Chapter XVIII: Act 9: Geo. IV. c. 14 (Lord Tenterden's act) requires any promise or (5)

The student may soon understand the spirit and technical quality of the earliest Italian engraving by giving his attention to a few of the series which used erroneously to be called the "Playing Cards of Mantegna," but which have been shown by Mr Sidney Colvin to represent "a kind of encyclopaedia of knowledge."

The history of these engravings is obscure. They are supposed to be Florentine; they are certainly Italian; and their technical manner is called that of Baccio Baldini. But their style is as clear as a style can be, as clear as the artist's conception of his art. In all these figures the outline is the main thing, and next to that the lines which mark the leading folds of the drapery; lines quite classical in purity of form and severity of selection, and especially characteristic in this, that they are always really engraver's lines, such as may naturally be done with the burin, and they never imitate the freer line of the pencil or etching needle. Shading is used in the greatest moderation with thin straight strokes of the burin, that never overpower the stronger organic lines of the design. Of chiaroscuro, in any complete sense, there is none. The sky behind the figures is represented by white paper, and the foreground is sometimes occupied by flat decorative engraving, much nearer in feeling to calligraphy than to modern painting. Sometimes there is a cast shadow, but it is not studied, and is only used to give relief. In this early metal engraving the lines are often crossed in the shading, whereas in the earliest woodcuts they are not; the reason being that when lines are incised they can as easily be crossed as not, whereas, when they are reserved, the crossing involves much labour of a non-artistic kind. Here, then, we have pure line-engraving with the burin, that is, the engraving of the pure line patiently studied for its own beauty, and exhibited in an abstract manner, with care for natural form combined with inattention to the effects of nature. Even the forms are idealized, especially in the cast of draperies, for the express purpose of exhibiting the line to better advantage. Such are the characteristics of those very early Italian engravings which were attributed erroneously to Mantegna. When we come to Mantegna himself we find a style equally decided. Drawing and shading were for him two entirely distinct things. He did not draw and shade at the same time, as a modern chiaroscurist would, but he first got his outlines and the patterns on his dresses all very accurate, and then threw over them a veil of shading, a very peculiar kind of shading, all the lines being straight and all the shading diagonal. This is the primitive method, its peculiarities being due, not to a learned self-restraint, but to a combination of natural genius with technical inexperience, which made the early Italians at once desire and discover the simplest and easiest methods. Whilst the Italians were shading with straight lines the Germans had begun to use curves, and as soon as the Italians saw good German work they tried to give to their burins something of the German suppleness.

The characteristics of early metal engraving in Germany are seen to perfection in Martin Schongauer and Albert Dürer, who, though with striking differences, had many points in common. Schongauer died in 1488; whilst the date of Dürer's death is 1528. Schongauer was therefore a whole generation before Dürer, yet not greatly inferior to him in the use of the burin, though Dürer has a much greater reputation, due in great measure to his singular imaginative powers. Schongauer is the first great German engraver known by name, but he was preceded by an unknown German master, called "the Master of 1466," who had Gothic notions of art (in strong contrast to the classicism of Baccio Baldini), but used the burin skilfully, conceiving of line and shade as separate elements, yet shading with an evident desire to follow the form of the thing shaded, and with lines in various directions. Schongauer's art is a great stride in advance, and we find in him an evident pleasure in the bold use of the burin. Outline and shade, in Schongauer, are not nearly so much separated as in Baccio Baldini, and the shading, generally in curved lines, is far more masterly than the straight shading of Mantegna. Dürer continued Schongauer's curved shading, with increasing manual delicacy and skill; and as he found himself able to perform feats with the burin which amused both himself and his buyers, he over-loaded his plates with quantities of living and inanimate objects, each of which he finished with as much care as if it were the most important thing in the composition. The engravers of those days had no conception of any necessity for subordinating one part of their work to another; they drew, like children, first one object and then another object, and so on until the plate was furnished from top to bottom and from the left side to the right. Here, of course, is an element of facility in primitive art which is denied to the modern artist. In Dürer all objects are on the same plane. In his "St Hubert" (otherwise known as "St Eustace") of c. 1505, the stag is quietly standing on the horse's back, with one hoof on the saddle, and the kneeling knight looks as if he were tapping the horse on the nose. Dürer seems to have perceived the mistake about the stag, for he put a tree between us and the animal to correct it, but the stag is on the horse's back nevertheless. This ignorance of the laws of effect is least visible and obtrusive in plates which have no landscape distances, such as "The Coat of Arms with the Death's Head" (1503) and "The Coat of Arms with the Cock" (c. 1512).

Dürer's great manual skill and close observation made him a wonderful engraver of objects taken separately. He saw and rendered all objects; nothing escaped him; he applied the same intensity of study to everything. Though a thorough student of the nude--witness his Adam and Eve (1504) and other plates--he would pay just as much attention to the creases of a gaiter as to the development of a muscle; and though man was his main subject, he would study dogs with equal care (see the five dogs in the "St Hubert"), as well as pigs (see the "Prodigal Son," c. 1495); and at a time when landscape painting was unknown he studied every clump of trees, every visible trunk and branch, nay, every foreground plant, and each leaf of it separately. In his buildings he saw every brick like a bricklayer, and every joint in the woodwork like a carpenter. The immense variety of the objects which he engraved was a training in suppleness of hand. His lines go in every direction, and are made to render both the undulations of surfaces (see the plane in the Melencolia, 1514) and their texture (see the granular texture of the stones in the same print).

