LINE ENGRAVING

line engraving, on plates of copper or steel, the method of engraving (q.v.), in which the line itself is hollowed, whereas in the woodcut when the line is to print black it is left in relief, and only white spaces and white lines are hollowed. the art of line engraving has been practised from the earliest ages. the prehistoric aztec hatchet given to humboldt in mexico was just as truly _engraved_ as a modern copper-plate which may convey a design by flaxman; the aztec engraving is ruder than the european, but it is the same art. the important discovery which made line engraving one of the multiplying arts was the discovery how to print an incised line, which was hit upon at last by accident, and known for some time before its real utility was suspected. line engraving in europe does not owe its origin to the woodcut, but to the chasing on goldsmiths' work. the goldsmiths of florence in the middle of the 15th century were in the habit of ornamenting their works by means of engraving, after which they filled up the hollows produced by the burin with a black enamel made of silver, lead and sulphur, the result being that the design was rendered much more visible by the opposition of the enamel and the metal. an engraved design filled up in this manner was called a _niello_. whilst a niello was in progress the artist could not see it so well as if the enamel were already in the lines, yet he did not like to put in the hard enamel prematurely, as when once it was set it could not easily be got out again. he therefore took a sulphur cast of his niello in progress, on a matrix of fine clay, and filled up the lines in the sulphur with lampblack, thus enabling himself to judge of the state of his engraving. at a later period it was discovered that a proof could be taken on damped paper by filling the engraved lines with a certain ink and wiping it off the surface of the plate, sufficient pressure being applied to make the paper go into the hollowed lines and fetch the ink out of them. this was the beginning of plate printing. the niello engravers thought it a convenient way of proving their work--the metal itself--as it saved the trouble of the sulphur cast, but they saw no further into the future. they went on engraving nielli just the same to ornament plate and furniture; nor was it until the 16th century that the new method of printing was carried out to its great and wonderful results. there are, however, certain differences between plate-printing and block-printing which affect the essentials of art. when paper is driven _into_ a line so as to fetch the ink out of it, the line may be of unimaginable fineness, it will print all the same; but when the paper is only pressed _upon_ a raised line, the line must have some appreciable thickness; the wood engraving, therefore, can never--except in a _tour de force_--be so delicate as plate engraving. again, not only does plate-printing excel block-printing in delicacy; it excels it also in force and depth. there never was, and there will never be, a woodcut line having the power of a deep line in a plate, for in block-printing the line is only a blackened surface of paper slightly impressed, whereas in plate-printing it is a _cast_ with an additional thickness of printing ink. the most important of the tools used in line-engraving is the burin, which is a bar of steel with one end fixed in a handle rather like a mushroom with one side cut away, the burin itself being shaped so that the cutting end when sharpened takes the form of a lozenge, point downwards. the burin acts exactly like a plough; it makes a furrow and turns out a shaving of metal as the plough turns the soil of a field. the burin, however, is pushed while the plough is pulled, and this peculiar character of the burin, or graver, as a pushed instrument at once establishes a wide separation between it and all the other instruments employed in the arts of design, such as pencils, brushes, pens and etching needles. the elements of engraving with the burin upon metal will be best understood by an example of a very simple kind, as in the engraving of letters. the capital letter b contains in itself the rudiments of an engraver's education. as at first drawn, before the blacks are inserted, this letter consists of two perpendicular straight lines and four curves, all the curves differing from each other. suppose, then, that the engraver has to make a b, he will scratch these lines, reversed, very lightly with a sharp point or style. the next thing is to cut out the blacks (not the whites, as in wood engraving), and this would be done with two different burins. the engraver would get his vertical black line by a powerful ploughing with the burin between his two preparatory first lines, and then take out some copper in the thickest parts of the two curves. this done, he would then take a finer burin and work out the gradation from the thick line in the midst of the curve to the thin extremities which touch the perpendicular. when there is much gradation in a line the darker parts of it are often gradually ploughed out by returning to it over and over again. the hollows so produced are afterwards filled with printing ink, just as the hollows in a niello were filled with black enamel; the surplus printing ink is wiped from the smooth surface of the copper, damped paper is laid upon it, and driven into the hollowed letter by the pressure of a revolving cylinder; it fetches the ink out, and you have your letter b in intense black upon a white ground. when the surface of a metal plate is sufficiently polished to be used for engraving, the slightest scratch upon it will print as a black line, the degree of blackness being proportioned to the depth of the scratch. an engraved plate from which visiting cards are printed is a good example of some elementary principles of engraving. it contains thin lines and thick ones, and a considerable variety of curves. an elaborate line engraving, if it is a pure line engraving and nothing else, will contain only these simple elements in different combinations. the real line engraver is always engraving a line more or less broad and deep in one direction or another; he has no other business than this. in the early italian and early german prints, the line is used with such perfect simplicity of purpose that the methods of the artists are as obvious as if we saw them actually at work. the student may soon understand the spirit and technical quality of the earliest italian engraving by giving his attention to a few of the series which used erroneously to be called the "playing cards of mantegna," but which have been shown by mr sidney colvin to represent "a kind of encyclopaedia of knowledge." the history of these engravings is obscure. they are supposed to be florentine; they are certainly italian; and their technical manner is called that of baccio baldini. but their style is as clear as a style can be, as clear as the artist's conception of his art. in all these figures the outline is the main thing, and next to that the lines which mark the leading folds of the drapery; lines quite classical in purity of form and severity of selection, and especially characteristic in this, that they are always really engraver's lines, such as may naturally be done with the burin, and they never imitate the freer line of the pencil or etching needle. shading is used in the greatest moderation with thin straight strokes of the burin, that never overpower the stronger organic lines of the design. of chiaroscuro, in any complete sense, there is none. the sky behind the figures is represented by white paper, and the foreground is sometimes occupied by flat decorative engraving, much nearer in feeling to calligraphy than to modern painting. sometimes there is a cast shadow, but it is not studied, and is only used to give relief. in this early metal engraving the lines are