A supplement to Ures Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines, : containing a clear exposition of their principles and practice. . and the fibre, consequently, more or less easily freed from the ligneouspart. The scutching apparatus consists of a wooden shaft, to which are attached, at intervals,like radii of a circle, short arms, to which are nailed the stocks^ which are parallelogram-shapedblades of hard wood, with the edges partially sharpened. The laborer stands beside an uprightwooden plank, very similar to that figured in the description of the Belgian hand-scutchingapparatus, and thr
A supplement to Ures Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines, : containing a clear exposition of their principles and practice. . and the fibre, consequently, more or less easily freed from the ligneouspart. The scutching apparatus consists of a wooden shaft, to which are attached, at intervals,like radii of a circle, short arms, to which are nailed the stocks^ which are parallelogram-shapedblades of hard wood, with the edges partially sharpened. The laborer stands beside an uprightwooden plank, very similar to that figured in the description of the Belgian hand-scutchingapparatus, and through just such a slit exposes one half of the handful of bruised flax strawto the action of the stocks, which revolve with rapidity along with the shaft and strike theflax straw, beating off the ligneous matter and leaving the fibre clear. When the end ex-posed to the stocks is cleaned, the workman turns the handful and exposes the other is usual to have a set of either two or three men at as many different stands, and, insteadof each thoroughly clearing out the handful of flax, he only partially does so ; the second 300. 542 FLAX. then takes it up and finishes it; or, if there be three in the set, he does not quite clean it,but hands it over to the third to do so. In the latter case, the first workman is called thebuffer, the second the middler, and the third the finisher. The motive power in these scutch-mills is generally water; in some cases they are wind-mills, and in a few instances they aredriven by horses. Latterly the use of steam engines has considerably increased, as beingmore to be depended upon than water, which frequently fails in a dry season. It has beenfound that the woody waste produced in the scutching is quite sufficient fuel for the boiler,without its being necessary to purchase coal or peat, and this waste had hitherto been ap-plied to no useful purpose, being with the greatest difficulty decomposable for manure. The first improvement on this old sc
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1864