From Dürer we come to Italy again, through Marcantonio, who copied Dürer, translating more than sixty of his woodcuts upon metal. It is one of the most remarkable things in the history of art, that a man who had trained himself by copying northern work, little removed from pure Gothicism, should have become soon afterwards the great engraver of Raphael, who was much pleased with his work and aided him by personal advice. Yet, although Raphael was a painter, and Marcantonio his interpreter, the reader is not to infer that engraving had as yet subordinated itself to painting. Raphael himself evidently considered engraving a distinct art, for he never once set Marcantonio to work from a picture, but always (much more judiciously) gave him drawings, which the engraver might interpret without going outside his own art; consequently Marcantonio's works are always genuine engravings, and are never pictorial. Marcantonio was an engraver of remarkable power. In him the real pure art of line-engraving reached its maturity. He retained much of the early Italian manner in his backgrounds, where its simplicity gives a desirable sobriety; but his figures are boldly modelled in curved lines, crossing each other in the darker shades, but left single in the passages from dark to light, and breaking away in fine dots as they approach the light itself, which is of pure white paper. A school of engraving was thus founded by Raphael, through Marcantonio, which cast aside the minute details of the early schools for a broad, harmonious treatment.

The group known as the engravers of Rubens marked a new development. Rubens understood the importance of engraving as a means of increasing his fame and wealth, and directed Vorsterman and others. The theory of engraving at that time was that it ought not to render accurately the local colour of painting, which would appear wanting in harmony when dissociated from the hues of the picture; and it was one of the anxieties of Rubens so to direct his engravers that the result might be a fine plate independently of what he had painted. To this end he helped his engravers by drawings, in which he sometimes indicated what he thought the best direction for the lines. Rubens liked Vorsterman's work, and scarcely corrected it, a plate he especially approved being "Susannah and the Elders," which is a learned piece of work well modelled, and shaded everywhere on the figures and costumes with fine curved lines, the straight line being reserved for the masonry. Vorsterman quitted Rubens after executing fourteen important plates, and was succeeded by Paul Pontius, then a youth of twenty, who went on engraving from Rubens with increasing skill until the painter's death. Boetius a Bolswert engraved from Rubens towards the close of his life, and his brother Schelte a Bolswert engraved more than sixty compositions of Rubens, of the most varied character, including hunting scenes and landscapes. This brings us to the engraving of landscape as a separate study. Rubens treated landscape in a broad comprehensive manner, and Schelte's way of engraving it was also broad and comprehensive. The lines are long and often undulating, the cross-hatchings bold and rather obtrusive, for they often substitute unpleasant reticulations for the refinement and mystery of nature, but it was a beginning, and a vigorous beginning. The technical developments of engraving under the influence of Rubens may be summed up briefly as follows: (1) The Italian outline had been discarded as the chief subject of attention, and modelling had been substituted for it; (2) broad masses had been substituted for the minutely finished detail of the northern schools; (3) a system of light and dark had been adopted which was not pictorial, but belonged especially to engraving, which it rendered (in the opinion of Rubens) more harmonious.

The history of line-engraving, from the time of Rubens to the beginning of the 19th century, is rather that of the vigorous and energetic application of principles already accepted than any new development. From the two sources already indicated, the school of Raphael and the school of Rubens, a double tradition flowed to England and France, where it mingled and directed English and French practice. The first influence on English line-engraving was Flemish, and came from Rubens through Vandyck, Vorsterman, and others; but the English engravers soon underwent French and Italian influences, for although Payne learned from a Fleming, Faithorne studied in France under Philippe de Champagne the painter and Robert Nanteuil the engraver. Sir Robert Strange studied in France under Philippe Lebas, and then five years in Italy, where he saturated his mind with Italian art. French engravers came to England as they went to Italy, so that the art of engraving became in the 18th century cosmopolitan. In figure-engraving the outline was less and less insisted upon. Strange made it his study to soften and lose the outline. Meanwhile, the great classical Renaissance school, with Gérard Audran at its head, had carried forward the art of modelling with the burin, and had arrived at great perfection of a sober and dignified kind. Audran was very productive in the latter half of the 17th century, and died in 1703, after a life of severe self-direction in labour, the best external influence he underwent being that of the painter Nicolas Poussin. He made his work more rapid by the use of etching, but kept it entirely subordinate to the work of the burin. One of the finest of his large plates is "St John Baptizing," from Poussin, with groups of dignified figures in the foreground and a background of grand classical landscape, all executed with the most thorough knowledge according to the ideas of that time. The influence of Claude Lorrain on the engraving of landscape was exercised less through his etchings than his pictures, which compelled the engravers to study delicate distinctions in the values of light and dark. Through Woollett and Vivarès, Claude exercised an influence on landscape engraving almost equal to that of Raphael and Rubens on the engraving of the figure, though he did not direct his engravers personally.