often crossed in the shading, whereas in the earliest woodcuts they are not; the reason being that when lines are incised they can as easily be crossed as not, whereas, when they are reserved, the crossing involves much labour of a non-artistic kind. here, then, we have pure line-engraving with the burin, that is, the engraving of the pure line patiently studied for its own beauty, and exhibited in an abstract manner, with care for natural form combined with inattention to the effects of nature. even the forms are idealized, especially in the cast of draperies, for the express purpose of exhibiting the line to better advantage. such are the characteristics of those very early italian engravings which were attributed erroneously to mantegna. when we come to mantegna himself we find a style equally decided. drawing and shading were for him two entirely distinct things. he did not draw and shade at the same time, as a modern chiaroscurist would, but he first got his outlines and the patterns on his dresses all very accurate, and then threw over them a veil of shading, a very peculiar kind of shading, all the lines being straight and all the shading diagonal. this is the primitive method, its peculiarities being due, not to a learned self-restraint, but to a combination of natural genius with technical inexperience, which made the early italians at once desire and discover the simplest and easiest methods. whilst the italians were shading with straight lines the germans had begun to use curves, and as soon as the italians saw good german work they tried to give to their burins something of the german suppleness. the characteristics of early metal engraving in germany are seen to perfection in martin schongauer and albert durer, who, though with striking differences, had many points in common. schongauer died in 1488; whilst the date of durer's death is 1528. schongauer was therefore a whole generation before durer, yet not greatly inferior to him in the use of the burin, though durer has a much greater reputation, due in great measure to his singular imaginative powers. schongauer is the first great german engraver known by name, but he was preceded by an unknown german master, called "the master of 1466," who had gothic notions of art (in strong contrast to the classicism of baccio baldini), but used the burin skilfully, conceiving of line and shade as separate elements, yet shading with an evident desire to follow the form of the thing shaded, and with lines in various directions. schongauer's art is a great stride in advance, and we find in him an evident pleasure in the bold use of the burin. outline and shade, in schongauer, are not nearly so much separated as in baccio baldini, and the shading, generally in curved lines, is far more masterly than the straight shading of mantegna. durer continued schongauer's curved shading, with increasing manual delicacy and skill; and as he found himself able to perform feats with the burin which amused both himself and his buyers, he over-loaded his plates with quantities of living and inanimate objects, each of which he finished with as much care as if it were the most important thing in the composition. the engravers of those days had no conception of any necessity for subordinating one part of their work to another; they drew, like children, first one object and then another object, and so on until the plate was furnished from top to bottom and from the left side to the right. here, of course, is an element of facility in primitive art which is denied to the modern artist. in durer all objects are on the same plane. in his "st hubert" (otherwise known as "st eustace") of c. 1505, the stag is quietly standing on the horse's back, with one hoof on the saddle, and the kneeling knight looks as if he were tapping the horse on the nose. durer seems to have perceived the mistake about the stag, for he put a tree between us and the animal to correct it, but the stag is on the horse's back nevertheless. this ignorance of the laws of effect is least visible and obtrusive in plates which have no landscape distances, such as "the coat of arms with the death's head" (1503) and "the coat of arms with the cock" (c. 1512). durer's great manual skill and close observation made him a wonderful engraver of objects taken separately. he saw and rendered all objects; nothing escaped him; he applied the same intensity of study to everything. though a thorough student of the nude--witness his adam and eve (1504) and other plates--he would pay just as much attention to the creases of a gaiter as to the development of a muscle; and though man was his main subject, he would study dogs with equal care (see the five dogs in the "st hubert"), as well as pigs (see the "prodigal son," c. 1495); and at a time when landscape painting was unknown he studied every clump of trees, every visible trunk and branch, nay, every foreground plant, and each leaf of it separately. in his buildings he saw every brick like a bricklayer, and every joint in the woodwork like a carpenter. the immense variety of the objects which he engraved was a training in suppleness of hand. his lines go in every direction, and are made to render both the undulations of surfaces (see the plane in the melencolia, 1514) and their texture (see the granular texture of the stones in the same print). from durer we come to italy again, through marcantonio, who copied durer, translating more than sixty of his woodcuts upon metal. it is one of the most remarkable things in the history of art, that a man who had trained himself by copying northern work, little removed from pure gothicism, should have become soon afterwards the great engraver of raphael, who was much pleased with his work and aided him by personal advice. yet, although raphael was a painter, and marcantonio his interpreter, the reader is not to infer that engraving had as yet subordinated itself to painting. raphael himself evidently considered engraving a distinct art, for he never once set marcantonio to work from a picture, but always (much more judiciously) gave him drawings, which the engraver might interpret without going outside his own art; consequently marcantonio's works are always genuine engravings, and are never pictorial. marcantonio was an engraver of remarkable power. in him the real pure art of line-engraving reached its maturity. he retained much of the early italian manner in his backgrounds, where its simplicity gives a desirable sobriety; but his figures are boldly modelled in curved lines, crossing each other in the darker shades, but left single in the passages from dark to light, and breaking away in fine dots as they approach the light itself, which is of pure white paper. a school of engraving was thus founded by raphael, through marcantonio, which cast aside the minute details of the early schools for a broad, harmonious treatment. the group known as the engravers of rubens marked a new development. rubens understood the importance of engraving as a means of increasing his fame and wealth, and directed vorsterman and others. the theory of engraving at that time was that it ought not to render accurately the local colour of painting, which would appear wanting in harmony when dissociated from the hues of the picture; and it was one of the anxieties of rubens so to direct his engravers that the result might be a fine plate independently of what he had painted. to this end he helped his engravers by drawings, in which he sometimes indicated what he thought the best direction for the lines. rubens liked vorsterman's work, and scarcely corrected it, a plate he especially approved being "susannah and the elders," which is a learned piece of work well modelled, and shaded everywhere on the figures and costumes with fine curved lines, the straight line being reserved for the masonry. vorsterman quitted rubens after executing fourteen important