireland. The native Irish usually dyed their linen garments of a yellow or saffron colour. The revival of the industry in the North of Ireland is attributed to the French Huguenots who left France after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Several of these refugees settled in Belfast, Lurgan, and Lisburn. One name stands out prominently amongst these people, viz., Louis Crommelin.

Crommelin published, in 1705, a short sketch of the Irish linen trade. It may be more or less interesting to give a few extracts from it, thus:--

“The people are entirely ignorant of the mysteries relating to
the manufacture ... the flax being managed by women altogether
ignorant as to their choice of the seed or soil, for which
reason their flax is too short, and unfit for making good
yarn; they do not know when or how to pull their flax, whereby
their seed degenerates, and their flax wants strength and
substance.... They have no judgment when or how to water or
grass their flax, so as to give it a natural colour; and what
is yet worse than all, they constantly dry their flax by the
fire, which makes it impossible to bleach cloth made of their
yarns; for let all the skill and judgment in the world be used
to bleach cloth made of different sorts of flax, you can never
bring it to a good colour; for till such time as it is woven
and bleached, the best artist in nature cannot discover the
mischief.... They also use, in cleaning their flax, things
which they call “breaks,” which I can in no way approve of....
They spin their long and short flax athwart, which is extremely
preposterous, as the flax cannot be spun fine, so the linen is
cottony.... The wheels used in spinning are turned by the foot,
and have two cords, one going round the wheel and the whirl of
the spindle, and the other going round the wheel and the whirl
of the spool, which overtwists the thread. Their manner of
reeling yarn is one of the greatest grievances, as many honest,
industrious men are undone by the deceitful methods now used
by the crafty and unfair people in this particular; as, for
instance, there is no standard for the measure of reels, and
everybody uses such reels as they think fit, for which reason
a stranger to the market is imposed upon to his ruin. The cuts
and hanks are reeled by several threads, through laziness or
wickedness, to the utter ruin of the poor dealers who buy yarn,
and think they have good and marketable goods for their money,
but find that the whole hank ravels together, and becomes
entirely unserviceable, or at the best so troublesome to wind
that it is as eligible to lose it as it is to spend so much
time and pains to wind it. They ought to mark each cut, or six
score threads, as they reel them, and not afterwards, as they
now do, which they might do without difficulty. They do likewise
intermix, in one and the same hank, yarn of several degrees of
fineness, which is a cheat intolerable to buyers.... The looms
generally employed in this kingdom for the making of all sorts
of linen cloth (excepting diaper and damask) are looms properly
disposed, and invented for the making of woollen cloth (save
only that they changed the gear, and wrought promiscuously linen
and woollen therein). Therefore, it is impossible to use one and
the same loom to both material with good success.... The reels
are uneven and too thick ... and they make a stuff, of water
and meal, without judgment, wherewith they stiffen their warps;
and the cloth is made too thin and sleazy, and woven where the
weather affects it....”

In 1710 a bleach green, on an improved plan, was established at Lisburn, and a Board of Trustees of the Linen and Hempen Manufacture of Ireland was formed by Act of Parliament in 1711.

North of Ireland farmers purchase their flax seed from local merchants, and it is usually either Dutch or Russian. The farmers never save any of their own flax seed, owing to the local custom of “steeping” the flax, as soon as it is “pulled,” in ponds of water for a certain length of time; it is subsequently removed, spread out in a field to dry, then gathered into bundles, stacked, and eventually taken to the scutch mill. Here it is run through rollers so as to remove the outer coat or bark. The farmer next takes his flax to market, which is visited by the flax buyers from the various spinning mills, and after purchase conveyed to the store, examined and sorted, so as to be used for different kinds of yarn. An analysis of Irish flax fibre made by the late Professor Hodges, M.D., of the Queen’s College, Belfast, gave--

_In 100 parts of Ash._
Potash 20.32
Soda 2.70
Chloride of sodium 9.27
Lime 19.88
Magnesia 4.05
Oxide of iron 2.83
Sulphuric acid 7.13
Carbonic acid 10.72
Phosphoric acid 10.24
Silica 12.80
-----
99.94
=====

The presence of silica causes linen cloth always to feel cool; moreover it contains no moisture, thus differing from cotton.