In the 19th century line-engraving received first an impulse and finally a check. The impulse came from the growth of public wealth, the increasing interest in art and the increase in the commerce of art, which, by means of engraving, fostered in England mainly by John Boydell, penetrated into the homes of the middle classes, as well as from the growing demand for illustrated books, which gave employment to engravers of first-rate ability. The check to line-engraving came from the desire for cheaper and more rapid methods, a desire satisfied in various ways, but especially by etching and by the various kinds of photography. Nevertheless, the 19th century produced most highly accomplished work in line-engraving, both in the figure and in landscape. Its characteristics, in comparison with the work of other centuries, were chiefly a more thorough and delicate rendering of local colour, light and shade, and texture. The elder engravers could draw as correctly as the moderns, but they either neglected these elements or admitted them sparingly, as opposed to the spirit of their art. In a modern engraving from Landseer may be seen the blackness of a man's boots (local colour), the soft roughness of his coat (texture), and the exact value in light and dark of his face and costume against the cloudy sky. Nay more, there is to be found every sparkle on bit, boot and stirrup. Modern painting pays more attention to texture and chiaroscuro than classical painting did, and engraving necessarily followed in the same directions. But there is a certain sameness in pure line-engraving more favourable to some forms and textures than to others. This sameness of line-engraving, and its costliness, led to the adoption of mixed methods, extremely prevalent in commercial prints from popular artists. In the well-known prints from Rosa Bonheur, for example, by T. Landseer, H. T. Ryall, and C. G. Lewis, the tone of the skies is got by machine-ruling, and so is much undertone in the landscape; the fur of the animals is all etched, and so are the foreground plants, the real burin work being used sparingly where most favourable to texture. Even in the exquisite engravings after Turner, by Cooke, Goodall, Wallis, Miller, Willmore, and others, who reached a degree of delicacy in light and shade far surpassing the work of the old masters, the engravers had recourse to etching, finishing with the burin and dry point. Turner's name may be added to those of Raphael, Rubens and Claude in the list of painters who have had a special influence upon engraving. The speciality of Turner's influence was in the direction of delicacy of tone. In this respect the Turner vignettes to Roger's poems were a high-water mark of human attainment, not likely ever to be surpassed.

The record of the art of line-engraving during the last quarter of the 19th century is one of continued decay. Technical improvements, it was hoped, might save the art; it was thought by some that the slight revival resultant on the turning back of the burin's cutting-point--whereby the operator pulled the tool towards him instead of pushing it from him--might effect much, in virtue of the time and labour saved by the device. But by the beginning of the 20th century pictorial line-engraving in England was practically non-existent, and, with the passing of Jeens and Stacpoole, the spasmodic demand by publishers for engravers to engrave new plates remained unanswered. Mr C. W. Sherborn, the exquisite and facile designer and engraver of book-plates, has scarcely been surpassed in his own line, but his art is mainly heraldic. There are now no men capable of such work as that with which Doo, J. H. Robinson, and their fellows maintained the credit of the English School. Line-engraving has been killed by etching, mezzotint and the "mixed method." The disappearance of the art is due not so much to the artistic objection that the personality of the line-engraver stands obtrusively between the painter and the public; it is rather that the public refuse to wait for several years for the proofs for which they have subscribed, when by another method they can obtain their plates more quickly. An important line plate may occupy a prodigious time in the engraving; J. H. Robinson's "Napoleon and the Pope" took about twelve years. The invention of steel-facing a copper plate would now enable the engraver to proceed more expeditiously; but even in this case he can no more compete with the etcher than the mezzotint-engraver can keep pace with the photogravure manufacturer.

The Art Union of London in the past gave what encouragement it could; but with the death of J. Stephenson (1886) and F. Bacon (1887) it was evident that all hope was gone. John Saddler at the end was driven, in spite of his capacity to do original work, to spend most of his time in assisting Thomas Landseer to rule the skies on his plates, simply because there was not enough line-engraving to do. Since then there was some promise of a revival, and Mr Bourne engraved a few of the pictures by Gustave Doré. But little followed. The last of the line-engravers of Turner's pictures died in the person of Sir Daniel Wilson (d. 1892), who, recognizing the hopelessness of his early profession, laid his graver aside, and left Europe for Canada and eventually became president of the university of Toronto.

If line-engraving still flourishes in France, it is due not a little to official encouragement and to intelligent fostering by collectors and connoisseurs. The prizes offered by the École des Beaux Arts would probably not suffice to give vitality to the art but for the employment afforded to the finished artist by the "Chalcographie du Musée du Louvre," in the name of which commissions are judiciously distributed. At the same time, it must be recognized that not only are French engravers less busy than they were in days when line-engraving was the only "important" method of picture-translation, but they work for the most part for much smaller rewards. Moreover, the class of the work has entirely changed, partly through the reduction of prices paid for it, partly through the change of taste and fashion, and partly, again, through the necessities of the situation. That is to say, that public impatience is but a partial factor in the abandonment of the fine broad sweeping trough cut deep into the copper which was characteristic of the earlier engraving, either simply cut or crossed diagonally so as to form the series of "lozenges" typical of engraving at its finest and grandest period. That method was slow; but scarcely less slow was the shallower work rendered possible by the steel plate by reason of the much greater degree of elaboration of which such plates were capable, and which the public was taught--mainly by Finden--to expect. The French engravers were therefore driven at last to simplify their work if they were to satisfy the public and live by the burin. To compensate for loss of colour, the art developed in the direction of elegance and refinement. Gaillard (d. 1887), Blanchard, and Alphonse François (d. 1888) were perhaps the earliest chiefs of the new school, the characteristics of which are the substitution of exquisite greys for the rich blacks of old, simplicity of method being often allied to extremely high elaboration. Yet the aim of the modern engraver has always been, while pushing the capability of his own art to the farthermost limit, to retain throughout the individual and personal qualities of the master whose work is translated on the plate. The height of perfection to which the art is reached is seen in the triptych of Mantegna by Achille Jacquet (d. 1909), to whom may perhaps be accorded the first place among several engravers of the front rank. This "Passion" (from the three pictures in the Louvre and at Tours, forming the predella of the San Zeno altarpiece in Verona) not only conveys the forms, sentiment, and colour of the master, but succeeds also in rendering the peculiar luminosity of the originals. Jacquet, who gained the _Prix de Rome_ in 1870, also translated pictures of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and engraved fine plates after Paul Dubois, Cabanel, Bouguereau, Meissonier and Detaille. The freedom of much of his work suggests an affinity with etching and dry-point; indeed, it appears that he uses the etching-needle and acid to lay in some of his groundwork and outlines. Léopold Flameng's engraving after Jan van Eyck's "Virgin with the Donor," in the Louvre, is one of the most admirable works of its kind, retaining the quality and sentiment of the master, extreme minuteness and elaboration notwithstanding. Jules Jacquet is known for his work after Meissonier (especially the "Friedland") and after Bonnat; Adrien Didier for his plates after Holbein ("Anne of Cleves"), Raphael, and Paul Veronese, among the Old Masters, and Bonnat, Bouguereau, and Roybet among the new. Jazinski (Botticelli's "Primavera"), Sulpis (Mantegna and Gustave Moreau), Patricot (Gustave Moreau), Burney, and Champollion (d. 1901), have been among the leaders of the modern school. Their object is to secure the faithful transcript of the painter they reproduce, while readily sacrificing the power of the old method, which, whatever its force and its beauty, was easily acquired by mediocre artists of technical ability who were nevertheless unable to appreciate or reproduce anything beyond mechanical excellence.