plates, and was succeeded by paul pontius, then a youth of twenty, who went on engraving from rubens with increasing skill until the painter's death. boetius a bolswert engraved from rubens towards the close of his life, and his brother schelte a bolswert engraved more than sixty compositions of rubens, of the most varied character, including hunting scenes and landscapes. this brings us to the engraving of landscape as a separate study. rubens treated landscape in a broad comprehensive manner, and schelte's way of engraving it was also broad and comprehensive. the lines are long and often undulating, the cross-hatchings bold and rather obtrusive, for they often substitute unpleasant reticulations for the refinement and mystery of nature, but it was a beginning, and a vigorous beginning. the technical developments of engraving under the influence of rubens may be summed up briefly as follows: (1) the italian outline had been discarded as the chief subject of attention, and modelling had been substituted for it; (2) broad masses had been substituted for the minutely finished detail of the northern schools; (3) a system of light and dark had been adopted which was not pictorial, but belonged especially to engraving, which it rendered (in the opinion of rubens) more harmonious. the history of line-engraving, from the time of rubens to the beginning of the 19th century, is rather that of the vigorous and energetic application of principles already accepted than any new development. from the two sources already indicated, the school of raphael and the school of rubens, a double tradition flowed to england and france, where it mingled and directed english and french practice. the first influence on english line-engraving was flemish, and came from rubens through vandyck, vorsterman, and others; but the english engravers soon underwent french and italian influences, for although payne learned from a fleming, faithorne studied in france under philippe de champagne the painter and robert nanteuil the engraver. sir robert strange studied in france under philippe lebas, and then five years in italy, where he saturated his mind with italian art. french engravers came to england as they went to italy, so that the art of engraving became in the 18th century cosmopolitan. in figure-engraving the outline was less and less insisted upon. strange made it his study to soften and lose the outline. meanwhile, the great classical renaissance school, with gerard audran at its head, had carried forward the art of modelling with the burin, and had arrived at great perfection of a sober and dignified kind. audran was very productive in the latter half of the 17th century, and died in 1703, after a life of severe self-direction in labour, the best external influence he underwent being that of the painter nicolas poussin. he made his work more rapid by the use of etching, but kept it entirely subordinate to the work of the burin. one of the finest of his large plates is "st john baptizing," from poussin, with groups of dignified figures in the foreground and a background of grand classical landscape, all executed with the most thorough knowledge according to the ideas of that time. the influence of claude lorrain on the engraving of landscape was exercised less through his etchings than his pictures, which compelled the engravers to study delicate distinctions in the values of light and dark. through woollett and vivares, claude exercised an influence on landscape engraving almost equal to that of raphael and rubens on the engraving of the figure, though he did not direct his engravers personally. in the 19th century line-engraving received first an impulse and finally a check. the impulse came from the growth of public wealth, the increasing interest in art and the increase in the commerce of art, which, by means of engraving, fostered in england mainly by john boydell, penetrated into the homes of the middle classes, as well as from the growing demand for illustrated books, which gave employment to engravers of first-rate ability. the check to line-engraving came from the desire for cheaper and more rapid methods, a desire satisfied in various ways, but especially by etching and by the various kinds of photography. nevertheless, the 19th century produced most highly accomplished work in line-engraving, both in the figure and in landscape. its characteristics, in comparison with the work of other centuries, were chiefly a more thorough and delicate rendering of local colour, light and shade, and texture. the elder engravers could draw as correctly as the moderns, but they either neglected these elements or admitted them sparingly, as opposed to the spirit of their art. in a modern engraving from landseer may be seen the blackness of a man's boots (local colour), the soft roughness of his coat (texture), and the exact value in light and dark of his face and costume against the cloudy sky. nay more, there is to be found every sparkle on bit, boot and stirrup. modern painting pays more attention to texture and chiaroscuro than classical painting did, and engraving necessarily followed in the same directions. but there is a certain sameness in pure line-engraving more favourable to some forms and textures than to others. this sameness of line-engraving, and its costliness, led to the adoption of mixed methods, extremely prevalent in commercial prints from popular artists. in the well-known prints from rosa bonheur, for example, by t. landseer, h. t. ryall, and c. g. lewis, the tone of the skies is got by machine-ruling, and so is much undertone in the landscape; the fur of the animals is all etched, and so are the foreground plants, the real burin work being used sparingly where most favourable to texture. even in the exquisite engravings after turner, by cooke, goodall, wallis, miller, willmore, and others, who reached a degree of delicacy in light and shade far surpassing the work of the old masters, the engravers had recourse to etching, finishing with the burin and dry point. turner's name may be added to those of raphael, rubens and claude in the list of painters who have had a special influence upon engraving. the speciality of turner's influence was in the direction of delicacy of tone. in this respect the turner vignettes to roger's poems were a high-water mark of human attainment, not likely ever to be surpassed. the record of the art of line-engraving during the last quarter of the 19th century is one of continued decay. technical improvements, it was hoped, might save the art; it was thought by some that the slight revival resultant on the turning back of the burin's cutting-point--whereby the operator pulled the tool towards him instead of pushing it from him--might effect much, in virtue of the time and labour saved by the device. but by the beginning of the 20th century pictorial line-engraving in england was practically non-existent, and, with the passing of jeens and stacpoole, the spasmodic demand by publishers for engravers to engrave new plates remained unanswered. mr c. w. sherborn, the exquisite and facile designer and engraver of book-plates, has scarcely been surpassed in his own line, but his art is mainly heraldic. there are now no men capable of such work as that with which doo, j. h. robinson, and their fellows maintained the credit of the english school. line-engraving has been killed by etching, mezzotint and the "mixed method." the disappearance of the art is due not so much to the artistic objection that the personality of the line-engraver stands obtrusively between the painter and the public; it is rather that the public refuse to wait for several years for the proofs for which they have subscribed, when by another method they can obtain their plates more quickly. an important line plate may occupy a prodigious time in the engraving; j. h. robinson's "napoleon and the pope" took about