Linen

Background

Linen yarn is spun from the long fibers found just behind the bark in the multi-layer stem of the flax plant (Linum usitatissimum). In order to retrieve the fibers from the plant, the woody stem and the inner pith (called pectin), which holds the fibers together in a clump, must be rotted away. The cellulose fiber from the stem is spinnable and is used in the production of linen thread, cordage, and twine. From linen thread or yarn, fine toweling and dress fabrics may be woven. Linen fabric is a popular choice for warm-weather clothing. It feels cool in the summer but appears crisp and fresh even in hot weather. Household linens truly made of linen become more supple and soft to the touch with use; thus, linen was once the bedsheet of choice.

While the flax plant is not difficult to grow, it flourishes best in cool, humid climates and within moist, well-plowed soil. The process for separating the flax fibers from the plant's woody stock is laborious and painstaking and must be done in an area where labor is plentiful and relatively inexpensive. It is remarkable that while there is some mechanization to parts of the fiber preparation, some fiber preparation is still done by hand as it has been for centuries. This may be due to the care that must be taken with the fragile flax fibers inside the woody stalk, which might be adversely affected by mechanized processing.

Flax remains under cultivation for linen fiber in a number of countries including Poland, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and the British Isles. However, the grade of fiber the plants yield in different parts of the world varies. Many believe that Belgium grows the finest-quality flax fibers in the world, with Scottish and Irish linen not far behind. There is no commercial production of linen fabric in any significant quantity in the United States except, perhaps, by individual hand spinners and hand weavers. Thus, the linen fabrics Americans use and wear are nearly all imported into the country from one of these flax-growing and weaving countries.

History

Flax has been cultivated for its remarkable fiber, linen, for at least five millennia. The spinning and weaving of linen is depicted on wall paintings of ancient Egypt. As early as 3,000 b.c., the fiber was processed into fine white fabric (540 threads to the inch—finer than anything woven today) and wrapped around the mummies of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs. Mentioned several times in the Bible, it has been used as a cool, comfortable fiber in the Middle East for centuries as well. Ancient Greeks and Romans greatly valued it as a commodity. Finnish traders are believed to have introduced flax to Northern Europe where it has been under cultivation for centuries.

Both wool and linen were tremendously important fibers in the New World. Relatively easy to grow, American settlers were urged to plant a small plot of flax as early as the seventeenth century. While flax is easy to grow, settlers knew all too well the tedious chore of processing the woody stalks for its supple linen. Before the industrial revolution much sturdy, homemade clothing was woven from linen cultivated, processed, spun, dyed, woven, and sewn by hand. It may be argued that until the eighteenth century, linen was the most important textile in the world.

By the late eighteenth century, cotton became the fiber that was most easily and inexpensively processed and woven in the mechanized British and New England textile mills. By the 1850s, linen production had virtually been abandoned in the United States because it was so much cheaper to buy the factory-made cotton. Some New Englanders of Scot or Irish background continued to cultivate some flax for processing into linen used for fancy domestic linens such as bedsheets, toweling, and decorative tableclothes as their ancestors had for centuries. However, most Americans abandoned the cultivation of the plant in this country and instead chose cheap cotton that was carded, spun, woven, and roller-printed for just pennies a yard. Thereafter and until recently, a different variety of flax plant was raised in this country not for its linen fibers but for its seeds which exude a useful vegetable oil known as linseed oil when pressed.

Raw Materials

All that is needed to turn flax fiber into linen, and then spin and weave the linen fibers into linen fabric is the cellulose flax fiber from the stem of the flax plant. The process for separating the fibers from the woody stalk can use either water or chemicals, but these are ultimately washed away and are not part of the finished material.

Design

The manufacture of linen yarn requires no special design processes. All that has to be determined prior to manufacturing is the thickness of the yarn to be spun. That will depend on the grade of linen in production and the demands of the customer.

This is a European "flax wheel" used to spin flax into linen thread within the home. Folklore tells us that it was brought by Henry Ford's Irish grandmother to the New World; it was one of the few family keepsakes Ford had from his Irish ancestors. In fact, it was not unusual for the Scots or Irish to bring such wheels to this country. The British Isles have a long and proud linen tradition, and even decades after others abandoned linen production for cotton in the New World the Irish and Scots here tenaciously clung to their linen-making traditions.