The Belgian School of engraving is not without vitality. Gustave Biot was equally skilful in portraiture and subject (engraving after Gallait, Cabanel, Gustave Doré, among his best work); A. M. Danse executed plates after leading painters, and elaborated an effective "mixed method" of graver-work and dry-point; and de Meerman has engraved a number of good plates; but private patronage is hardly sufficient in Belgium to maintain the school in a state of prosperous efficiency.

In Germany, as might be expected, line-engraving retains not a little of its popularity in its more orthodox form. The novel Stauffer-Bern method, in which freedom and lightness are obtained with such delicacy that the fine lines, employed in great numbers, run into tone, and yield a supposed advantage in modelling, has not been without appreciation. But the more usual virtue of the graver has been best supported, and many have worked in the old-fashioned manner. Friedrich Zimmermann (d. 1887) began his career by engraving such prints as Guido Reni's "Ecce Homo" in Dresden, and then devoted himself to the translation of modern German painters. Rudolph Pfnor was an ornamentist representative of his class; and Joseph Kohlschein, of Düsseldorf, a typical exponent of the intelligent conservative manner. His "Marriage at Cana" after Paul Veronese, "The Sistine Madonna" after Raphael, and "St Cecilia" after the same master, are all plates of a high order.

In Italy the art is well-nigh as moribund as in England. When Vittorio Pica (of Naples) and Conconi (of Milan) have been named, it is difficult to mention other successors to the fine school of the 19th century which followed Piranesi and Volpato. A few of the pupils of Rosaspina and Paolo Toschi lived into the last quarter of the century, but to the present generation Asiolo, Jesi, C. Raimondi, L. Bigola, and Antonio Isac are remembered rather for their efforts than for their success in supporting their art against the combined opposition of etching, "process" and public indifference.

Outside Europe line-engraving can no longer be said to exist. Here and there a spasmodic attempt may be made to appeal to the artistic appreciation of a limited public; but no general attention is paid to such efforts, nor, it may be added, are these inherently worthy of much notice. There are still a few who can engrave a head from a photograph or drawing, or a small engraving for book-illustration or for book-plates; there are more who are highly proficient in mechanical engraving for decorative purposes; but the engraving-machine is fast superseding this class. In short, the art of worthily translating a fine painting beyond the borders of France, Belgium, Germany and perhaps Italy can scarcely be said to survive, and even in those countries it appears to exist on sufferance and by hot-house encouragement.

AUTHORITIES.--P. G. Hamerton, _Drawing and Engraving_ (Edinburgh,
1892); H. W. Singer and W. Strang, _Etching, Engraving, and other
methods of Printing Pictures_ (London, 1897); A. de Lostalot, _Les
Procédés de la gravure_ (Paris, 1882); Le Comte Henri Delaborde, La
Gravure (Paris, English trans., with a chapter on English engraving
methods, by William Walker, London, 1886); H. W. Singer, _Geschichte
des Kupferstichs_ (Magdeburg and Leipzig, 1895), and _Der Kupferstich_
(Bielefeld and Leipzig, 1904); Alex. Waldow, _Illustrirte Encyklopädie
der Graphischen Künste_ (Leipzig, 1881-1884); Lippmann, _Engraving and
Engraving_, translated by Martin Hardie (London, 1906); and for those
who desire books of gossip on the subject, Arthur Hayden, _Chats on
Old Prints_ (London, 1906), and Malcolm C. Salaman, _The Old Engravers
of England_ (London, 1906). (P. G. H.; M. H. S.)

LINEN and LINEN MANUFACTURES. Under the name of linen are comprehended all yarns spun and fabrics woven from flax fibre (see FLAX).

