"We have been learning today," said Willie, "how linen is made from the flax fibers. Teacher showed us some pieces of fine linen, duck, diaper, huckaback, and damask, and, side by side with them, some of the scutched fibers we were talking about the other day. He said that those beautiful linen goods are called fabrics, because they are made by a skilled workman. We could easily imagine for ourselves how much clever skill is needed in the workman to change the rough fibers into those useful materials for our use.
"Fred, will you tell all about it?" he added. "You will do it better than I can.""Well, let us see where to begin," said Fred, "and I will try.
"Suppose we begin with the scutched fibers, as they are first taken to the mill. The fibers are of different quality in different parts of the stem. Near the root they are coarse and strong, in the middle they are finer, and near the top they are very finebut not very strong. The first business then is to cut the fibers into three lengths, to keep each of them for special fabrics.
"They have next to undergo a process called heckling. This is nothing more than drawing the fibers again and again through a comb, to straighten them and make them lie side by side. The comb is called a heckle, and is placed with its steel teeth upright.
"As the heckler draws the fibers through this heckle he combs out a great deal of coarse broken fibre. This would not do for such fabrics as teacher showed us, but is used up in making coarser goods.
"The heckled fibers are called line. They are fine and soft to the touch, but very tough and will not easily break. They have a glistening, silvery appearance, not unlike silk, and are of a pale yellow color.
"Tough as these line fibers are, they would not be strong enough singly. Look at this piece of linen. I will pull one of the threads out. This thread, you see, consists of a number of fine threads twisted together. The fibers of the heckled line have first to be twisted into strong thread like this before they can be made into any fabric.
"The process of twisting the fibers into thread is called spinning; the spun thread is called flax yarn.
"The rest of the work is done by the weaver in a machine called a loom. In the loom a great manythreads are arranged closely, side by side, in front of the workman. These are called the warp. The alternate threads of the warp can be raised andlowered as the weaver pleases. A shuttle, which the man passes from hand to hand, through the warp, carries another thread, called the woof. The fabric is woven by passing the shuttle to and fro, and at the same time raising first one get of the warp threads and then another."SUMMARY
The manufacture begins by cutting the bundles of scutched fibers into three lengths, after which they are heckled, or combed. The heckling draws the fibers out, and straightens them. They are then called line. The line is spun into yarn, and the yarn is woven into fabrics in the loom.