Ford's grandmother placed unspun flax on the tall, vertical, turned distaff and then push the treadle with her foot to power the wheel. The bobbin and flyer mounted horizontally in the center of the wheel would spin the flax and wind it on the bobbin at the same time. The rather small wheel below the bobbin required the spinner to treadle rafher fast to keep it moving and because of the small wheel this spinning wheel was not a popular style. It is lovely to look at, though, as this flax wheel is rather fancy, with inlaid bone or ivory set within the wheel. Some refer to this type of European spinning wheel as a "castle" or "parlor" wheel because of its lovely inlays and turnings.

Nancy EV Bryk

The Manufacturing
Process

Cultivating

• 1 It takes about 100 days from seed planting to harvesting of the flax plant. Flax cannot endure very hot weather; thus, in many countries, the planting of seed is figured from the date or time of year in which the flax must be harvested due to heat and the growers count back 100 days to determine a date for planting. In some areas of the world, flax is sown in winter because of heat in early spring. In commercial production, the land is plowed in the spring then worked into a good seedbed by discing, harrowing, and rolling. Flax seeds must be shallowly planted. Seeds may be broadcast by hand, but the seed must be covered over with soil. Machines may also plant the seed in rows.

  Flax plants are poor competitors with weeds. Weeds reduce fiber yields and increase the difficulty in harvesting the plant. Tillage of the soil reduces weeds as do herbicides. When the flax plants are just a few inches high, the area must be carefully weeded so as not to disturb the delicate sprouts. In three months, the plants are straight, slender stalks that may be 2-4 ft (61-122 cm) in height with small blue or white fibers. (Flax plants with blue flowers yield the finest linen fibers.)

Harvesting

• 2 After about 90 days, the leaves wither, the stem turns yellow and the seeds turn brown, indicating it is time to harvest the plant. The plant must be pulled as soon as it appears brown as any delay results in linen without the prized luster. It is imperative that the stalk not be cut in the harvesting process but removed from the ground intact; if the stalk is cut the sap is lost, and this affects the quality of the linen. These plants are often pulled out of the ground by hand, grasped just under the seed heads and gently tugged. The tapered ends of the stalk must be preserved so that a smooth yarn may be spun. These stalks are tied in bundles called beets and are ready for extraction of the flax fiber in the stalk. However, fairly efficient machines can pull the plants from the ground as well.

Releasing the Fiber from the stalk

• 3 The plant is passed through coarse combs, which removes the seeds and leaves from the plant. This process, called rippling, is mechanized in many of the flax-producing countries.
• 4 The woody bark surrounding the flax fiber is decomposed by water or chemical retting, which loosens the pectin or gum that attaches the fiber to the stem. If flax is not fully retted, the stalk of the plant cannot be separated from the fiber without injuring the delicate fiber. Thus, retting has to be carefully executed. Too little retting may not permit the fiber to be separated from the stalk with ease. Too much retting or rotting will weaken fibers.

  Retting may be accomplished in a variety of ways. In some parts of the world, linen is still retted by hand, using moisture to rot away the bark. The stalks are spread on dewy slopes, submerged in stagnant pools of water, or placed in running streams. Workers must wait for the water to begin rotting or fermenting the stem—sometimes more than a week or two. However, most manufacturers use chemicals for retting. The plants are placed in a solution either of alkali or oxalic acid, then pressurized and boiled. This method is easy to monitor and rather quick, although some believe that chemical retting adversely affects the color and strength of the fiber and hand retting produces the finest linen. Vat or mechanical retting requires that the stalks be submerged in vats of warm water, hastening the decomposition of the stem. The flax is then removed from the vats and passed between rollers to crush the bark as clean water flushes away the pectin and other impurities.

• 5 After the retting process, the flax plants are squeezed and allowed to dry out before they undergo the process called breaking. In order to crush the decomposed stalks, they are sent through fluted rollers which break up the stem and separate the exterior fibers from the bast that will be used to make linen. This process breaks the stalk into small pieces of bark called shives. Then, the shives are scutched. The scutching machine removes the broken shives with rotating paddles, finally releasing the flax fiber from stalk.
• 6 The fibers are now combed and straightened in preparation for spinning. This separates the short fibers (called tow and used for making more coarse, sturdy goods) from the longer and more luxurious linen fibers. The very finest flax fibers are called line or dressed flax, and the fibers may be anywhere from 12-20 in (30.5-51 cm) in length.

