The Linen Industry.

Otago Witness, Issue 3645, 22 January 1924, Page 9

The Linen Industry.

Scientific Research. WORK FOR THE DOAIINIONS. 11. BELFAST, November 29. If the war brought no other beneficial results, it pointed the necessity for the application of science to the growing of foodstuffs and tho manufacturing of the common articles of daily use. Subsidies for investigation into tho processes of various trades were made by the Government. Such inYestigalion was not new in Germany. It

was not altogether new in England, but there had been a lack of co-ordination. Among the trades subsidised in this way was the linen trade of Belfast. An old country house and estate seven miles out of the city was procured as a laboratory and experimental grounds, and here for the last four years scientists have been probing into the secrets of the flax plant and its preparation. This experimental station is known as tl.c Linen Research Institute at Lambeg. It is presided over by Dr J. B. Eyre, who has a staff of some 17 or 20 scientists and attendants. It was to this institution that Mr Alassey, Sir James Allen, and prominent members of the linen trade paid a visit after the public luncheon given by the Belfast Chamber of Commerce. feome 4000 years ago the Egyptians made fine linen. At <he Lambeg Institute they have such a piece of linen as fine as silk, and they are subjecting it to examination to discover the secret of the manufacture. Alost important of all tho work, however, is the development of a flax plant which contains a greater amount of fibre than that already grown by the farmers. Three, four, and five per cent, of fibre in the flax straw is common. By careful selection they have obtained a plant which produces 12 to 17 per cent, of fibre, and last year they grew 100 acres of this plant in Somerset. "An English county was chosen to prevent cross fertilisation with the pi chi an plants of Northern Ireland. A isitors had an opportunity of examining cross sections of the various plants a hundred times . magnified. The actual fibre is just a rim on the outer circumference of the stalk. All the rest is the wood and pulp that has to be got rid of in the “retting” and the “scutching.” When the scientists see this rim of fibre increase from 3 to 17 per cent, of the mass they know that thee' have found a plant which will produce as much fibre as the plant commonly cultivated in a fifth of the space. It is a wonderful economic proposition. DOMINION PRODUCTION. 11l pre-war times Ulster got a great deal of its flax from Russia. They have resumed a small trade with the Soviet; State, but they have not got enough raw material. The proposition now is that the dominions should provide the deficiency—that they should grow the flax, ret it, scutch it, and c-xport it to the home market in the prepared condition. But this preparation is a highly technical process, and it is proposed that, trained men should bo sent out to the dominions to teach the farmers the intricacies of the process. Careful research is being carried out with regard to the retting, which, by the way, is just another word for rotting. The bacteria, which thrives in the stagnant water attacks the wood and pulp of the plant, and the high art of the process is to take the flax out of the water just at the psychological moment. An hour too soon or too late may make a difference of 5 or 10 per cent, in the quality of the fibre. From hour to hour the water of the retting tank is tested, and whereas in the past much was left to chance and to the instinct of the farmers, now, with the aid of science, the process will be reduced to exactitude. PREAIIER’S INTEREST. Then they are carrying out experiments to discover a shorter bleaching process. At present the fibre is boiled six times in lime baths, soda baths, and in other chemicals. If they can shorten the process even to five instead of six baths there would be considerable economy.. Again research is being made into the whole process of combing and twisting. At every step there is room for improvement and economy. Consistency of atmospheric humidity is another matter for careful investigation. Stress and strain in weaving is another. Ingenious machinery has been invented to acquire definite knowledge throughout all the processes from the growth of the plant to the fine linen cf commerce. Both Mr Alassey and Sir James Allen were greatly interested in all that was going on in the institute. Ulstermen in New Zealand have grown flax and prepared it themselves in tho past. Whether it would be a paying industry for New Zealand to take up is a question for consideration, but Mr Afassev has made a note of the matter and will no doubt have something to say about it on his return to the dominion. To-night a private dinner has been given by Sir James and Lady Craig at Stormont Castle, at which the New Zealanders were privileged to meet the Governor of Northern Ireland, and a number of other prominent official people of Belfast.