Taylor Genealogy -- Wisharts in the textile industry (1863)

Wisharts in the textile industry (1863)

At the start of the year 1863, MARY TAYLOR's 33-year-old brother, Joseph Wishart, was working in a bleach field ten miles from his home near Letham. Scotland was a producer of flax, a crop whose fibers were woven into cloth and whose seeds yielded oil for a variety of uses. The seed residue was also used to feed livestock, but the most important utilization of the plant was for making linen.

In the long difficult processing routine, the initial step of "retting" or "rotting" separated desired fibers from the flax plant stalk's woody parts which would be discarded. However, matter containing unwanted colors comprised almost a third of the remaining product. The rest of the whole procedure was a series of steps called "bleaching," which turned the raw material completely white.

Chemical-bleaching or sun-bleaching was a very necessary step in converting flax to linen; different new procedures were tried but often without success. The Encyclopedia Brittanica of 1894 states: "Till toward the end of last century the bleaching of linen both in the north of Ireland and Scotland was accomplished by bowking in cow's dung and souring with sour milk." Surely such craftsmanship invested into fine linen manufacturing could be appreciated by many.

From Queen Victoria on down to the local neighborhood duke, the royal chain of command adorned themselves with fancy garments for important public outings. Linen cloth was also converted into shirts, pants, dresses, undergarments, handkerchiefs, scarves, drapes, bed clothing, and tablecloths. Ships with canvas sails made of linen were used by all the earlier world explorers. Linen from Forfarshire, Scotland's textile region, was in common usage until the material started to be replaced by American cotton during the mid-19th century.

MARY's 26-year-old sister, Margaret, was presently doing well being engaged as a dressmaker in Montrose, the town where her parents had earlier sent her to learn the trade. Earlier, having returned to New Mill to apply her newly-acquired skills, she had become discouraged by the seemingly slow demand for her work. Impatiently, she had already committed to accepting a Montrose job by the time abundant orders for her services started coming in at New Mill.

The process of separating fiber from flax stalks was also called "heckling," and sometimes "hackling." During 1781, 22-year-old Robert Burns lived in an attic at 4 Glasgow Vennel in the city of Glasgow. He labored as a heckler in an adjacent shop where the work was strenuous and unpleasant but the pay was pretty good. At year's end, the shop was destroyed as a result of a hot New Year's Eve office party where his aunt, Mrs. Peacock, got drunk, bumped into a candle, and set the whole place afire. Robbie may have been trying to work out the words to an appropriate holiday song at that moment. However, the blazing Monday night episode didn't seem to bother the young poet, who was unharmed but now deprived of a paying job. He decided he had already had his fill of heckling and was glad nobody discovered Robert burns.

These were the standard recipes for bleaching at a 19th century linen mill:

[Use of the term "crofting" here means exposure to the air on grass.]

I. Without Crofting.

1. Limed.
2. Boiled in open kier for about 6 hours.
3. Washed at washing-mill or stocks.
4. Soured with hydrochloric acid, and piled in sour for some hours.
5. Washed at stocks.
6. Boiled in soda-ash for 8 or 10 hours.
7. Again boiled.
8. Liquored in chlorine solution and piled up.
9. Washed.
10. Boiled in alkali for 6 or 7 hours.
11. Liquored in chlorine solution.
12. Washed.
13. Soured with sulphuric acid.
14. Washed.

II. With Crofting

1. Boiled in lime.
2. Washed.
3. Soured.
4. Washed.
5. Boiled in alkali and washed.
6. Exposed on grass 3 or 4 days.
7. Boiled in alkali.
8. Washed.
9. Exposed on grass.
10. Liquored.
11. Washed.
12. Soured with sulphuric acid.
13. Washed.
14. Boiled in alkali.
15. Liquored.
16. Washed.
17. Soured with sulphuric acid.
18. Washed, and processes 14 to 18 repeated if necessary.

With exposure on the grass the bleaching of plain linens usually occupies from 4 to 6 weeks. The finishing processes are essentially the same as in the case of calicoes. The following are the stages in finishing linen damasks:---

1. Nipped in squeezers.
2. Blued in ultramarrine in blueing-water triangle.
3. Starched in starching-mangle.
4. Dried on steam cans.
5. Damped with fine spray.
6. Beetled.
7. Calendered.
8. Dried on steam cans.
9. Again calendered.
10. Viewed to detect rust spots and holes.
11. Lapped.
12. Pressed in hydraulic-press.

When necessary the processes from 10 to 14 are repeated. The whole processes occupy, on an average, four weeks.

[website editors note: Don't try any of this in your own home without qualified supervision, especially "Without Crofting".]

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