twelve years. the invention of steel-facing a copper plate would now enable the engraver to proceed more expeditiously; but even in this case he can no more compete with the etcher than the mezzotint-engraver can keep pace with the photogravure manufacturer. the art union of london in the past gave what encouragement it could; but with the death of j. stephenson (1886) and f. bacon (1887) it was evident that all hope was gone. john saddler at the end was driven, in spite of his capacity to do original work, to spend most of his time in assisting thomas landseer to rule the skies on his plates, simply because there was not enough line-engraving to do. since then there was some promise of a revival, and mr bourne engraved a few of the pictures by gustave dore. but little followed. the last of the line-engravers of turner's pictures died in the person of sir daniel wilson (d. 1892), who, recognizing the hopelessness of his early profession, laid his graver aside, and left europe for canada and eventually became president of the university of toronto. if line-engraving still flourishes in france, it is due not a little to official encouragement and to intelligent fostering by collectors and connoisseurs. the prizes offered by the ecole des beaux arts would probably not suffice to give vitality to the art but for the employment afforded to the finished artist by the "chalcographie du musee du louvre," in the name of which commissions are judiciously distributed. at the same time, it must be recognized that not only are french engravers less busy than they were in days when line-engraving was the only "important" method of picture-translation, but they work for the most part for much smaller rewards. moreover, the class of the work has entirely changed, partly through the reduction of prices paid for it, partly through the change of taste and fashion, and partly, again, through the necessities of the situation. that is to say, that public impatience is but a partial factor in the abandonment of the fine broad sweeping trough cut deep into the copper which was characteristic of the earlier engraving, either simply cut or crossed diagonally so as to form the series of "lozenges" typical of engraving at its finest and grandest period. that method was slow; but scarcely less slow was the shallower work rendered possible by the steel plate by reason of the much greater degree of elaboration of which such plates were capable, and which the public was taught--mainly by finden--to expect. the french engravers were therefore driven at last to simplify their work if they were to satisfy the public and live by the burin. to compensate for loss of colour, the art developed in the direction of elegance and refinement. gaillard (d. 1887), blanchard, and alphonse francois (d. 1888) were perhaps the earliest chiefs of the new school, the characteristics of which are the substitution of exquisite greys for the rich blacks of old, simplicity of method being often allied to extremely high elaboration. yet the aim of the modern engraver has always been, while pushing the capability of his own art to the farthermost limit, to retain throughout the individual and personal qualities of the master whose work is translated on the plate. the height of perfection to which the art is reached is seen in the triptych of mantegna by achille jacquet (d. 1909), to whom may perhaps be accorded the first place among several engravers of the front rank. this "passion" (from the three pictures in the louvre and at tours, forming the predella of the san zeno altarpiece in verona) not only conveys the forms, sentiment, and colour of the master, but succeeds also in rendering the peculiar luminosity of the originals. jacquet, who gained the _prix de rome_ in 1870, also translated pictures of sir joshua reynolds, and engraved fine plates after paul dubois, cabanel, bouguereau, meissonier and detaille. the freedom of much of his work suggests an affinity with etching and dry-point; indeed, it appears that he uses the etching-needle and acid to lay in some of his groundwork and outlines. leopold flameng's engraving after jan van eyck's "virgin with the donor," in the louvre, is one of the most admirable works of its kind, retaining the quality and sentiment of the master, extreme minuteness and elaboration notwithstanding. jules jacquet is known for his work after meissonier (especially the "friedland") and after bonnat; adrien didier for his plates after holbein ("anne of cleves"), raphael, and paul veronese, among the old masters, and bonnat, bouguereau, and roybet among the new. jazinski (botticelli's "primavera"), sulpis (mantegna and gustave moreau), patricot (gustave moreau), burney, and champollion (d. 1901), have been among the leaders of the modern school. their object is to secure the faithful transcript of the painter they reproduce, while readily sacrificing the power of the old method, which, whatever its force and its beauty, was easily acquired by mediocre artists of technical ability who were nevertheless unable to appreciate or reproduce anything beyond mechanical excellence. the belgian school of engraving is not without vitality. gustave biot was equally skilful in portraiture and subject (engraving after gallait, cabanel, gustave dore, among his best work); a. m. danse executed plates after leading painters, and elaborated an effective "mixed method" of graver-work and dry-point; and de meerman has engraved a number of good plates; but private patronage is hardly sufficient in belgium to maintain the school in a state of prosperous efficiency. in germany, as might be expected, line-engraving retains not a little of its popularity in its more orthodox form. the novel stauffer-bern method, in which freedom and lightness are obtained with such delicacy that the fine lines, employed in great numbers, run into tone, and yield a supposed advantage in modelling, has not been without appreciation. but the more usual virtue of the graver has been best supported, and many have worked in the old-fashioned manner. friedrich zimmermann (d. 1887) began his career by engraving such prints as guido reni's "ecce homo" in dresden, and then devoted himself to the translation of modern german painters. rudolph pfnor was an ornamentist representative of his class; and joseph kohlschein, of dusseldorf, a typical exponent of the intelligent conservative manner. his "marriage at cana" after paul veronese, "the sistine madonna" after raphael, and "st cecilia" after the same master, are all plates of a high order. in italy the art is well-nigh as moribund as in england. when vittorio pica (of naples) and conconi (of milan) have been named, it is difficult to mention other successors to the fine school of the 19th century which followed piranesi and volpato. a few of the pupils of rosaspina and paolo toschi lived into the last quarter of the century, but to the present generation asiolo, jesi, c. raimondi, l. bigola, and antonio isac are remembered rather for their efforts than for their success in supporting their art against the combined opposition of etching, "process" and public indifference. outside europe line-engraving can no longer be said to exist. here and there a spasmodic attempt may be made to appeal to the artistic appreciation of a limited public; but no general attention is paid to such efforts, nor, it may be added, are these inherently worthy of much notice. there are still a few who can engrave a head from a photograph or drawing, or a small engraving for book-illustration or for book-plates; there are more who are highly proficient in mechanical engraving for decorative purposes; but the engraving-machine is fast superseding this class. in short, the art of worthily translating a fine painting beyond the borders of france, belgium, germany and perhaps italy can scarcely be said to survive, and even in those countries it appears to exist on sufferance and by hot-house encouragement. authorities.