From the earliest periods of human history till almost the close of the 18th century the linen manufacture was one of the most extensive and widely disseminated of the domestic industries of European countries. The industry was most largely developed in Russia, Austria, Germany, Holland, Belgium, the northern provinces of France, and certain parts of England, in the north of Ireland, and throughout Scotland; and in these countries its importance was generally recognized by the enactment of special laws, having for their object the protection and extension of the trade. The inventions of Arkwright, Hargreaves and Crompton in the later part of the 18th century, benefiting almost exclusively the art of cotton-spinning, and the unparalleled development of that branch of textile manufactures, largely due to the ingenuity of these inventors, gave the linen trade as it then existed a fatal blow. Domestic spinning, and with it hand-loom weaving, immediately began to shrink; the trade which had supported whole villages and provinces entirely disappeared, and the linen manufacture, in attenuated dimensions and changed conditions, took refuge in special localities, where it resisted, not unsuccessfully, the further assaults of cotton, and, with varying fortunes, rearranged its relations in the community of textile industries. The linen industries of the United Kingdom were the first to suffer from the aggression of cotton; more slowly the influence of the rival textile reached other countries.

In 1810 Napoleon I. offered a reward of one million francs to any inventor who should devise the best machinery for the spinning of flax yarn. Within a few weeks thereafter Philippe de Girard patented in France important inventions for flax spinning by both dry and wet methods. His inventions, however, did not receive the promised reward and were neglected in his native country. In 1815 he was invited by the Austrian government to establish a spinning mill at Hirtenberg near Vienna, which was run with his machinery for a number of years, but it failed to prove a commercial success. In the meantime English inventors had applied themselves to the task of adapting machines to the preparation and spinning of flax. The foundation of machine spinning of flax was laid by John Kendrew and Thomas Porthouse of Darlington, who, in 1787, secured a patent for "a mill or machine upon new principles for spinning yarn from hemp, tow, flax or wool." By innumerable successive improvements and modifications, the invention of Kendrew and Porthouse developed into the perfect system of machinery with which, at the present day, spinning-mills are furnished; but progress in adapting flax fibres for mechanical spinning, and linen yarn for weaving cloth by power-loom was much slower than in the corresponding case of cotton.

Till comparatively recent times, the sole spinning implements were the spindle and distaff. The spindle, which is the fundamental apparatus in all spinning machinery, was a round stick or rod of wood about 12 in. in length, tapering towards each extremity, and having at its upper end a notch or slit into which the yarn might be caught or fixed. In general, a ring or "whorl" of stone or clay was passed round the upper part of the spindle to give it momentum and steadiness when in rotation, while in some few cases an ordinary potato served the purpose of a whorl. The distaff, or rock, was a rather longer and stronger bar or stick, around one end of which, in a loose coil or ball, the fibrous material to be spun was wound. The other extremity of the distaff was carried under the left arm, or fixed in the girdle at the left side, so as to have the coil of flax in a convenient position for drawing out to form the yarn. A prepared end of yarn being fixed into the notch, the spinster, by a smart rolling motion of the spindle with the right hand against the right leg, threw it out from her, spinning in the air, while, with the left hand, she drew from the rock an additional supply of fibre which was formed into a uniform and equal strand with the right. The yarn being sufficiently twisted was released from the notch, wound around the lower part of the spindle, and again fixed in the notch at the point insufficiently twisted; and so the rotating, twisting and drawing out operations went on till the spindle was full. So persistent is an ancient and primitive art of this description that in remote districts of Scotland--a country where machine spinning has attained a high standard--spinning with rock and spindle is still practised;[1] and yarn of extraordinary delicacy, beauty and tenacity has been spun by their agency. The first improvement on the primitive spindle was found in the construction of the hand-wheel, in which the spindle, mounted in a frame, was fixed horizontally, and rotated by a band passing round it and a large wheel, set in the same framework. Such a wheel became known in Europe about the middle of the 16th century, but it appears to have been in use for cotton spinning in the East from time immemorial. At a later date, which cannot be fixed, the treadle motion was attached to the spinning wheel, enabling the spinster to sit at work with both hands free; and the introduction of the two-handed or double-spindle wheel, with flyers or twisting arms on the spindles, completed the series of mechanical improvements effected on flax spinning till the end of the 18th century. The common use of the two-handed wheel throughout the rural districts of Ireland and Scotland is a matter still within the recollection of some people; but spinning wheels are now seldom seen.

The modern manufacture of linen divides itself into two branches, spinning and weaving, to which may be added the bleaching and various finishing processes, which, in the case of many linen textures, are laborious undertakings and important branches of industry. The flax fibre is received in bundles from the scutch mill, and after having been classed into various grades, according to the quality of the material, it is labelled and placed in the store ready for the flax mill. The whole operations in yarn manufacture comprise (1) hackling, (2) preparing and (3) spinning.