Spinning

• 7 Line fibers (long linen fibers) are put through machines called spreaders, which combine fibers of the same length, laying the fibers parallel so that the ends overlap, creating a sliver. The sliver passes through a set of rollers, making a roving which is ready to spin.
• 8 The linen rovings, resembling tresses of blonde hair, are put on a spinning frame and drawn out into thread and ultimately wound on bobbins or spools. Many such spools are filled on a spinning frame at the same time. The fibers are formed into a continuous ribbon by being pressed between rollers and combed over fine pins. This operation constantly pulls and elongates the ribbon-like linen until it is given its final twist for strength and wound on the bobbin. While linen is a strong fiber, it is rather inelastic. Thus, the atmosphere within the spinning factory must be both humid and warm in order to render the fiber easier to work into yarn. In this hot, humid factory the linen is wet spun in which the roving is run through a hot water bath in order to bind the fibers together thus creating a fine yarn. Dry spinning does not use moisture for spinning. This produces rough, uneven yarn that are used for making inexpensive twines or coarse yarns.
• 9 These moist yarns are transferred from bobbins on the spinning frame to large take-up reels. These linen reels are taken to dryers, and when the yarn is dry, it is wound onto bobbins for weaving or wound into yarn spools of varying weight. The standard measure of flax yarn is the cut. It is based on the measure of 1 lb (453.59 g) of flax spun to make 300 yd (274.2 m) of yarn being equal to one cut. If 1 lb (453.59 g) of flax is spun into 600 yd (548.4 m), then it is a "no. 2 cut." The higher the cut, the finer the yarn becomes. The yarn now awaits transport to the loom for weaving into fabrics, toweling, or for use as twine or rope.

Byproducts/Waste

Of greatest concern are the chemicals used in retting. These chemicals must be neutralized before being released into water supplies. The stalks, leaves, seed pods, etc. are natural organic materials and are not hazardous unless impregnated with much of the chemicals left behind in the retting process. The only other concern with the processing of linen is the smell—it is said that hand-retted linen produces quite a stench and is most unpleasant to experience.

Where to Learn More

Books

The Irish Linen Guild. Irish Linen: The Fabric of Elegance. NY: Elliott & Nelson, 1945.

Jerde, Judith. Encyclopedia of Textiles. NY: Facts on File Inc., 1992.

Koob, Katharine. Linen Making in New England. North Andover, MA: Merrimack Valley Textile Museum, 1978.

Periodicals

Calhoun, Wheeler and Lee Kirschner. "The Continuous Thread: From Flax Seed to Linen Cloth." Spin-Off Magazine (March 1983): 28-35.

—Nancy EVBryk

linen was Ireland's most important manufacturing industry during the 18th and 19th centuries. It was heavily concentrated in Ulster, where it became the lead sector in the industrialization of the eastern half of the province during the 19th century.

There had been a tradition of flax cultivation and linen manufacture, largely for domestic consumption, prior to the Ulster plantation. The plantation brought a number of experienced artisans and merchants into the Irish industry from Britain and to a lesser extent from continental Europe. Their new skills and knowledge of trade networks enabled linen to become the dominant export from the Ulster region by the end of the 17th century. Duty‐free access to the British market from 1696, and to that of Britain's colonies from 1705, gave Irish linens the edge over German and Dutch rivals. In addition to these official measures and the establishment of the Linen Board (1711), the industry received support from many landlords who initiated local schemes such as the provision of market facilities.

Participation in extra‐regional markets made linen more resilient and dynamic than other Irish industries. Exports increased from about 2 million yards in 1713 to over 47 million yards in 1796. By the latter year linen, flax, and hemp products accounted for over 56 per cent of the value of all Irish exports.

Linen was well suited to Ireland as, during the 18th century, it was (with the exception of bleaching and finishing) labour intensive rather than capital intensive. The cultivation of flax, the spinning of yarn, and the weaving of linen cloth were all well suited to the economy of rural smallholders, being activities that could occupy the slack periods of the farming year. From the 1740s yarn spinning began to spread westwards into Connacht and also into north Leinster, increasing the supply of yarn to the major weaving districts in Ulster. Facilities for bleaching and finishing, and the core markets in the industry, tended to be located in east Ulster, in an area (known as the linen triangle) linking Belfast, Dungannon, and Armagh. Despite Ulster's predominant position in the industry, most of the exports were channelled through Dublin factors until the end of the 18th century, when Ulster factors began to deal directly with London.