In the “roughing shop” the “rougher” examines a “strick” of flax; giving it a quick pull with his right hand, then, swinging his arm, he leaves the disengaged portion of the fibre on his bench. This is called “piecing,” and its object is to have all the flax as near as possible of the same length. After having obtained a sufficient quantity, he takes up a piece of flax, throws it out behind his shoulder, and draws the same through his “heckle” pins, which are attached to a bench in front of the operator. The next process is running the flax through heckling machines of different kinds, but they are all more or less made on the same principle. These machines are attended to by boys, five or six to each machine. Some mills employ “half-timers”; in other mills the lads are over fourteen years of age, but they are all under the control of a “machine master.” In this department the flax is separated into stricks, fastened by means of screws into a clamp called a “holder,” which runs along the upper part of the machine, on vertical fixed combs. Accidents to the machine boys have been frequent, owing to their attempting to remove a “holder” too soon, or in consequence of wearing a loose shirt sleeve, they get caught, and have their hand or forearm pulled in against the pins. The lads in this room were formerly obliged, by the factory authorities, to wear respirators. These were of simple construction, for they were composed of two pieces of flannel sewed together and fastened by a tape. The boys generally suspended them over their chin or neck instead. The respirators were not at all suitable; they did not cover the nose, they became damp with saliva, foul and malodorous. In frosty weather they irritated the lips. The use of respirators has since been abandoned.

The part of the flax taken off by the pins of the machines is known as “tow.” The pins are kept clean by a brush and doffer arrangement connected with the machine. The boys in a machine room are classified into tow-boys, sweepers, oilers, parcel lads, piecers-out, and cutter boys. The last-mentioned attend to the flax-cutting machine, by which the ends of a strick of flax are cut off by the revolving grooved wheels.

The next stage or process in the manufacture is that of “dressing and sorting,” which is performed by hand. The men employed are called hecklers. In the preparing room, flax is made into _sliver_ by being sorted out on the spread-board by a girl, and then drawn through pins and rollers to produce a ribbon-like band, which is finally deposited in sliver cans. When a bell connected with the drawing frame rings, it is the signal for the girl to break off the sliver. Occasionally the sliver breaks short in its passage, and it is the duty of the attendant then to stop her machine and to put up the end, as it is called. Sometimes her hands are injured by doing this while the machine is in motion. The roving frame is the last machine in use in the preparing department, and has flyers and spindles. The sliver, on coming from the boss rollers, goes into the flyer, a small tube of iron like an inverted V, fixed to the top of a spindle that revolves, and passes through its eye on to a bobbin, revolving on the spindle. This gives a twist to the sliver now called by the name of rove.

All small fibres, etc., of the flax that are taken off during the heckling processes are called tow. This is put through a somewhat different preparation, but eventually it becomes tow sliver and tow yarn. The tow from flax scutching mills is also run through a breaker card, which is a machine consisting of a cylinder of iron 4 or 5 feet in diameter, that turns at a rapid rate of speed, and is covered by a quantity of iron pins of varying size. To it the tow is brought by means of feed sheets, and removed from the cards by a doffer knife.

The rove is spun into yarn in the spinning-room. A recent writer remarks that--

“The process is nearly entirely mechanical, brass rollers,
fluted and revolving, taking the place of the primitive rock,
and manipulation between the fingers, as practised by the
spinning-wheel. The fact of spinning as it is now, being
mechanical, cannot be better illustrated than by mentioning
that as much yarn can now be spun under the supervision of
_one_ woman called a spinner, as could be turned off 400
spinning-wheels by 400 women in the older time.”

The spinning frame has been much improved of late years. The spindles have a velocity of 1000 revolutions or more per minute; the yarn as it goes through the eye of the flyer attached to the end of each spindle is thus properly twisted before it is wound on to a bobbin that revolves on a spindle immediately beneath the flyer. There are “wet” and “dry” spinning. In the former, the yarn goes through a trough of hot water (heated by steam pipes) situated on the top of the spinning frame. When the yarn is being twisted round the bobbins, a quantity of spray is thrown off that wets the clothes of the spinners and doffers, who are obliged to wear waterproof aprons and chest protectors. The workers, however, prefer coarse sacking, which they maintain soaks up the spray, and prevents the water running down over their petticoats, making the lower parts of the body more or less wet. The floor of the spinning room is frequently tiled, and is always covered with more or less water. The atmosphere of the room from this cause and steam jets is thoroughly saturated with moisture. When the bobbins have received enough yarn, the doffing mistress stops the spinning frame, and by the assistance of her doffers--boys and girls, usually “half-timers”--the full bobbins are rapidly removed and replaced by others. The temperature of the spinning-room is usually at least 70° F.

