An Account of Cloth made from the Refufe of Flax, and Backings of Tow.

The Thanks of the Society were given to Thomas Butterworth Bailey, of Hope, near Manchefter, Efq. for his obliging Communication of the following Letters from Lady Moira, and the Specimens of Cloth made from the Refufe of Flax, and Backings of Tow, according to the Process practifed by her Ladyship, 1775. From the fame Work.

I

SIR,

HAD the pleasure of your letter yesterday by Doctor Halliday. Lord Moira and I, with much fatisfaction, defire to be both ranked as fubfcribers to the Sylva, which is to be republifhed by Doctor Hunter, whofe Georgical Effays have been greatly admired beneath this roof.

As to the factitious cotton I have attempted to introduce the ufe of, I flatter my felf that it is beginning to anfwer that purpofe I had at heart, fome alleviation to the miseries of the unhappy be ings that furround me, the excefs of poverty that reigns here being fuch, that in my native land I am perfuaded it would not be imagined to exift. The very refufe of the flax, which is called the backings of tow, produces a material that can be manufactured into a coarfe but comfortable clothing of the fuftian and cotton kind, and this kind of cotton was offered to me laft week for fale, at three-p -pence per pound; it is there fore plain how little pains and expence the manufacturing of it costs. Wool is here almoft con.

ftantly fixteen-pence a pound, often dearer. The wife makes and fpins the cotton, the weaver adds a few more yards of warp to the piece of linen he has in his loom for fale, and clothes his family with little more coft than his own induftry. It must appear to you that this manufacture is however beft calculated for Ireland, where the confumption of flax must confequently leave fuch quantities of refufe; for tow and the backings are all I employ, except fired or mildewed flax, both of which (from being ill-flaked) being improper for the linen cloth, I have made ufe of; hemp will alfo produce a fort of cotton, but it requires infinitely more boiling, and bears a nearer refemblance to wool. It was the codilla that I tried; the backings of that come amazingly cheap, and I believe it will take a better dye than flax.

The main purport in view feemed to me, the divefting the flax of its oil. I tried foap. boiler's lye with very good fuccefs, fcouring it afterwards to take off any bad effects of the lime ufed therein. I then had it tried to be scoured like wool, but found it required that the fer. mented urine in that cafe fhould not be mixed with water, and that kelp and common falt were neceffary to be added to it. Either of thefe methods do. The boil. ing of it might, I am fure, be expedited, by having a cover to the iron pot, which might keep in the fteam; and care muft be taken, as the liquor diminishes, to replenish it conftantly. I have boiled fome in a mixture of lime water and falt; this had a harshness in it that more resembles the crifpness

of

of cotton, but the fcouring of it would certainly deprive it of that quality, and leaving the line in, it is confidently afferted here, would rot it. I own I doubt that effect, as I imagine that lime, after it is flacked by water, no longer retains its corrofive quality. In India and China they ufe it in their washing of linen as regularly as we do foap.

The tow is heckled and boiled in fmall faggots, tied up by a thread or bit of tow. The back ings are carded in thin flakes, rolled up likewife, and tied. After boiling, they open in the fame flakes they were carded into, and are washed out, and laid to whiten in that form. I fend you, however, a fample of the backings of white flax, that was only boiled four hours, and never laid down to whiten. In the courfe of this fhort process, you will fee that the materials of which fack ing is made, is confiderably mended, though I think it wants another hour's boiling, and that a week's whitening would have taken off that harshness of the flax it ftill in fome degree pof. feffes. It requires being beat, or put into a prefs, before it is card. ed on cotton cards, to feparate the fibres, which feem to be fet at liberty from each other, by a diffolution of fome refinous fubftance in the flax, at the fame time that the oil of that plant is converted into a kind of foap. When I 'mention white fax, I do it in oppofition to that, which being fteeped in the bags, has the appellation of blay; this getting a tincture from the heath, has its colour rather fixt than difcharged, by being made into cotton. You

