For the sizing of the warp, the Germans use a paste made of flour, the
same as we do. In general they employ _rye flour_ for plain linen, but
very carefully sifted. For fancy or damask cloth they use wheat flour.
We may again remark that they pay great attention to the sifting, so
that no seed may be in the paste. The work-rooms should be suitable to
the quality of the work, better lit and consequently more airy. The
workmen have every thing to gain in preserving a precious health for
their family; a robust man can do more work than an invalid. In Germany
the work-rooms contain four looms with ease, and are lit by glass
windows the same as the shops in our towns. We remind all that when a
work-room is well arranged, and when everything is in its place, the
work is done with more perfection, more regularity, and, finally, with
more economy.
BLEACHING.
The Germans pay great attention to the first washing of the linen, in
which they use a fluted beetle, fixed so as to rub the cloth, without
striking it or bruising it too rudely. They shun all chemical agents,
they use water from the purest sources, and constantly renew it. The
sizing is effected with a starch, made at Cologne. We brought a sample
of it, which we keep for the inspection of all; it is thought to be of
a better quality than ours; and I am inclined to believe, that it is to
the superior starch that the German linens owe their silky gloss. The
drying is effected in lofts, well constructed and spacious, where the
cloth is protected as well from the sun as from the rain. They employ
rollers for stretching and turning the linen, which make every movement
easy. We desire to see our bleachers imitate the Germans in the care
which they bestow on the details of the operations which we have just
examined.
CALENDERING.
No one is ignorant that, with us, this process is far from perfect.
We must, then, call the attention of those who practice it, to the
improvements that their machines call for. On this subject, the
Director is ready to communicate all the ideas he has gathered. The
calender or mangle which the Germans use, is sixty feet long, eight or
nine broad, and fifteen high. A box, filled with stones, supported by
two wooden cylinders, of six or seven inches in diameter, is moved
backward and forward, alternately, upon a wooden plank, perfectly
level; the linen is rolled round the wooden cylinders, and remains
there for a quarter of an hour. This system gives a flat finish, the
cloth being dry, and passing without heat.
At Bielefield there exists another machine, called “the English
Beetling Machine,” by which a rounder finish is obtained than by the
calender, and which increases, momentarily, at least, the width of the
cloth. In this operation, the linen, when dried and folded, is placed
on a table of polished stone, and beetled by heavy mallets.
ATTENTION PAID TO THE SALE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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