3-009-027 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The International Exhibition: Sandford and Mallory's flax-gin, 1862. 'Although of a very unpretending appearance, the flax-gin of America may claim a value for industrial usefulness greater than some of the more attractive and highly-finished objects of the exhibition, especially as the supply of textile materials to the spinning-mills of England becomes at this time a question of solicitude. In America, where large quantities of flax and hemp are grown, any process which abridges the labour of freeing fibre from ligneous stalk is a matter of great moment, in consequence of the scarcity of manual help; and to overcome this difficulty the "Sandford" machine...was designed...This machine expeditiously takes off the extraneous vegetable matter from the fibre as it arrives from the field in a green state, or it also performs the duty of a scutching-machine, and dispenses with handbreaks and swingles...The feed is performed by a fluted metal roller, which has pressed upon it with considerable force another roller covered with indiarubber...When the machine works upon green materials a stream of water is run through it to wash away the pulpy vegetable matter which is separated from the fibres'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.