By the end of the 18th century, bleaching had become the most centralized and mechanized process within the industry. The bleachers who controlled the final stages of production and the early stages of marketing were a powerful group within the industry, capable of financing the larger capital outlays required to introduce mechanized finishing processes. spinning and weaving, by contrast, remained predominantly a cottage industry. Although Belfast had become the main centre of mechanized cotton spinning in Ireland by the 1820s, the mechanization of flax spinning took place more slowly; dry spinning techniques produced a yarn which was too coarse for most cloth types. Wet spinning, pioneered in England, produced a finer yarn more suitable for the finer cloth types made in Ulster, and in the second half of the 1820s a number of bleachers and cotton manufacturers in the region began to invest in the new technology. Mulholland's (ex‐Belfast cotton spinners) were the first commercially successful wet spinners to undertake the new process on a large scale from 1829. By the mid‐1830s, linen had displaced cotton as the main employer of factory labour in the Belfast area. The proprietors of spinning mills gradually began to displace bleachers as the principal employers of labour within the industry, though many bleachers also began to invest in spinning. The factory industry was even more concentrated in east Ulster. The adoption of powerloom weaving from the 1850s completed the process of mechanization.

By this time Belfast had become the largest linen manufacturing centre in the world; the expansion of mechanized production was most rapid during the 1860s when a shortage of cotton wool resulting from the American Civil War undermined the rival cotton industry. Peak 19th‐century spindlage had already been reached in 1870. Between 1860 and 1914 all but one of the five firms who dominated the industry (the York Street Spinning Company, the Brookfield Linen Company, Ewart & Son, the Linen Thread Company, and the Ulster Spinning Company) carried out all aspects of the manufacture from spinning to retailing cloth. Smaller firms tended to specialize. By the end of the 19th century the making‐up trade had also become significant so less cloth was exported directly, and more was made up into handkerchiefs, sheets, table cloths, shirts, and so on. Over the course of the 19th century, linen had become a luxury item; it was particularly suited to warm climates. By the end of the century the USA rather than Britain had become the main destination for Irish exports. The industry did reasonably well until after the end of the First World War, but international demand for linen contracted dramatically over the following decades. Fashions changed and people used fewer linen sheets, table cloths, and underwear. This decline was permanent and the linen industry never recovered.

Bibliography

Cohen, M. , The Warp of Ulster's Past: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Irish Linen Industry 1700–1920 (1997)
Crawford, W. , ‘The Evolution of the Linen Trade in Ulster’, Irish Economic and Social History, 15 (1988)

Andrew Bielenberg

linen. Historically, the linen industry was widespread throughout much of Britain, though the major areas of production were in the north of England, the Scottish Lowlands, and Ireland. Flax cultivation and linen production were of considerable economic importance by the end of the 17th cent., thanks to parliamentary encouragement and to skills and techniques introduced by immigrants from the Low Countries. The industry expanded dramatically during the 18th cent. In Ulster, bounties contributed to the growth of the export trade to the colonies, while in Scotland the Board of Trustees, using capital derived from the Equivalent (union compensation fund), encouraged the industry by giving grants for flax cultivation and processing, as well as enhancing skills in spinning, weaving, and bleaching.

A proto-industrial phase saw the introduction of limited mechanization. Scutching mills, using water-power and operating on the same principle as the threshing-machine, greatly raised productivity in the preparatory stages. The poet Robert Burns worked in such a mill at Irvine in Ayrshire. Later stages of production, spinning and weaving, were highly labour-intensive domestic activities, co-ordinated by entrepreneurs, whose networks, in many instances, radiated throughout the surrounding countryside from centres like Nottingham, Leeds, Manchester, Belfast, Glasgow, and Dundee.

With the adoption of machinery, initially developed for the cotton industry, spinning became increasingly factory-based and, with greater use of steam-power, more concentrated in urban centres. Technological lags retarded the mechanization of weaving, but when it caught up in the early 19th cent., it led to the demise of hand-loom weaving. Reorganization led to even greater localization around Belfast, Paisley, and Dundee and to increased specialization, with fine linen being produced mainly in Ulster and the west of Scotland, and coarser linen in the east of Scotland. Bleaching, which had become a specialized trade, was also mechanized and became more efficient following the development of chemical bleaching. Belfast became the major centre of production with a large proportion destined for overseas markets. Paisley specialized in fine linen and linen thread, its famous ‘Paisley pattern’ prints derived from imported Indian designs. A significant spin-off in Dundee was the development of the jute industry, which expanded rapidly during the 19th cent. to create ‘Juteopolis’, as the city became known.