--p. g. hamerton, _drawing and engraving_ (edinburgh, 1892); h. w. singer and w. strang, _etching, engraving, and other methods of printing pictures_ (london, 1897); a. de lostalot, _les procedes de la gravure_ (paris, 1882); le comte henri delaborde, la gravure (paris, english trans., with a chapter on english engraving methods, by william walker, london, 1886); h. w. singer, _geschichte des kupferstichs_ (magdeburg and leipzig, 1895), and _der kupferstich_ (bielefeld and leipzig, 1904); alex. waldow, _illustrirte encyklopadie der graphischen kunste_ (leipzig, 1881-1884); lippmann, _engraving and engraving_, translated by martin hardie (london, 1906); and for those who desire books of gossip on the subject, arthur hayden, _chats on old prints_ (london, 1906), and malcolm c. salaman, _the old engravers of england_ (london, 1906). (p. g. h.; m. h. s.) linen and linen manufactures. under the name of linen are comprehended all yarns spun and fabrics woven from flax fibre (see flax). from the earliest periods of human history till almost the close of the 18th century the linen manufacture was one of the most extensive and widely disseminated of the domestic industries of european countries. the industry was most largely developed in russia, austria, germany, holland, belgium, the northern provinces of france, and certain parts of england, in the north of ireland, and throughout scotland; and in these countries its importance was generally recognized by the enactment of special laws, having for their object the protection and extension of the trade. the inventions of arkwright, hargreaves and crompton in the later part of the 18th century, benefiting almost exclusively the art of cotton-spinning, and the unparalleled development of that branch of textile manufactures, largely due to the ingenuity of these inventors, gave the linen trade as it then existed a fatal blow. domestic spinning, and with it hand-loom weaving, immediately began to shrink; the trade which had supported whole villages and provinces entirely disappeared, and the linen manufacture, in attenuated dimensions and changed conditions, took refuge in special localities, where it resisted, not unsuccessfully, the further assaults of cotton, and, with varying fortunes, rearranged its relations in the community of textile industries. the linen industries of the united kingdom were the first to suffer from the aggression of cotton; more slowly the influence of the rival textile reached other countries. in 1810 napoleon i. offered a reward of one million francs to any inventor who should devise the best machinery for the spinning of flax yarn. within a few weeks thereafter philippe de girard patented in france important inventions for flax spinning by both dry and wet methods. his inventions, however, did not receive the promised reward and were neglected in his native country. in 1815 he was invited by the austrian government to establish a spinning mill at hirtenberg near vienna, which was run with his machinery for a number of years, but it failed to prove a commercial success. in the meantime english inventors had applied themselves to the task of adapting machines to the preparation and spinning of flax. the foundation of machine spinning of flax was laid by john kendrew and thomas porthouse of darlington, who, in 1787, secured a patent for "a mill or machine upon new principles for spinning yarn from hemp, tow, flax or wool." by innumerable successive improvements and modifications, the invention of kendrew and porthouse developed into the perfect system of machinery with which, at the present day, spinning-mills are furnished; but progress in adapting flax fibres for mechanical spinning, and linen yarn for weaving cloth by power-loom was much slower than in the corresponding case of cotton. till comparatively recent times, the sole spinning implements were the spindle and distaff. the spindle, which is the fundamental apparatus in all spinning machinery, was a round stick or rod of wood about 12 in. in length, tapering towards each extremity, and having at its upper end a notch or slit into which the yarn might be caught or fixed. in general, a ring or "whorl" of stone or clay was passed round the upper part of the spindle to give it momentum and steadiness when in rotation, while in some few cases an ordinary potato served the purpose of a whorl. the distaff, or rock, was a rather longer and stronger bar or stick, around one end of which, in a loose coil or ball, the fibrous material to be spun was wound. the other extremity of the distaff was carried under the left arm, or fixed in the girdle at the left side, so as to have the coil of flax in a convenient position for drawing out to form the yarn. a prepared end of yarn being fixed into the notch, the spinster, by a smart rolling motion of the spindle with the right hand against the right leg, threw it out from her, spinning in the air, while, with the left hand, she drew from the rock an additional supply of fibre which was formed into a uniform and equal strand with the right. the yarn being sufficiently twisted was released from the notch, wound around the lower part of the spindle, and again fixed in the notch at the point insufficiently twisted; and so the rotating, twisting and drawing out operations went on till the spindle was full. so persistent is an ancient and primitive art of this description that in remote districts of scotland--a country where machine spinning has attained a high standard--spinning with rock and spindle is still practised;[1] and yarn of extraordinary delicacy, beauty and tenacity has been spun by their agency. the first improvement on the primitive spindle was found in the construction of the hand-wheel, in which the spindle, mounted in a frame, was fixed horizontally, and rotated by a band passing round it and a large wheel, set in the same framework. such a wheel became known in europe about the middle of the 16th century, but it appears to have been in use for cotton spinning in the east from time immemorial. at a later date, which cannot be fixed, the treadle motion was attached to the spinning wheel, enabling the spinster to sit at work with both hands free; and the introduction of the two-handed or double-spindle wheel, with flyers or twisting arms on the spindles, completed the series of mechanical improvements effected on flax spinning till the end of the 18th century. the common use of the two-handed wheel throughout the rural districts of ireland and scotland is a matter still within the recollection of some people; but spinning wheels are now seldom seen. the modern manufacture of linen divides itself into two branches, spinning and weaving, to which may be added the bleaching and various finishing processes, which, in the case of many linen textures, are laborious undertakings and important branches of industry. the flax fibre is received in bundles from the scutch mill, and after having been classed into various grades, according to the quality of the material, it is labelled and placed in the store ready for the flax mill. the whole operations in yarn manufacture comprise (1) hackling, (2) preparing and (3) spinning. _hackling._--this first preparatory process consists not only in combing out, disentangling and laying smooth and parallel the separate fibres, but also serves to split up and separate into their ultimate filaments the strands of fibre which, up to this point, have been agglutinated together. the hackling process was originally performed by hand, and it was one of fundamental importance, requiring the exercise of much dexterity and judgment. the broken, ravelled and short fibres, which separate out in the hackling process, form tow, an article of much inferior value to the spinner. a good deal of hand-hackling is still practised, especially in irish and