Scutching
Scutchingis a step in theprocessing of cottonor the dressing offlaxorhempin preparation forspinning.The scutching process separates the impurities from the raw material, such as theseeds from raw cottonor the straw and woody stem from flax fibers.[1][2]Scutching can be done by hand or by a machine known as a scutcher. Hand scutching of flax is done with a wooden scutchingknifeand a small ironscraper.The end products of scutching flax are the long finer flax fibers called line, short coarser fibers calledtow,and waste woody matter calledshives.[3]
In the early days of the cotton industry, the raw material was manually beaten with sticks after being placed on a mesh, a process known as willowing or batting. The task was mechanised by the development of machines known as willowers. Scutching machines were introduced in the early 19th century. These processed the raw material into a continuous sheet of cotton wadding known as a lap.[citation needed]
Cotton scutching
[edit]Before cotton is processed, it has to be cleaned of itsseedsand other impurities. In the early days, this was done by spreading the raw cotton on a mesh and beating it by hand with sticks, a process known aswillowingor batting.[4]A scutching machine for cotton (known as a scutcher) was invented in 1797, but did not get much attention until it was introduced in thecotton millsofManchesterin 1808 or '09. By 1816, scutchers had been generally adopted.[5]
The scutching machine passes the cotton through a pair of rollers, then strikes it with iron or steel bars, calledbeaters.The rapidly turning beaters strike the cotton hard and knock the seeds out. This process is done over a series of parallel bars, allowing the seeds to fall through. At the same time, air is blown across the bars, which carries the cotton into a cotton chamber.[5]The end result is a continuous sheet of cotton wadding known as alap,ready for the next stage of the production process, known ascarding.[6]
Flax scutching
[edit]By hand
[edit]
To scutch flax by hand, the scutching knife is scraped down with a sharp strike against the fibers while they hang vertically.[7]The edge of the knife is scraped along the fibers to pull away pieces of the stalk. This is repeated until all of the stalk has been removed and the flax is smooth and silky. When scutching was done by hand, people could scutch up to 15 pounds (6.8 kg) of flax in one day, depending on the quality of the flax, as coarser flax, harder flax, and poorlyrettedflax takes longer to scutch.[7]Retting removes thepectinsthat bind the fibers to the stalk and each other, so under-retted flax is harder to separate from the stalk, and often gets damaged in the scutching process. Over-retting the flax causes the fibers to deteriorate and break.[3]These broken fibres are called codilla, which can be used along withheckledtow to make yarn.[8]
In the scutching process, some of the fiber is also scutched away along with the stalk, a normal part of the process.
By machine
[edit]
Scutching is done several ways by machine. Scutching mills started inIreland,and were commonly used there by 1850, at a time when hand scutching was still common inContinental Europe.Machine scutching, while faster and cheaper, causes more waste than scutching by hand.[7]One method of machine scutching is to crush the stalks between two metal rollers so that parts of the stalk can be separated.
A modern scutching machine can process up to 500 kilograms (1,100 lb) of flax every hour, and produces about 70 kg (150 lb) of flax fibers and 30 kg (66 lb) oftow (fibre).Older machines create more waste.[3]
See also
[edit]
- Cotton gin– Machine that separates cotton from seeds
- Cotton mill– Building producing yarn or cloth from cotton
- Hand processing flax– The industry which produces textiles
- Preparing flax for spinning– Flowering plant in the family Linaceae
- Heckling (flax)– Combing process used to clean and straighten scutched flax or other bast fibers
- Linen production– Textile made from spun flax fibre
References
[edit]Notes
- ^"Scutch."The Oxford English Dictionary.2nd ed. 1989.
- ^Morton (2008),pp. 74–77
- ^abcFranck (2005),pp. 113–5
- ^Williams & Farnie (1992),p. 4
- ^abFitton & Wadsworth (1968),p. 296
- ^Williams & Farnie (1992),pp. 6–7
- ^abcNicholls, George (1848).The flax-grower.pp. 45–48.
- ^Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911)..Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 635.
Bibliography
- Fitton, R. S.; Wadsworth, Alfred P. (1968),Strutts and the Arkwrights, 1758–1830,Manchester University Press,ISBN0-678-06758-9
- Franck, Robert R. (2005),Bast and other plant fibres,CRC Press,ISBN0-8493-2597-8
- Morton, W. E. (2008),An Introduction to the Study of Spinning,Read Books,ISBN1-4437-0253-6
- Williams, Mike; Farnie, D. A., eds. (1992),Cotton Mills in Greater Manchester,Carnegie Publishing,ISBN0-948789-89-1
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