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