continental mills; and it has not been found practicable, in any case, to dispense entirely with a rough preparation of the fibre by hand labour. in hackling by hand, the hackler takes a handful or "strick" of rough flax, winds the top end around his hands, and then, spreading out the root end as broad and flat as possible, by a swinging motion dashes the fibre into the hackle teeth or needles of the rougher or "ruffer." the rougher is a board plated with tin, and studded with spikes or teeth of steel about 7 in. in length, which taper to a fine sharp point. the hackler draws his strick several times through this tool, working gradually up from the roots to near his hand, till in his judgment the fibres at the root end are sufficiently combed out and smoothed. he then seizes the root end and similarly treats the top end of the strick. the same process is again repeated on a similar tool, the teeth of which are 5 in. long, and much more closely studded together; and for the finer counts of yarn a third and a fourth hackle may be used, of still increasing fineness and closeness of teeth. in dealing with certain varieties of the fibre, for fine spinning especially, the flax is, after roughing, broken or cut into three lengths--the top, middle and root ends. of these the middle cut is most valuable, being uniform in length, strength and quality. the root end is more woody and harsh, while the top, though fine in quality, is uneven and variable in strength. from some flax of extra length it is possible to take two short middle cuts; and, again, the fibre is occasionally only broken into two cuts. flax so prepared is known as "cut line" in contradistinction to "long line" flax, which is the fibre unbroken. the subsequent treatment of line, whether long or cut, does not present sufficient variation to require further reference to these distinctions. in the case of hackling by machinery, the flax is first roughed and arranged in stricks, as above described under hand hackling. in the construction of hackling machines, the general principles of those now most commonly adopted are identical. the machines are known as vertical sheet hackling machines, their essential features being a set of endless leather bands or sheets revolving over a pair of rollers in a vertical direction. these sheets are crossed by iron bars, to which hackle stocks, furnished with teeth, are screwed. the hackle stocks on each separate sheet are of one size and gauge, but each successive sheet in the length of the machine is furnished with stocks of increasing fineness, so that the hackling tool at the end where the flax is entered is the coarsest, say about four pins per inch, while that to which the fibre is last submitted has the smallest and most closely set teeth. the finest tools may contain from 45 to 60 pins per inch. thus the whole of the endless vertical revolving sheet presents a continuous series of hackle teeth, and the machines are furnished with a double set of such sheets revolving face to face, so close together that the pins of one set of sheets intersect those on the opposite stocks. overhead, and exactly centred between these revolving sheets, is the head or holder channel, from which the flax hangs down while it is undergoing the hackling process on both sides. the flax is fastened in a holder consisting of two heavy flat plates of iron, between which it is spread and tightly screwed up. the holder is 11 in. in length, and the holder channel is fitted to contain a line of six, eight or twelve such holders, according to the number of separate bands of hackling stocks in the machine. the head or holder channel has a falling and rising motion, by which it first presents the ends and gradually more and more of the length of the fibre to the hackle teeth, and, after dipping down the full length of the fibre exposed, it slowly rises and lifts the flax clear of the hackle stocks. by a reciprocal motion all the holders are then moved forward one length; that at the last and finest set of stocks is thrown out, and place is made for filling in an additional holder at the beginning of the series. thus with a six-tool hackle, or set of stocks, each holder full of flax from beginning to end descends into and rises from the hackle teeth six times in travelling from end to end of the machine. the root ends being thus first hackled, the holders are shot back along an inclined plane, the iron plates unclamped, the flax reversed, and the top ends are then submitted to the same hackling operation. the tow made during the hackling process is carried down by the pins of the sheet, and is stripped from them by means of a circular brush placed immediately under the bottom roller. the brush revolves in the same direction as, but quicker than the sheet, consequently the tow is withdrawn from the pins. the tow is then removed from the brush by a doffer roller, from which it is finally removed by a doffing knife. this material is then carded by a machine similar to, but finer than, the one described under jute (q.v.). the hackled flax, however, is taken direct to the preparing department. _preparing._--the various operations in this stage have for their object the proper assortment of dressed line into qualities fit for spinning, and the drawing out of the fibres to a perfectly level and uniform continuous ribbon or sliver, containing throughout an equal quantity of fibre in any given length. from the hackling the now smooth, glossy and clean stricks are taken to the sorting room, where they are assorted into different qualities by the "line sorter," who judges by both eye and touch the quality and capabilities of the fibre. so sorted, the material is passed to the spreading and drawing frames, a series or system of machines all similar in construction and effect. the essential features of the spreading frame are: (1) the feeding cloth or creeping sheet, which delivers the flax to (2) a pair of "feed and jockey" rollers, which pass it on (3) to the gill frame or fallers. the gill frame consists of a series of narrow hackle bars, with short closely studded teeth, which travel between the feed rollers and the drawing or "boss and pressing" rollers to be immediately attended to. they are, by an endless screw arrangement, carried forward at approximately the same rate at which the flax is delivered to them, and when they reach the end of their course they fall under, and by a similar screw arrangement are brought back to the starting-point; and thus they form an endless moving level toothed platform for carrying away the flax from the feed rollers. this is the machine in which the fibres are, for the first time, formed into a continuous length termed a sliver. in order to form this continuous sliver it is necessary that the short lengths of flax should overlap each other on the spread sheet or creeping sheet. this sheet contains four or six divisions, so that four or six lots of overlapped flax are moving at the same time towards the first pair of rollers--the boss rollers or retaining rollers. the fibre passes between these rollers and is immediately caught by the rising gills which carry the fibre towards the drawing rollers. the pins of the gills should pass through the fibre so that they may have complete control over it, while their speed should be a little greater than the surface speed of the retaining rollers. the fibre is thus carried forward to the drawing rollers, which have a surface speed of from 10 to 30 times that of the retaining rollers. the great difference between the speeds of the retaining and drawing rollers results in each sliver being drawn out to a corresponding degree. finally all the slivers are run into one and in this state are passed between the delivery rollers into the sliver cans. each can should contain the same length of sliver, a common length being 1000 yds. a bell is automatically rung by the machine to warn the attendant that the desired length has been deposited into the can. from the spreading frame the cans of sliver pass to the drawing frames, where from four to twelve slivers combined are passed through feed rollers over gills, and drawn out by drawing rollers to the thickness of one. a third and fourth similar doubling and drawing may be embraced in a preparing system, so that the number of doublings the flax undergoes, before it arrives at the roving frame, may amount to from one thousand to one hundred thousand, according to the quality of yarn in progress. thus, for example, the doublings on one preparing system may be 6 × 12 × 12 × 12 × 8 = 82,944. the slivers delivered by the last drawing frame are taken to the roving frame, where they are singly passed through feed rollers and over gills, and, after drafting to sufficient tenuity, they are slightly twisted by flyers and wound on bobbins, in which condition the material--termed "rove" or "rovings"--is ready for the spinning frame.