During the 20th cent. linen, like other textile industries, contracted in the face of foreign competition. Having experienced painful rationalization and modernization following the depression and the Second World War, it continued production on a reduced scale in its long-established locations, most notably in Ulster.

Ian Donnachie

linen fabric or yarn made from the fiber of flax , probably the first vegetable fiber known to people. Linens more than 3,500 years old have been recovered from Egyptian tombs. Phoenician traders marketed linen in Mediterranean ports. Worn by Egyptian, Greek, and Jewish priests as a symbol of purity, it also typified luxury as in the phrase "purple and fine linen." Flax was cultivated by the Romans and introduced by them into N Europe. The production of linen was encouraged by Charlemagne, and linen became the principal European textile of the Middle Ages. Flanders has been renowned from the 11th cent. for its creamy flax and fine thread. French Huguenots excelled in working flax and carried the art abroad, notably to Ireland, where Louis Crommelin established (c.1699) a manufactory at Lisburn, near Belfast. Ireland is still the largest producer of fine linen, with Belgium, Japan, and Russia producing somewhat lesser amounts. The first flax-spinning mill was opened in England in 1787, but only in 1812 was linen successfully woven with power looms. The industry suffered in relation to cotton because many textile inventions were not applicable to linen, the inelasticity of the fiber causing it to break readily under tension. Although linen exceeds cotton in coolness, luster, strength, and length of fiber, the expense of production limits its use. After the flax fiber is removed from the stems, it is delivered to the mills, where it is hackled to separate and straighten the fibers, overlapped on a spreadboard to form a continuous ribbon, drawn out through rollers, then wound from the roving frame on bobbins in a loosely twisted thread. For fine goods the thread is usually spun wet. Linen may be bleached in the yarn or in the piece. It is woven into fabrics ranging from heavy canvas to sheer handkerchief linen.

LINEN INDUSTRY

LINEN INDUSTRY. This industry originated in colonial America, where farmers raised flax to make linen clothing. Some colonies subsidized linen's manufacture into sailcloth. For two centuries, dressed flax and yarn were common articles of barter—homespun was familiar merchandise in country trade, and linsey-woolsey, made of flax and wool, was a common clothing fabric.

The cotton gin and Arkwright machinery helped cotton displace flax, for, after their invention, few large linen mills succeeded. Most of those that survived manufactured thread and canvas. Civil War cotton shortages stimulated efforts to revive the industry, but high costs prevented its extension. While some linen goods still are manufactured in the United States, most are imported.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hoke, Donald. Ingenious Yankees: The Rise of the American System of Manufacturers in the Private Sector. New York: Columbia University Press, 1990.

Victor S.Clark/c. w.

See alsoCotton Gin ; Industrial Revolution ; Textiles .

linen Cloth made from flax which grew well in the low, hot areas of the Jordan valley. Fine woven cloth was a luxury (Judg. 14: 12–13), and was much sought after by the wealthy (Luke 16: 19). Because of its quality, linen was used for the tabernacle curtains (Exod. 26: 31) and priestly garments (Exod. 28: 6). It was used in the royal tombs of Egypt, and the custom spread among the Jews of wrapping corpses in linen (John 11: 44), as was the body of Jesus (Matt. 27: 59). A linen shroud exhibiting the outline features of a body, preserved in Turin Cathedral, was for centuries supposed to be that used by Joseph of Arimathaea for Jesus, but the carbon-14 test exposed it as a medieval forgery. The same form of test, carried out at the University of Chicago, disclosed that linen cloth in which some Dead Sea scrolls were wrapped yielded a date between 187 BCE and 233 CE.

lin·en / ˈlinin/ • n. cloth woven from flax. ∎  household articles and garments such as sheets made, or originally made, of linen. ORIGIN: Old English līnen (as an adjective in the sense ‘made of flax’); related to Dutch linnen, German Leinen, also to obsolete line ‘flax.’

linen adj. made of flax OE.; now, as attrib. use of the sb., made of linen; sb. cloth woven from flax; garments, etc., of this. XIV. OE. līnen, linnen = OS., OHG. līnin (Du. linnen, G. leinen):- WGmc. *līnīn, f. *līnam, LINE1; see -EN3.

linen Yarn and fabric made of fibres from the flax plant. The fibres are released from the substance that binds them by retting (soaking) the long stems in water. After sorting, the fibres are spun to form yarn, which is then woven.

linen See one does not wash one's dirty linen in public.

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