The measuring of yarn into hanks is called “reeling.” Some of the reeling machines, always tended by women, are moved by steam-power, others by hand. When the reel is full, the hanks of yarn are taken to the drying-room, and finally to the bundling department, where they are put up in bunches.

Before being woven into linen cloth, some yarn is bleached, but whether bleached or in the brown state it is taken from the mill to the factory, first going to the winders, who put the yarn on spools. These are then carried to the warpers, who transfer it on to the loom beams. It is dressed or sized and is ready for weaving. The stiffening or dressing applied by the tenters to the yarn before weaving is made from Irish Carragheen Moss, which is very mucilaginous but free from starch, and to it flour and tallow are added. The temperature of the room in which this process is conducted is high, generally from 90° to 125° F., so as to dry the yarn as quickly as possible.

At the bleach green, the brown linen is first boiled in water and lye, next put out on grass; after this it receives another boiling to remove any remaining chemicals, dried, and taken to the beetling engines to be beetled. Subsequently it is lapped into parcels, and is then ready for the market.

Belfast is the centre of the linen trade. My father, Dr C. D. Purdon, formerly Certifying Factory Surgeon for Belfast and the surrounding district, wrote several pamphlets on the flax and linen industries. Many of his suggestions have been adopted. In 1873 he published a pamphlet, “On the Mortality of Flax Mill Workers,” etc., accompanied by tables showing the mortality of different classes. In the compilation of his statistics he had the assistance of the late Dr Newett, Dispensary Medical Officer and subsequently Certifying Surgeon of Ligoneill. W. D. Cramp, Esq., at that time H.M. Inspector of Factories for Belfast and the North of Ireland, likewise gave valuable assistance.

“It will be perceived,” he says, “that the flax manufacturing
operatives suffer far more from phthisis than the other two
classes, nearly three-fifths of those that die annually being
taken off by diseases of the respiratory organs, while in the
other two classes (artisan and mercantile) the average amounts
to about two-fifths. In carrying our investigations into the
fatality of the different branches of the manufacture, we will
see that the death-rate amongst those employed in the preparing
rooms is exceedingly high, and that few of those employed
in these rooms live beyond sixty years. The next class that
suffers from the same diseases is the ‘hecklers,’ and the rate
of mortality among the spinners and weavers is also high. The
reason that the ‘machine boys’ appear to suffer so little is
that when they become ‘poucey,’ _i.e._ asthmatic, caused
by flax dust, numbers of them leave the mills on account of
suffering from chest affections, and go to other trades, where
they may linger on, or die from phthisis. This fatality I
consider arises from four different causes: 1st, commencing to
work when too young; 2nd, the unhealthiness of the employment;
3rd, neglect of sanitary laws; 4th, insufficient and impure
diet. A fifth might be added--namely, insufficient clothing for
the young.”

My own observations lead me to think that the machine boys are the hardest worked of any employés in the mill. They seldom have a minute’s rest, for they are either charging the holder with flax, or taking it out. Although fans have been introduced into the machine room, the atmosphere is still laden with more or less dust. I have long had the opinion that no boy under at least thirteen years of age should be employed in this department. Many of the machine boys work in the brickfields during summer, so as to be in the open air. Although the half-time doffers in the spinning-room do not suffer from the inhalation of dust, they are exposed to an unnatural heat and humid atmosphere for several hours daily, whereby they become liable to bronchial irritation, especially during cold and frosty weather. The weavers are often similarly affected.

The late Mr Baker, M.R.C.S. Eng., H.M. Chief Inspector of Factories in the year 1874, introduced a respirator which for a time was worn by hecklers in some of the mills, as they derived much benefit from it. Many of the men, however, would not wear it, as it prevented them from expectorating when chewing tobacco. Some of the owners have introduced a new system of ventilating into the hecklers’ shop, whereby all dust is carried away at once from the bench by fans.