enquire into the refult of my purfaits concerning fixing lafting tinctures on linen. The tedious fickness, and at length death, of a friend, kept my mind for many months this fummer, in a fituation of languor that is a total enemy to the bufy occupations of curiofity, and when I refolved to engage myfelf therein, to keep off unavailing reflections, I found it too late for many herbs I had fet down in a lift, and that a plat of weld I had planted the autumn before, had never come up. I then employed myself with the purple fish found on the Newcaftle fhore. They answered all the fmaller experiments mentioned by Reaumur and Templeman, but thofe Dr. Holland has given, in his tranflation of Pliny, the naturalift, they in no degree correfponded to; with all the boiling in lead and falt prescribed by him, they only produced a very ill-looking foap. Though there appears no doubt but the purple wilk found here is the buccinum of the antients, it however appeared to me that it was probable they got their colour from fome mofs they fed upon. It could not be the archil, which (as I am told) grows much higher on the rocks than where they lie. I therefore employed a perfon to fearch about the places in which the wilks or buccina lie, and to get me fome of the mofs and feaweeds that grew near them. My fmall collection is but juft arrived, and I have not had time as yet to try whether my conjecture is true or falfe. To the purple yielded by the archil, I owed my fufpi cion, that there might be other that would produce ftronger G 3

moffes

and

and more permanent dyes. I was trying this morning the folution of tin I got from you, and find it as good as the first day. I fhall take fome of my cotton, finely fpun, to Dublin, that it may receive the advantage of being manufactured by a skilful artift in the loom, and I hope foon to fend you a fample of it, when properly wove, that may do it credit. Almoft all I have had wove here has been of the coarfe kind, and that by weavers who never had feen

cotton.

I am, Sir,

With great esteem and regard,
Your faithful humble fervant,
E. MOIRA.

Specimens of the flax prepared by Lady Moira, and of various ftuffs manufactured from it, are preserved in the fociety's repofitory.

When I received, Sir, the favour of your laft letter, I daily expected returning to thefe mountains, and from that expectation poftponed acknowledging it, thinking that this place would yield me more leifure than my engagements in town then afforded me. Had I forefeen that my ftay would have been extended to the time it was, I fhould not have been guilty of that neglect. Since my arrival here, an opportunity has not occurred for my fending a packet before the prefent one, and it is now eleven o'clock at night, when I am in. formed a meffenger is to be fent off at five in the morning to Belfaft. have no reafon to be vain of the famples I have fent you; they merely fhew, that the material of flax cotton, in able hands,

will bear manufacturing, though it is my ill fortune to have it dif credited by the artifans who work for me. I had in Dublin, with great difficulty, a gown wove for myfelf, and three waistcoats, but had not the person who employed a weaver for me, particularly wifhed to oblige me, I could not have got it accomplished; and the getting fpun an ounce of this cotron in Dublin, I found impracticable; the abfurd alarm that it might injure the trade of foreign cotton, had gained ground, and the fpinners, for what reafon I cannot comprehend, declared themselves fuch bitter enemies to my fcheme, that they would not fpin for me. Such is my fate, that what between party my fate, that what between party in the metropolis, and indolence in this place, I am not capable of doing my fcheme juftice. That it fhould ever injure the trade of foreign cotton, is impoffible; though long accustomed hold fhoes and ftockings looked upon, in this part of the world, by the generality, as quite unneceffary, yet I cannot think but fome apparel is requifite; and as the price of wool is fo high, and the poverty of the people fo great, I did wish to introduce amongst them that invention, which I faw might be greatly improved, and turn the refufe of flax into comfortable clothing, and by a procefs fo eafy, that every induftrious wife and children might prepare it; and those who are fuppofed to adopt this clothing, are fuch as would never think of manu facturing foreign cotton for themfelves and families. I fend you a fample, Sir, of the backings made into cotton, which you fee might