[2] _spinning._--the spinning operation, which follows the roving, is done in two principal ways, called respectively dry spinning and wet spinning, the first being used for the lower counts or heavier yarns, while the second is exclusively adopted in the preparation of fine yarns. the spinning frame does not differ in principle from the throstle spinning machine used in cotton manufacture. the bobbins of flax rove are arranged in rows on each side of the frame (the spinning frames being all double) on pins in an inclined plane. the rove passes downwards through an eyelet or guide to a pair of nipping rollers between which and the final drawing rollers, placed in the case of dry spinning from 18 to 22 in. lower down, the fibre receives its final draft while passing over and under cylinders and guide-plate, and attains that degree of tenuity which the finished yarn must possess. from the last rollers the now attenuated material, in passing to the flyers receives the degree of twist which compacts the fibres into the round hard cord which constitutes spun yarn; and from the flyers it is wound on the more slowly rotating spool within the flyer arms, centred on the top of the spindle. the amount of twist given to the thread at the spinning frame varies from 1.5 to 2 times the square root of the count. in wet spinning the general sequence of operations is the same, but the rove, as unwound from its bobbin, first passes through a trough of water heated to about 120° fahr.; and the interval between the two pairs of rollers in which the drawing out of the rove is accomplished is very much shorter. the influence of the hot water on the flax fibre appears to be that it softens the gummy substance which binds the separate cells together, and thereby allows the elementary cells to a certain extent to be drawn out without breaking the continuity of the fibre; and further it makes a finer, smoother and more uniform strand than can be obtained by dry spinning. the extent to which the original strick of flax as laid on the feeding roller for (say) the production of a 50 lea yarn is, by doublings and drawings, extended, when it reaches the spinning spindle, may be stated thus: 35 times on spreading frame, 15 times on first drawing frame, 15 times on second drawing frame, 14 times on third drawing frame, 15 times on roving frame and 10 times on spinning frame, in all 16,537,500 times its original length, with 8 × 12 × 16 = 1536 doublings on the three drawing frames. that is to say, 1 yd. of hackled line fed into the spreading frame is spread out, mixed with other fibres, to a length of about 9400 m. of yarn, when the above drafts obtain. the drafts are much shorter for the majority of yarns. the next operation is reeling from the bobbins into hanks. by act of parliament, throughout the united kingdom the standard measure of flax yard is the "lea," called also in scotland the "cut" of 300 yds. the flax is wound or reeled on a reel having a circumference of 90 in. (21⁄2 yds.) making "a thread," and one hundred and twenty such threads form a lea. the grist or count of all fine yarns is estimated by the number of leas in 1 lb.; thus "50 lea" indicates that there are 50 leas or cuts of 300 yds. each in 1 lb. of the yard so denominated. with the heavier yarns in scotland the quality is indicated by their weight per "spyndle" of 48 cuts or leas; thus "3 lb. tow yarn" is such as weighs 3 lb. per spyndle, equivalent to "16 lea." the hanks of yarn from wet spinning are either dried in a loft with artificial heat or exposed over ropes in the open air. when dry they are twisted back and forward to take the wiry feeling out of the yarn, and made up in bundles for the market as "grey yarn." english spinners make up their yarns into "bundles" of 20 hanks, each hank containing 10 leas; irish spinners make hanks of 12 leas, 16(2/3) of which form a bundle; scottish manufacturers adhere to the spyndle containing 4 hanks of 12 cuts or leas. commercial qualities of yarn range from about 8 lb. tow yarns (6 lea) up to 160 lea line yarn. very much finer yarn up even to 400 lea may be spun from the system of machines found in many mills; but these higher counts are only used for fine thread for sewing and for the making of lace. the highest counts of cut line flax are spun in irish mills for the manufacture of fine cambrics and lawns which are characteristic features of the ulster trade. exceedingly high counts have sometimes been spun by hand, and for the preparation of the finest lace threads it is said the belgian hand spinners must work in damp cellars, where the spinner is guided by the sense of touch alone, the filament being too fine to be seen by the eye. such lace yarn is said to have been sold for as much as £240 per lb. in the great exhibition of 1851, yarn of 760 lea, equal to about 130 m. per lb., was shown which had been spun by an irish woman eighty-four years of age. in the same exhibition there was shown by a cambray manufacturing firm hand-spun yarn equal to 1200 warp and 1600 weft or to more than 204 and 272 m. per lb. respectively. _bleaching._--a large proportion of the linen yarn of commerce undergoes a more or less thorough bleaching before it is handed over to the weaver. linen yarns in the green condition contain such a large proportion of gummy and resinous matter, removable by bleaching, that cloths which might present a firm close texture in their natural unbleached state would become thin and impoverished in a perfectly bleached condition. nevertheless, in many cases it is much more satisfactory to weave the yarns in the green or natural colour, and to perform all bleaching operations in the piece. manufacturers allow about 20 to 25% of loss in weight of yarn in bleaching from the green to the fully bleached stage; and the intermediate stages of boiled, improved, duck, cream, half bleach and three-quarters bleach, all indicating a certain degree of bleaching, have corresponding degrees of loss in weight. the differences in colour resulting from different degrees of bleaching are taken advantage of for producing patterns in certain classes of linen fabrics. linen thread is prepared from the various counts of fine bleached line yarn by winding the hanks on large spools, and twisting the various strands, two, three, four or six cord as the case may be, on a doubling spindle similar in principle to the yarn spinning frame, excepting, of course, the drawing rollers. a large trade in linen thread has been created by its use in the machine manufacture of boots and shoes, saddlery and other leather goods, and in heavy sewing-machine work generally. the thread industry is largely developed at lisburn near belfast, at johnstone near glasgow, bridport, dorsetshire, and at paterson, new jersey, united states. fine cords, net twine and ropes are also twisted from flax. weaving.