The hecklers and roughers suffer from dryness of the throat, which is one of the first symptoms of “mechanical bronchitis.” This is generally followed by cough and dyspnœa, and is occasionally accompanied by vomiting. In order to relieve these distressing symptoms the men often drink whisky. During cold weather, easterly winds or frost, their breathing is worse. Some of the older men are not able to follow their occupation during the winter months. The late Dr C. D. Purdon, in the pamphlet already referred to, makes the following remarks:--

“The consumption of stimulants is also producing sad havoc....
If I may single out a class that injure themselves more than
any other, I would mention the ‘hecklers,’ for when they begin
to suffer from the effects of dust, they commence to drink, and
go on using alcoholic stimulants till at last they die from the
effects of drink, or hasten the advance of chest affections by
its inordinate consumption.”

At the time this was written, a child under the Factory Act, if ten years of age, could be employed for six hours each day, independent of school attendance of three hours daily, and was obliged each alternate fortnight to commence work at six o’clock in the morning, often travelling bare-footed one or two miles before arriving at the mill. At present no child in Ireland can work as a “half-timer” unless he or she be eleven years of age,[152] and the time of commencing work is in flax mills generally 6.30 A.M. In towns most of the workers live close to the mills.

The “half-time” children who are employed as doffers in the spinning-room do not suffer so much from dust as from the heat and steam from the hot water, through which the flax is passed, also from their clothes becoming wet in spite of the use of overalls. Hygienic rules are ignored in the home. The workers sleep in small overcrowded rooms. Nor is the food of the mill workers as nutritious as it ought to be. Tea and white bread, potato-bread or oaten-meal bread, form their principal food, to which is occasionally added bacon or salt fish. “Tea dyspepsia” is common. The children of the millworkers are, I think, rather degenerating than improving in physical development.

The diseases from which flax millworkers chiefly suffer are those incidental to the preparing and spinning processes. To quote from Dr C. D. Purdon’s pamphlet:--

“In the former (preparing) the lungs chiefly suffer from the
constant inhaling of the ‘pouce.’ The irritating quality of
the dust is felt on the throat, which soon becomes dry. This
irritation creeps to the lungs, which soon manifests its
presence by the worker being attacked each morning with a
paroxysm of coughing. The dyspnœa is often very severe. Those
employed in the roughing and sorting, heckling and preparing of
flax suffer from this affection, and in the majority of cases
die from phthisis.”

The carders who are employed attending to the carding machines inhale a great deal of vegetable dust. Some physicians maintain that vegetable dust is more irritating to the lungs than mineral. These workers as a matter of precaution wrap round their mouth and nose a lump of tow, which makes a kind of respirator. The introduction of fans--Blackman’s, Davidson’s, and others--has effected an improvement in clearing away the dust of the atmosphere of the carding and machine rooms. A few steam jets in these departments would help still further to allay the dust and purify the atmosphere.

The late Dr Hamilton, Certifying Surgeon for Cookstown, stated that in the scutch mills of Antrim, Down, and Tyrone the workers were very prone to ophthalmia, phthisis, and asthma, all due to dust.

The late Dr Arlidge (_Diseases of Occupation_, page 255) has remarked:--

“Organic dusts--some vegetable, others mineral--are encountered
in the textile manufactures, and include cotton, flax, hemp,
silk, wool, and hair. These in a general point of view are
obstructive dusts, nevertheless they are not devoid of irritant
properties, and differ greatly among themselves in the latter
respect. They further exemplify the fact, that besides
mechanical form and action, dust operates by inherent qualities;
for dust of linen and hemp develops far more serious symptoms.
The degree of dyspnœa varies extremely, and is influenced both
by individual peculiarities and also by the properties of the
dust. Writers generally concur in the belief that a tonic spasm
is set up in the bronchial muscles by the irritation and the
reflex action just spoken of, and that in co-operating therewith
there is turgescence of the mucous membrane of the bronchi,
which interposes a mechanical impediment to the free admission
and egress of air to and from the air-cells. This hypothesis is
sanctioned by the repeated strong efforts made to inspire and
expire.”

The workers employed in the spinning-room are sometimes in summer attacked by vertigo and faintness due to excessive heat; also owing to their long standing, especially when bare-footed, on a wet floor, they are liable to varicose veins, and œdema of ankles followed often by an outbreak of eczema. It may be worth while to say that I have occasionally noticed eczema rimosum on the hands of spinners, especially the right hand. A great many of the workers wear a kind of half leather glove on that hand. Heat and moisture may cause the disease. Dr Glibert, of the _Ministère de l’Industrie et du Travail_ at Brussels, has been good enough to send me some photographs showing slight superficial ulceration of skin of palm of hand and fingers in flax spinners.[153] I cannot say that I have ever noticed this in our Belfast workers, either during the 32 years I attended as Physician to the Belfast Skin Hospital, or the 19 years that I have been Certifying Factory Surgeon. Constipation is also common. Enlarged glands are frequent, and the women are of pale complexion.

