Questions about Scutch Mills and Flax Scutching

Reference code: FOL.QUES/27
Level of description: Series
Title: Questions about Scutch Mills and Flax Scutching
Scope and content: 1. What happened to the flax when it came into the mill, before being fed into the breaking machine?
2. Give the names for:
(a) The breaking machine
(b) The man who operated it.
(c) The amount of flax fed into it
3. If there were different types of breaking machines, describe the difference and give the names by which they were known.
4. Where was the flax fed into the breaking machine? And where did it come out?
5. Did the man working at this machine
(a) stand or sit?
(b) Have any safety harness, and if so, what was it called?
SCUTCHING:
6. How was the broken flax prepared for the actual scutching, and what was the name for the person who prepared it?
7. Did scutchers work in twos or in threes? Was any distinction made in the work of different scutchers? If so, give names for them.
8. Did scutchers wear any protective device around their hands? If so, what was it made from and what was it called?
9. Give the local names for –
(a) The iron partition against which scutchers held the flax to be scutched
(b) the position at which the scutcher stood
(c) the wooden flail which hit the flax
10. Regarding the flails -
(a) Was there any variation in their number at any position within a scutch mill?
(b) What type of wood were they made of?
(c) How were they kept sharp?
(a) Did the space between the wooden flails and the iron partition vary (e.g. according to the quality of flax, or amount of flax, or for arbitrary reasons)?
(e) If variable, was the iron partition moved or were the flails moved to make the adjustment?
11. Give the name for the small pieces of flax-stem core and casing knocked away from the flax fibre in scutching. Were there any local uses for this material?
12. Was there any difference between tow and rug? (If so, say what each was.)
Were there local uses for tow or rug?
13. In what form was the tow rescutched?
and was the process of rescutching called -
(a) rescutching
(b) targing
or (c) (any other name)
14. (a) Give the name of the worker who rescutched the tow
(b) and say whether -
(1) he worked at a separate position
(2) he worked at a different period of the year there
(3) was any difference between this worker's flails and those of the ordinary scutcher?
15. (a) Give the name of the very coarse fibre remaining after the tow had been rescutched
(b) Was there any local use for it?
WEIGHING AND PAYMENT:
16. (a) How was the good flax dressed after scutching?
(b) Give the name of the weighing device and say in what weight or weights the flax was weighed
(c) Was a box used to gauge the weight of the flax? (If so, describe it)
17. (a) How were scutchers paid? (Give rates at particular dates)
(b) How did the farmer pay for scutching
(c) Was there animosity between farmers and scutch mill owners?
CONDITIONS IN SCUTCH-MILLS:
18. Give a name for -
(a) the dust and dirt found in a mill
(b) the pit (if any) below the wooden flails
19. How was fire risk reduced to a minimum?
20. How was the scutch mill lit? (Describe lighting apparatus)