_Hackling._--This first preparatory process consists not only in
combing out, disentangling and laying smooth and parallel the separate
fibres, but also serves to split up and separate into their ultimate
filaments the strands of fibre which, up to this point, have been
agglutinated together. The hackling process was originally performed
by hand, and it was one of fundamental importance, requiring the
exercise of much dexterity and judgment. The broken, ravelled and
short fibres, which separate out in the hackling process, form tow, an
article of much inferior value to the spinner. A good deal of
hand-hackling is still practised, especially in Irish and continental
mills; and it has not been found practicable, in any case, to dispense
entirely with a rough preparation of the fibre by hand labour. In
hackling by hand, the hackler takes a handful or "strick" of rough
flax, winds the top end around his hands, and then, spreading out the
root end as broad and flat as possible, by a swinging motion dashes
the fibre into the hackle teeth or needles of the rougher or "ruffer."
The rougher is a board plated with tin, and studded with spikes or
teeth of steel about 7 in. in length, which taper to a fine sharp
point. The hackler draws his strick several times through this tool,
working gradually up from the roots to near his hand, till in his
judgment the fibres at the root end are sufficiently combed out and
smoothed. He then seizes the root end and similarly treats the top end
of the strick. The same process is again repeated on a similar tool,
the teeth of which are 5 in. long, and much more closely studded
together; and for the finer counts of yarn a third and a fourth hackle
may be used, of still increasing fineness and closeness of teeth. In
dealing with certain varieties of the fibre, for fine spinning
especially, the flax is, after roughing, broken or cut into three
lengths--the top, middle and root ends. Of these the middle cut is
most valuable, being uniform in length, strength and quality. The root
end is more woody and harsh, while the top, though fine in quality, is
uneven and variable in strength. From some flax of extra length it is
possible to take two short middle cuts; and, again, the fibre is
occasionally only broken into two cuts. Flax so prepared is known as
"cut line" in contradistinction to "long line" flax, which is the
fibre unbroken. The subsequent treatment of line, whether long or cut,
does not present sufficient variation to require further reference to
these distinctions.

In the case of hackling by machinery, the flax is first roughed and
arranged in stricks, as above described under hand hackling. In the
construction of hackling machines, the general principles of those now
most commonly adopted are identical. The machines are known as
vertical sheet hackling machines, their essential features being a set
of endless leather bands or sheets revolving over a pair of rollers in
a vertical direction. These sheets are crossed by iron bars, to which
hackle stocks, furnished with teeth, are screwed. The hackle stocks on
each separate sheet are of one size and gauge, but each successive
sheet in the length of the machine is furnished with stocks of
increasing fineness, so that the hackling tool at the end where the
flax is entered is the coarsest, say about four pins per inch, while
that to which the fibre is last submitted has the smallest and most
closely set teeth. The finest tools may contain from 45 to 60 pins per
inch. Thus the whole of the endless vertical revolving sheet presents
a continuous series of hackle teeth, and the machines are furnished
with a double set of such sheets revolving face to face, so close
together that the pins of one set of sheets intersect those on the
opposite stocks. Overhead, and exactly centred between these revolving
sheets, is the head or holder channel, from which the flax hangs down
while it is undergoing the hackling process on both sides. The flax is
fastened in a holder consisting of two heavy flat plates of iron,
between which it is spread and tightly screwed up. The holder is 11
in. in length, and the holder channel is fitted to contain a line of
six, eight or twelve such holders, according to the number of separate
bands of hackling stocks in the machine. The head or holder channel
has a falling and rising motion, by which it first presents the ends
and gradually more and more of the length of the fibre to the hackle
teeth, and, after dipping down the full length of the fibre exposed,
it slowly rises and lifts the flax clear of the hackle stocks. By a
reciprocal motion all the holders are then moved forward one length;
that at the last and finest set of stocks is thrown out, and place is
made for filling in an additional holder at the beginning of the
series. Thus with a six-tool hackle, or set of stocks, each holder
full of flax from beginning to end descends into and rises from the
hackle teeth six times in travelling from end to end of the machine.
The root ends being thus first hackled, the holders are shot back
along an inclined plane, the iron plates unclamped, the flax reversed,
and the top ends are then submitted to the same hackling operation.
The tow made during the hackling process is carried down by the pins
of the sheet, and is stripped from them by means of a circular brush
placed immediately under the bottom roller. The brush revolves in the
same direction as, but quicker than the sheet, consequently the tow is
withdrawn from the pins. The tow is then removed from the brush by a
doffer roller, from which it is finally removed by a doffing knife.
This material is then carded by a machine similar to, but finer than,
the one described under Jute (q.v.). The hackled flax, however, is
taken direct to the preparing department.

