Flax and linen

Specific Fibers. Literature on specific fibers is subdivided into the following classes cotton, wool and hair, silk, and the long vegetable fibers, with jute, flax and linen, hemp, ramie, and kenaf as constituents of the last class. 

Anthony W (2002) Separation of fiber from seed flax straw. Appl Eng Agric 18(2) 227-233 ASTM International (2005a) ASTM standard terminology relating to flax and linen (D6798), Annual Book of Standards, Section 7.02, Textiles. ASTM Intemational, West Conshohocken, PA... 

Linum vivum Ancient name for cloth woven from asbestos. From the Latin linum, meaning flax or linen, and vivum, used in the sense of to endure or to live, in reference to the stability of asbestos cloth against fire. 

Other Cellulosics. Rayon is bleached similarly to cotton but under milder conditions since the fibers are more easily damaged and since there is less colored material to bleach. Cellulose acetate and triacetate are not usually bleached. They can be bleached like rayon, except a slighdy lower pH is used to prevent hydrolysis. The above fibers are most commonly bleached with hydrogen peroxide. Linen, flax, and jute require more bleaching and milder conditions than cotton, so multiple steps are usually used. Commonly an acidic or neutral hypochlorite solution is followed by alkaline hypochlorite, peroxide, chlorite, or permanganate, or a chlorite step is done between two peroxide steps. A one-step process with sodium chlorite and hydrogen peroxide is also used. 

Flax fabrics (linen) have an excellent hand, fair abrasion resistance, fair pilling resistance, good stability to repeated launderings, fair sunlight resistance, excellent colorfastness. veiy poor wash and wear performance, and poor wrinkle resistance. 

Like cotton, there are many different linen fabrics made from the basic flax fiber. Most of these are defined only by the type of weave and the fineness of the fiber, such as cambric and damask. The word linen is usually applied only to unbleached plain weave material. Some names are applied to similar fabrics made of cotton and linen. An example of this is canvas, a plainly woven fabric of varying weight made from hard-twisted yam. Canvas may be made from hemp, cotton, jute, or flax (linen). Most fine fabrics, particularly of European or American manufacture, are made from flax. Since its invention in the 1600s, most lace has also been made of flax thread. 

Raw materials for the pulp and paper industry can be classified as fibrous and non-fibrous. Wood accounts for over 95 percent of the fibrous raw material (other than waste paper) in the United States. Cotton and linen rags, cotton linters, cereal straws, esparto, hemp, jute, flax, bagasse, and bamboo also are used and in some countries are the major source of papermaking fiber. 

Cotton and Linen Cloth, etc.— The two most important sources of cellulose for the manufacture of thread and cloth and similar articles are the holl of the cotton plant and the stalk of the flax plant. The former is the source of all goods known as cotton while the materials made from the latter are termed linen. Another important fibre plant is hemp, the leaves or stalk of which yields fibres which are principally used in making twine, rope and canvas. Several varieties of hemp are used such as manila hemp, sisal, etc. The stalk of ihtjute plant is the source of materials out of which sacking or burlap and carpets are made.. In the manufacture of these products the fibre of the plant is mechanically separated and then spun into thread or twisted into yarn or rope. The thread or yarn are then woven into fabrics. The products possess properties characteristic of the particular fibre used. As in the manufacture of all of these important materials the cellulose undergoes no chemical change but is simply mechanically treated no further details of the processes will be given. 

Flax is considered to be the oldest fibre in the Western world and CIS (formerly USSR) grows most of the flax fibre. Linen has been gradually loosing its position as an apparel fabric since 1950s, but the emergence of linen as a component of blends has stimulated considerable interest. 

The best known and most abundantly used multicellular fibre is flax or linen. Fabrics made from flax fibres have been used since prehistoric times. The plant still grows naturally in swampy regions between the eastern shores of the Black Sea and the Caucasus. Its cultivation may have originated from this region, but the surmise is not supported by any conclusive evidence. Flax was used in Egypt in about 2500 B.c., and the failure of the flax crop is specifically mentioned as one of the plagues in the Book of Moses. The ships of the Phoenicians and Greeks were borne across the seas by sails made of linen. 

Cellulose fibres originate from the seed of the plant (cotton), its stem (bast fibres) or its leaves (sisal, alfa), having, as a consequence, different percentages of cellulose, lignin and hemicellulose. Basically, any plant may be used as a source of cellulose fibres, and it is a matter of historical development, availability and abundance that cotton, hemp and linen (flax) are today the most used cellulosic fibres. 

Linseed flax or common flax is an annual, 25-100 cm in height. There are two distinct strains of flax linseed flax giving high yields of seed (oil content 35-44%) and linen flax grown for its fibre. It is a subtropical or warm temperature crop and is harvested either manually or by combined harvester. It is grown principally in Argentina, India, USSR, the USA and Canada. 

Flax and hemp straw due to the specific structure of fibre finds its application mainly through the traditional flax spinning method. Linen and hemp textiles are usually thicker than cotton, wool or chemical fibres. Traditional flax spinning technology is highly labour intensive, inefficient and uneconomical. 

The flax fiber from the aimual plant IJnum usitatissimum (flax family, Liuaceae) has been used siuce ancient times as the fiber for linen. The plant grows iu temperate, moderately moist climates, for example, iu Belgium, France, Ireland, Italy, and Russia. The plant is also cultivated for its seed, from which linseed oil is produced. A by-product of the seed plant is the tow fiber used iu papermakiug. 

Fibers (see Fibers, survey) used in textile production can have a wide variety of origins plants, ie, ceUulosic fibers (see Fibers, cellulose esters) animals, ie, protein fibers (see Wool) and, in the twentieth century, synthetic polymers. Depending on the part of the plant, the ceUulosic fibers can be classified as seed fibers, eg, cotton (qv), kapok bast fibers, eg, linen from flax, hemp, jute and leaf fibers, eg, agave. Protein fibers include wool and hair fibers from a large variety of mammals, eg, sheep, goats, camels, rabbits, etc, and the cocoon material of insect larvae (sUk). Real sUk is derived from the cocoon of the silkworm, Bombjx mori and for a long time was only produced in China, from which it was traded widely as a highly valuable material. 

Byssinosis Reactive airway disease associated with inhalation of organic textile fibers,. such as cotton, flax, linen, and hemp. 

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