--the difficulties in the way of power-loom linen weaving, combined with the obstinate competition of hand-loom weavers, delayed the introduction of factory weaving of linen fabrics for many years after the system was fully applied to other textiles. the principal difficulty arose through the hardness and inelasticity of the linen yarns, owing to which the yarn frequently broke under the tension to which it was subjected. competition with the hand-loom against the power-loom in certain classes of work is conceivable, although it is absolutely impossible for the work of the spinning wheel to stand against the rivalry of drawing, roving and spinning frames. to the present day, in ireland especially, a great deal of fine weaving is done by hand-loom. warden states that power was applied on a small scale to the weaving of canvas in london about 1812; that in 1821 power-looms were started for weaving linen at kirkcaldy, scotland; and that in 1824 maberly & co. of aberdeen had two hundred power-looms erected for linen manufacture. the power-loom has been in uninterrupted use in the broadford factory, aberdeen, which then belonged to maberly & co., down to the present day, and that firm may be credited with being the effective introducers of power-loom weaving in the linen trade. the various operations connected with linen weaving, such as winding, warping, dressing, beaming and drawing-in, do not differ in essential features from the like processes in the case of cotton weaving, &c., neither is there any significant modification in the looms employed (see weaving). dressing is a matter of importance in the preparation of linen warps for beaming. it consists in treating the spread yarn with flour or farina paste, applied to it by flannel-covered rollers, the lowermost of which revolves in a trough of paste. the paste is equalized on the yarn by brushes, and dried by passing the web over steam-heated cylinders before it is finally wound on the beam for weaving. fabrics. linen fabrics are numerous in variety and widely different in their qualities, appearance and applications, ranging from heavy sail-cloth and rough sacking to the most delicate cambrics, lawns and scrims. the heavier manufactures include as a principal item sail-cloth, with canvas, tarpaulin, sacking and carpeting. the principal seats of the manufacture of these linens are dundee, arbroath, forfar, kirkcaldy, aberdeen and barnsley. the medium weight linens, which are used for a great variety of purposes, such as tent-making, towelling, covers, outer garments for men, linings, upholstery work, &c., include duck, huckaback, crash, tick, dowlas, osnaburg, low sheetings and low brown linens. plain bleached linens form a class by themselves, and include principally the materials for shirts and collars and for bed sheets. under the head of twilled linens are included drills, diapers and dimity for household use; and damasks for table linen, of which two kinds are distinguished--single or five-leaf damask, and double or eight-leaf damask, the pattern being formed by the intersection of warp and weft yarns at intervals of five and eight threads of yarn respectively. the fine linens are cambrics, lawns and handkerchiefs; and lastly, printed and dyed linen fabrics may be assigned to a special though not important class. in a general way it may be said regarding the british industry that the heavy linen trade centres in dundee; medium goods are made in most linen manufacturing districts; damasks are chiefly produced in belfast, dunfermline and perth; and the fine linen manufactures have their seat in belfast and the north of ireland. leeds and barnsley are the centres of the linen trade in england. linen fabrics have several advantages over cotton, resulting principally from the microscopic structure and length of the flax fibre. the cloth is much smoother and more lustrous than cotton cloth; and, presenting a less "woolly" surface, it does not soil so readily, nor absorb and retain moisture so freely, as the more spongy cotton; and it is at once a cool, clean and healthful material for bed-sheeting and clothing. bleached linen, starched and dressed, possesses that unequalled purity, gloss and smoothness which make it alone the material suitable for shirt-fronts, collars and wristbands; and the gossamer delicacy, yet strength, of the thread it may be spun into fits it for the fine lace-making to which it is devoted. flax is a slightly heavier material than cotton, while its strength is about double. as regards the actual number of spindles and power-looms engaged in linen manufacture, the following particulars are taken from the report of the flax supply association for 1905:-- +------------------+------+----------+------+------------+ | | | number of| | number of | | country. | year.| spindles | year.| power-looms| | | | for flax | | for linen | | | | spinning.| | weaving. | |------------------+------+----------+------+------------+ | austria-hungary | 1903 | 280,414 | 1895 | 3357 | | belgium | 1902 | 280,000 | 1900 | 3400 | | england and wales| 1905 | 49,941 | 1905 | 4424 | | france | 1902 | 455,838 | 1891 | 18,083 | | germany | 1902 | 295,796 | 1895 | 7557 | | holland | 1896 | 8000 | 1891 | 1200 | | ireland | 1905 | 851,388 | 1905 | 34,498 | | italy | 1902 | 77,000 | 1902 | 3500 | | norway | .. | .. | 1880 | 120 | | russia | 1902 | 300,000 | 1889 | 7312 | | scotland | 1905 | 160,085 | 1905 | 17,185 | | spain | .. | .. | 1876 | 1000 | | sweden | .. | .. | 1884 | 286 | +------------------+------+----------+------+------------+ _british exports of linen yarn and cloth._ +---------------------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+ | | 1891. | 1896. | 1901. | 1906. | +---------------------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+ | weight of linen yarn | | | | | | in pounds | 14,859,900 | 18,462,300 | 12,971,100 | 14,978,200 | | length in yards of linen | | | | | | piece goods, plain, | | | | | | bleached or unbleached |144,416,700 |150,849,300 |137,521,000 |173,334,200 | | length in yards of linen | | | | | | piece goods, checked, | | | | | | dyed or printed, also | | | | | | damask and diaper | 11,807,600 | 17,986,100 | 8,007,600 | 13,372,100 | | length in yards of sail- | | | | | | cloth | 3,233,400 | 5,372,600 | 4,686,700 | 4,251,400 | | total length in yards of | | | | | | all kinds of linen cloth|159,457,700 |174,208,000 |150,215,300 |190,957,700 | | weight in pounds of linen | | | | | | thread for sewing | 2,474,100 | 2,240,300 | 1,721,000 | 2,181,100 | +---------------------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+ authorities.--history of the trade, &c.: warden's _linen trade, ancient and modern_. spinning: peter sharp, _flax, tow and jute spinning_ (dundee); h. r. carter, _spinning and twisting of long vegetable fibres_ (london). weaving: woodhouse and milne, _jute and linen weaving_, part i., mechanism, part ii., calculations and cloth structure (manchester); and woodhouse and milne, _textile design: pure and applied_ (london). (t. wo.) footnotes: [1] see sir arthur mitchell's _the past in the present_ (edinburgh, 1880). [2] the preparation of tow for spinning differs in essential features from the processes above described. tow from different sources, such as scutching tow, hackle tow, &c. differs considerably in quality and value, some being very impure, filled with woody shives &c., while other kinds are comparatively open and clean. a preliminary opening and cleaning is necessary for the dirty much-matted tows, and in general thereafter they are passed through two carding engines called respectively the breaker and the finisher cards till the slivers from their processes are ready for the drawing and roving frames. in the case of fine clean tows, on the other hand, passing through a single carding engine may be sufficient. the processes which follow the carding do not differ materially from those followed in the preparation of rove from line flax.