_Preparing._--The various operations in this stage have for their
object the proper assortment of dressed line into qualities fit for
spinning, and the drawing out of the fibres to a perfectly level and
uniform continuous ribbon or sliver, containing throughout an equal
quantity of fibre in any given length. From the hackling the now
smooth, glossy and clean stricks are taken to the sorting room, where
they are assorted into different qualities by the "line sorter," who
judges by both eye and touch the quality and capabilities of the
fibre. So sorted, the material is passed to the spreading and drawing
frames, a series or system of machines all similar in construction and
effect. The essential features of the spreading frame are: (1) the
feeding cloth or creeping sheet, which delivers the flax to (2) a pair
of "feed and jockey" rollers, which pass it on (3) to the gill frame
or fallers. The gill frame consists of a series of narrow hackle bars,
with short closely studded teeth, which travel between the feed
rollers and the drawing or "boss and pressing" rollers to be
immediately attended to. They are, by an endless screw arrangement,
carried forward at approximately the same rate at which the flax is
delivered to them, and when they reach the end of their course they
fall under, and by a similar screw arrangement are brought back to the
starting-point; and thus they form an endless moving level toothed
platform for carrying away the flax from the feed rollers. This is the
machine in which the fibres are, for the first time, formed into a
continuous length termed a sliver. In order to form this continuous
sliver it is necessary that the short lengths of flax should overlap
each other on the spread sheet or creeping sheet. This sheet contains
four or six divisions, so that four or six lots of overlapped flax are
moving at the same time towards the first pair of rollers--the boss
rollers or retaining rollers. The fibre passes between these rollers
and is immediately caught by the rising gills which carry the fibre
towards the drawing rollers. The pins of the gills should pass through
the fibre so that they may have complete control over it, while their
speed should be a little greater than the surface speed of the
retaining rollers. The fibre is thus carried forward to the drawing
rollers, which have a surface speed of from 10 to 30 times that of the
retaining rollers. The great difference between the speeds of the
retaining and drawing rollers results in each sliver being drawn out
to a corresponding degree. Finally all the slivers are run into one
and in this state are passed between the delivery rollers into the
sliver cans. Each can should contain the same length of sliver, a
common length being 1000 yds. A bell is automatically rung by the
machine to warn the attendant that the desired length has been
deposited into the can. From the spreading frame the cans of sliver
pass to the drawing frames, where from four to twelve slivers combined
are passed through feed rollers over gills, and drawn out by drawing
rollers to the thickness of one. A third and fourth similar doubling
and drawing may be embraced in a preparing system, so that the number
of doublings the flax undergoes, before it arrives at the roving
frame, may amount to from one thousand to one hundred thousand,
according to the quality of yarn in progress. Thus, for example, the
doublings on one preparing system may be 6 × 12 × 12 × 12 × 8 =
82,944. The slivers delivered by the last drawing frame are taken to
the roving frame, where they are singly passed through feed rollers
and over gills, and, after drafting to sufficient tenuity, they are
slightly twisted by flyers and wound on bobbins, in which condition
the material--termed "rove" or "rovings"--is ready for the spinning
frame.[2]

_Spinning._--The spinning operation, which follows the roving, is done
in two principal ways, called respectively dry spinning and wet
spinning, the first being used for the lower counts or heavier yarns,
while the second is exclusively adopted in the preparation of fine
yarns. The spinning frame does not differ in principle from the
throstle spinning machine used in cotton manufacture. The bobbins of
flax rove are arranged in rows on each side of the frame (the spinning
frames being all double) on pins in an inclined plane. The rove
passes downwards through an eyelet or guide to a pair of nipping
rollers between which and the final drawing rollers, placed in the
case of dry spinning from 18 to 22 in. lower down, the fibre receives
its final draft while passing over and under cylinders and
guide-plate, and attains that degree of tenuity which the finished
yarn must possess. From the last rollers the now attenuated material,
in passing to the flyers receives the degree of twist which compacts
the fibres into the round hard cord which constitutes spun yarn; and
from the flyers it is wound on the more slowly rotating spool within
the flyer arms, centred on the top of the spindle. The amount of twist
given to the thread at the spinning frame varies from 1.5 to 2 times
the square root of the count. In wet spinning the general sequence of
operations is the same, but the rove, as unwound from its bobbin,
first passes through a trough of water heated to about 120° Fahr.; and
the interval between the two pairs of rollers in which the drawing out
of the rove is accomplished is very much shorter. The influence of the
hot water on the flax fibre appears to be that it softens the gummy
substance which binds the separate cells together, and thereby allows
the elementary cells to a certain extent to be drawn out without
breaking the continuity of the fibre; and further it makes a finer,
smoother and more uniform strand than can be obtained by dry spinning.
The extent to which the original strick of flax as laid on the feeding
roller for (say) the production of a 50 lea yarn is, by doublings and
drawings, extended, when it reaches the spinning spindle, may be
stated thus: 35 times on spreading frame, 15 times on first drawing
frame, 15 times on second drawing frame, 14 times on third drawing
frame, 15 times on roving frame and 10 times on spinning frame, in all
16,537,500 times its original length, with 8 × 12 × 16 = 1536
doublings on the three drawing frames. That is to say, 1 yd. of
hackled line fed into the spreading frame is spread out, mixed with
other fibres, to a length of about 9400 m. of yarn, when the above
drafts obtain. The drafts are much shorter for the majority of yarns.

The next operation is reeling from the bobbins into hanks. By act of
parliament, throughout the United Kingdom the standard measure of flax
yard is the "lea," called also in Scotland the "cut" of 300 yds. The
flax is wound or reeled on a reel having a circumference of 90 in. (2½
yds.) making "a thread," and one hundred and twenty such threads form
a lea. The grist or count of all fine yarns is estimated by the number
of leas in 1 lb.; thus "50 lea" indicates that there are 50 leas or
cuts of 300 yds. each in 1 lb. of the yard so denominated. With the
heavier yarns in Scotland the quality is indicated by their weight per
"spyndle" of 48 cuts or leas; thus "3 lb. tow yarn" is such as weighs
3 lb. per spyndle, equivalent to "16 lea."

The hanks of yarn from wet spinning are either dried in a loft with
artificial heat or exposed over ropes in the open air. When dry they
are twisted back and forward to take the wiry feeling out of the yarn,
and made up in bundles for the market as "grey yarn." English spinners
make up their yarns into "bundles" of 20 hanks, each hank containing
10 leas; Irish spinners make hanks of 12 leas, 16(2/3) of which form a
bundle; Scottish manufacturers adhere to the spyndle containing 4
hanks of 12 cuts or leas.