The doffers, especially if young, are frequently, when first employed in the mills, attacked by “mill fever” a few days after commencing work. The symptoms are nausea and vomiting, followed by pain in the head, thirst, and heat of skin. These continue for three or four days, when the affection subsides. No treatment is required or sought. The cause assigned for its origin is the smell of the oil, along with the heat and vapour of the rooms. Irish flax is said to be less irritating to doffers than either Dutch or Belgian. Egyptian flax, which is occasionally met with, and which has been steeped in a special preparing fluid, gives off in the process of heckling more or less ammonia; this causes irritation of the mucous membrane of the nostrils.

A peculiar eruption also attacks doffers, and which is evidently due to a combination of flax-water and oil. The uncovered parts of the body, as forearms, arms, and face, are the parts attacked by this cutaneous eruption. It never attacks adults, only the doffers. It is a papular rash in the first stage, and is shotty to the touch, like smallpox. The papules become larger, and often contain a central plug of sebum. It is a _folliculitis_. Some kinds of flax, such as Russian, cause more of the eruption than others.

Various trades are known to cause particular kinds of callosities due to pressure and constant friction; thus hecklers have frequently a thickened or callous condition of the skin of the index finger of the right hand due to pulling the flax out of the “pins.”

Another disease, now rare, owing to the spinners wearing boots or shoes instead of going bare-footed from home to mill and back in all weathers, is onychia, or inflammation of the nail of the great toe. Cases of this were very common at the Belfast Royal Hospital thirty years ago. The late Sir William MacCormac, Bart., then one of the surgeons to the hospital, investigated the origin of the disease and introduced the local treatment by nitrate of lead. It seemed to be due to the action of the hot and contaminated water lying on the floor of the spinning-room, containing flax-water, and probably verdigris, or other matter from the brass in the machinery, some of which, finding its way under the nail, or from some slight injury to the part, caused the painful affection known as onychia.

During late years many improvements have been made in the mills and factories as regards ventilation, by the introduction of fans, so that there is now little more to suggest. During the 19 years that I have been Certifying Factory Surgeon for the city of Belfast, I have always found our merchants and employers of labour ready to adopt any _reasonable_ suggestion towards improvement of the health of their workers. The recommendations I would make are:--

1. That no “half-timers” be employed in machine shops; all to be
over, at least, thirteen years of age.

2. That no “half-timers,” who according to the certifying
surgeon appear weakly or not well-developed for their age, be
allowed to work in the morning set, especially during the winter
months.

3. That only the strong and well-developed who are from twelve
to thirteen be kept in the morning set, and before being so
placed, reported by the surgeon as fit for such work.

4. The wearing of a good respirator to cover nose as well as
mouth is necessary in the carding and heckling rooms, and should
be made compulsory.

5. An inspection of the “young persons” and “children” by the
certifying surgeon, say every three months, to see what the
effect of the work is upon the constitution of those employed.
If there are signs of suffering they should cease work.

6. That those mills and factories which have not as yet opened a
dining-room for use of their workers, do so.

7. That in such departments as the carding and machine rooms,
where dust is prevalent, a few steam jets be allowed so as to
make the atmosphere moist and allay the dust.

8. That each room in the mill should have connected therewith a
small closet heated by steam-pipes, in which workers can deposit
part of their clothing, shawls, boots, etc., so that if the day
is wet these will be dry for them on going home for meals or
leaving work.

9. In conclusion, I quote the following from my father’s
pamphlet already mentioned:

“Another subject bearing on the social state of the workers is
the employment of mothers in mills and factories. Now, in order
to lessen as much as possible the number of deaths that occur
amongst children, each mother ought not to be allowed to resume
work for at least two months after the birth of her child, and
then should be obliged, when going to work each day, to bring
her child to a public _crèche_.... The _crèche_
ought to be visited weekly by the certifying surgeon who is to
inspect each child.... The _crèche_ to be under Government
inspection.”

I am glad to say that, owing to the efforts of Lady Henderson, two _crèches_ have been opened in Belfast.

HENRY S. PURDON.