to be

be

clothing, and backings of tow being fold to me, at the deareft time, at one penny per pound, it is rating it high to fay, that at two-pence per pound a perfon might have it ready to fpin. All the patterns I fend you are of webs now in ufe, and thofe I have

given away, or that have been worn in my own family, have worn exceeding well; I fhould except the fmall pattern of plush, which was only a few quills that were thrown in at the end of a piece of worfted plufh, to to fee what pile it would produce. My gown is wove in imitation of a kind of India muflin, and the thread you will fee must have been ftrong from the breadth, which is full yard and half wide. I must beg your acceptance of a waiftcoat, a very poor imitation indeed of Machefter ingenuity, but the finer fpun cotton was used in my gown; and as I have already told you, Sir, that I had a quantity of cotton in town, I, intend immediately fetting to work, but all in coarse and cheap manufactures, fuch as may benefit and fuit the loweft claffes of life; the rich meriting as little to be confidered in my fcheme of manufactures, from that capriciousness that generally attends them, as they are to be the objects of much attention, in any scheme that is to extend its influence to the moft numerous part of fociety.

A short Account of the Machine lately erected, by Command of his Majefty, at Windfor, for raifing Water out of a very deep Well to Supply the Caftle. From the London Magazine for September 1783.

TH

HIS machine is faid to be the invention of a fea-faring man (we wish we could record his name) who took the hint from ob, ferving the great quantity of water which every rope brought on board with it that had been drawn through the water: a circumftance that could efcape no perfon's obfervation who has been much on board fhips; but which, like many other things that pafs daily before our eyes, had never been applied to any ufeful purpofe. The application is as fimple as the prin ciple.

A groved wheel, about three feet diameter, is fixed on an axis, which turns horizontally over the well, and an endless rope, of a fufficient length to reach into the water in the well, paffes over it in the grove. On the fame axis a winch is fixed at one end to turn it by; and, at the other end, another wheel, loaded with lead, which acts as a fly, to increase the velocity. On turning the wheel, each part of the rope, as it comes to the bottom, paffes through the water; and, on account of the above-mentioned the property, water adheres to, and is brought

up by it to the top, where it is difcharged from the rope into a ciftern, placed to receive it, by the preffure of the rope upon the wheel, in paffing over it. And fo great is the fimplicity and effect of this machine, that we have been told by a very excellent mechanic, who has feen it, that notwithftanding the well is near 200 feet deep, he turned the machine with one hand, fo as to raife water fufficient to fill a pipe, the diameter of the aperture of which appeared to him, equal to the diameter of the rope that raifed it. This, at leaft, is certain; the well had been long difufed before this machine was erected over it, on account of the difficulty they found in raifing the water out of it.

have fome grains more fprouted in each ear.

or lef

Some

It may be neceffary to premife, that bread made of fprouted corn is not in the fmallest degree prejudicial to health, if the following precautions are obferved. physicians even recommend the flour of this grain as fitteft to make broth for children, as the fprouting of the corn deftroys in fome meafure the glutinous quality of the flour.

Sprouted corn is very difficult to preferve, because the opening of the bud difpofes it to ferment and heat, and because the moisture it retains difpofes it fill further for fermentation.

Infects appear to attack it more freely, because it is more tender, fweeter, and more fufceptible of heat to favour their eggs.

Sprouted corn, left to itfelf, never fails to ferment and heat, and to contract both a bad smell and bad

colour; in this condition it has also a difagreeable and sharp tafte, which is communicated to the flour and bread, and at laft it will grow mouldy and four. Animals reject it, and it is in that ftate only fit for ftarch.

Sprouted corn grinds badly; it clogs the mill. ftones, choaks the bolting-cloths, yields but little flour, as the bran retains a part of it.

The flour of fprouted corn is moift and foft; it requires but little water to knead it; and commonly produces lefs bread; it does not keep, especially in warm weather.

The bran of the beft and drieft corn will not keep long; the bran from moift and fprouted grain of courfe foon decays; it grows four,

and