Commercial qualities of yarn range from about 8 lb. tow yarns (6 lea)
up to 160 lea line yarn. Very much finer yarn up even to 400 lea may
be spun from the system of machines found in many mills; but these
higher counts are only used for fine thread for sewing and for the
making of lace. The highest counts of cut line flax are spun in Irish
mills for the manufacture of fine cambrics and lawns which are
characteristic features of the Ulster trade. Exceedingly high counts
have sometimes been spun by hand, and for the preparation of the
finest lace threads it is said the Belgian hand spinners must work in
damp cellars, where the spinner is guided by the sense of touch alone,
the filament being too fine to be seen by the eye. Such lace yarn is
said to have been sold for as much as £240 per lb. In the Great
Exhibition of 1851, yarn of 760 lea, equal to about 130 m. per lb.,
was shown which had been spun by an Irish woman eighty-four years of
age. In the same exhibition there was shown by a Cambray manufacturing
firm hand-spun yarn equal to 1200 warp and 1600 weft or to more than
204 and 272 m. per lb. respectively.

_Bleaching._--A large proportion of the linen yarn of commerce undergoes a more or less thorough bleaching before it is handed over to the weaver. Linen yarns in the green condition contain such a large proportion of gummy and resinous matter, removable by bleaching, that cloths which might present a firm close texture in their natural unbleached state would become thin and impoverished in a perfectly bleached condition. Nevertheless, in many cases it is much more satisfactory to weave the yarns in the green or natural colour, and to perform all bleaching operations in the piece. Manufacturers allow about 20 to 25% of loss in weight of yarn in bleaching from the green to the fully bleached stage; and the intermediate stages of boiled, improved, duck, cream, half bleach and three-quarters bleach, all indicating a certain degree of bleaching, have corresponding degrees of loss in weight. The differences in colour resulting from different degrees of bleaching are taken advantage of for producing patterns in certain classes of linen fabrics.

Linen thread is prepared from the various counts of fine bleached line yarn by winding the hanks on large spools, and twisting the various strands, two, three, four or six cord as the case may be, on a doubling spindle similar in principle to the yarn spinning frame, excepting, of course, the drawing rollers. A large trade in linen thread has been created by its use in the machine manufacture of boots and shoes, saddlery and other leather goods, and in heavy sewing-machine work generally. The thread industry is largely developed at Lisburn near Belfast, at Johnstone near Glasgow, Bridport, Dorsetshire, and at Paterson, New Jersey, United States. Fine cords, net twine and ropes are also twisted from flax.

Weaving.--The difficulties in the way of power-loom linen weaving, combined with the obstinate competition of hand-loom weavers, delayed the introduction of factory weaving of linen fabrics for many years after the system was fully applied to other textiles. The principal difficulty arose through the hardness and inelasticity of the linen yarns, owing to which the yarn frequently broke under the tension to which it was subjected. Competition with the hand-loom against the power-loom in certain classes of work is conceivable, although it is absolutely impossible for the work of the spinning wheel to stand against the rivalry of drawing, roving and spinning frames. To the present day, in Ireland especially, a great deal of fine weaving is done by hand-loom. Warden states that power was applied on a small scale to the weaving of canvas in London about 1812; that in 1821 power-looms were started for weaving linen at Kirkcaldy, Scotland; and that in 1824 Maberly & Co. of Aberdeen had two hundred power-looms erected for linen manufacture. The power-loom has been in uninterrupted use in the Broadford factory, Aberdeen, which then belonged to Maberly & Co., down to the present day, and that firm may be credited with being the effective introducers of power-loom weaving in the linen trade.

The various operations connected with linen weaving, such as winding, warping, dressing, beaming and drawing-in, do not differ in essential features from the like processes in the case of cotton weaving, &c., neither is there any significant modification in the looms employed (see WEAVING). Dressing is a matter of importance in the preparation of linen warps for beaming. It consists in treating the spread yarn with flour or farina paste, applied to it by flannel-covered rollers, the lowermost of which revolves in a trough of paste. The paste is equalized on the yarn by brushes, and dried by passing the web over steam-heated cylinders before it is finally wound on the beam for weaving.

Fabrics.

Linen fabrics are numerous in variety and widely different in their
qualities, appearance and applications, ranging from heavy sail-cloth
and rough sacking to the most delicate cambrics, lawns and scrims. The
heavier manufactures include as a principal item sail-cloth, with
canvas, tarpaulin, sacking and carpeting. The principal seats of the
manufacture of these linens are Dundee, Arbroath, Forfar, Kirkcaldy,
Aberdeen and Barnsley. The medium weight linens, which are used for a
great variety of purposes, such as tent-making, towelling, covers,
outer garments for men, linings, upholstery work, &c., include duck,
huckaback, crash, tick, dowlas, osnaburg, low sheetings and low brown
linens. Plain bleached linens form a class by themselves, and include
principally the materials for shirts and collars and for bed sheets.
Under the head of twilled linens are included drills, diapers and
dimity for household use; and damasks for table linen, of which two
kinds are distinguished--single or five-leaf damask, and double or
eight-leaf damask, the pattern being formed by the intersection of
warp and weft yarns at intervals of five and eight threads of yarn
respectively. The fine linens are cambrics, lawns and handkerchiefs;
and lastly, printed and dyed linen fabrics may be assigned to a
special though not important class. In a general way it may be said
regarding the British industry that the heavy linen trade centres in
Dundee; medium goods are made in most linen manufacturing districts;
damasks are chiefly produced in Belfast, Dunfermline and Perth; and
the fine linen manufactures have their seat in Belfast and the north
of Ireland. Leeds and Barnsley are the centres of the linen trade in
England.