THE FLAX INDUSTRY. SCUTCHING PHORMIUM TENAX. A USEFUL INVENTION. Auckland, December 16.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 429, 18 December 1889, Page 5

THE FLAX INDUSTRY. SCUTCHING PHORMIUM TENAX. A USEFUL INVENTION. Auckland, December 16.

Mu A. McLkod, of this city, has just patented an invention which bids fair to grcitly impi'ove tho quality and consequently enhance tho mavkob pi ice of the dressed (lax exported from the colony to England arid America. The in\cnfon ii in tho shape of an iron &cutchcr embodying many impioxemcnt? on t/ ( ic cumbious wooden scutchers afc present in universal ueo in Ilax milK Yesterday afternoon Mr McLeod ga\c a public trial ol the scutcher in the establishment of Mr 11. lugH?, boiler maker, Customs street West. The working of tho sculchcr, v» liich appeared to peiform its duties exceedingly woll, was watched with great interest by a number of visitors. The lough fLtx placed on the b ating board within reach of the scutching fans was cleaned and fined down most ri. 3 inaikub!y, and all present were given an opportunity of observing tho marked diflciencc between the milled ilax which went through the. scutcher and the finely t-moothed article which camo out of the machine. Tho j-cutcher coiw-l-i of a wooden frame about eight feet high by f-ix wide, inside which lev'olvcs tlie iron scutcher horizontally. The front of the fiameis open in order to aliow tho waste tow to be driven out by the involving fans and deposited on the floor. At the back a narrow aperture running the widtn of the fiamo enables the operator to plaoD liia hank of flax in position as tho beatets revolve. The scutcher has four iron arms, the whole length of the beating- boat d being six feet. One of the piincipal improvements Mr McLeod incudes in his patent i< the increased strength and at the feamo time greater lightness, offering 75 per cent, less resistance to the -lir than the old-fa&hioncd beaters, owing to there being only 2h inches of beabing-board in thice bars to be forced round at the rate of 200 revolutions per minute, thus enabling the machine to be diiven with one fourth the steampower hitherto used. The patentee states that tins machine can bo produced much cheaper than the old wooden scutcher, although manufactured of ii on. A feature in the ivon scutcher, which is a great impro\ement over the old machine, is the manner in which the four horizontal beating aims are canted at an appreciable angle from tho horizontal, each arm being inclined in the opposite direction from tho arm opposite it. This those interested and experienced in flaxdressing will ab once see has the ellecb of spreading out the hanks of flax along the beating-board, thus doing automatically what has to be performed by the operator in the old scutcher. Anothe r improvement in tho machine which MrilcLeodluis broiiffhtoutis a patent bpiing in the shaft of the scutcher, which enables the beating-boaid a free tiavelling space ot one-inch backward and forward, lor the purpose of adjusting itself to the different sizes of the hanks placed in it for dressit g. 'J he machine id a very exact worker, and is stated not to make moro than 15 per cenl. of waste or tow. Altogether, with its impio\od method of scutching, its infinitely less displacement of air and consequent less steam power requited, and it 3 patent shalt spring and automatic spioading process, the scutcher is a vast improvement on the machines now in use by ilax drcsseis. Mr McLeod says he can turn out the machines complete for £25 each. It is reckoned that three men ab a machine can in a day of eight hours -ditch thirty cwt. of Ihx. The useful invention is now in full woiking oider in Customs strcob, where those interested in the flax industry arc invited to inspect it.