Linen
a general name for yarn spun or cloth woven from the fibers of the flax plant. The fiber is obtained by processes similar to those employed in working hemp. Linen fibers are unusually even, soft, and flossy. Linen makes the softest and, in many respects, the most beautiful cloth known. It is thought to be the most ancient textile. It is certain that there is no other fabric which has such a history or such a part in the world's history as linen. Its softness, its luster, its durability, and that peculiar quality which causes it to be associated in the mind with absolute cleanliness, have, in all ages and among all people, won for this fabric a place among textiles which no other product of the loom has ever attained. From time immemorial linen has formed the robe of priesthood and the hangings of the temple. A "fair linen cloth," the symbol of purity, covers the altar and the consecrated elements on the communion table. Linen has been regarded as fit clothing for kings and princes; new born babes have been dressed in it; and no more honorable method of preparing the dead for burial has been found than to wrap the body in "a clean linen cloth."
In India, Egypt, and Babylon, the manufacture of linens reached great perfection at a very early period. Egyptian mummies have been found swathed in as many as forty thicknesses of linen. Some of these mummy wrappings are of linen finer than anything that can now be produced. One piece has been found in the wrappings of a mummy which counts 540 warp threads to the inch, while the finest ever woven in Europe counts but 350.
France, Belgium, and Holland each acquired an early reputation for the production of linen. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes drove many French linen weavers abroad and contributed to the establishment of the industry in the British Isles. Irish linens are celebrated for fineness and beauty. Belfast and Armagh are centers of Irish linen making. Linens are manufactured extensively at Leeds, England. A single room in one of the factories is said to cover two acres. Dundee, Scotland, is another linen center. Lisle is the best known linen center of France. Considerable linen is manufactured in Russian Poland. Most of the linen used in America for men's furnishing goods and for napkins, tablecloths, handkerchiefs, toweling, and dress goods is imported from Great Britain. A duty ranging from forty to sixty per cent of the original cost is added.
A large amount of flax is raised in the United States and Canada. The seed is pressed for linseed oil. Thread, binding twine, and coarse toweling are made from the fibre, but the greater part of the flax straw is thrown away. Attempts to make the finer grades of linen here have not proved profitable.
The beauty of linen depends upon the evenness and fineness of the thread and upon the density of the fabric. An appearance of density is produced often by calendering, which flattens the threads. Consequently a "round thread" linen is regarded as preferable, for its density is a result of weaving and not of finishing.
The use of the power loom in the weaving of linen has been attended with greater difficulty than in the weaving of wool or cotton. This is due to the hardness and inelasticity of the threads, which cause the wefts to break frequently under the sudden jerk with which the shuttle is thrown in power loom weaving. On this account, many fine linens are woven still by hand.
The various species of textiles which come under the denomination of linens are damask, cambric, lawn, batiste, diaper, toweling, sheeting, canvas, and duck. As all of these goods are now made in cotton it is customary to prefix the qualifying word linen to the various names if the fabrics are products of flax.