Beetling

in the manufacture of certain cotton and linen fabrics, a finishing process which renders them soft, smooth, and glossy. It also flattens the threads to a uniform thickness. The process may be described as a form of mangling. The beetling machine consists of two wooden rollers and some wooden weights or hammers. The cloth is wound on one of the rollers and runs slowly to the other, passing backward and forward several times. Meanwhile the hammers, which are suspended above the rollers, are raised mechanically, and fall by their own weight upon the fabric. The beetling process is continued for several days at a time in finishing certain linen goods.