What follows is a transcript of an article that appeared in Freemans Journal on 1st June 1857. It describes the mill my great x3 grandfather Michael Cullen and his family worked in. Michael, a flax dresser/hackler, arrived in Chapelizod sometime between May 1857 (when son James was baptised in Drogheda) and January 1862 (when son Thomas was baptised in Chapelizod).
INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS.
THE CHAPELIZOD FLAX MILLS.
There are few localities in Ireland longer or more intimately connected with the linen trade than the little village of Chapelizod, on the banks of the river Liffey, adjoining the Phoenix Park, and situated within a short distance of the low and picturesque range of hills popularly known as the Strawberry Beds. This district has long been the seat of some branches of the linen manufacture, though of late years the operations were so languidly conducted that final extinction seemed neither improbable nor remote. We are happy to say that the threatened calamity has been averted, and that within the last five years the flax manufacture in Chapelizod has been wonderfully revived. The staple manufacture of Ireland, in which she maintains a supremacy over every other country in the world, is at present almost confined to the province of Ulster. There are not more than nine or ten flax factories distributed throughout Leinster and Munster, whilst of the entire number in Ireland nearly one half are situated in Belfast and its environs. The great success with which the trade is pursued in Ulster arises, beyond doubt, from the enterprising spirit, intelligence, and industry which characterise our northern fellow countrymen. We can see no reason why their example may not be successfully imitated in other parts of Ireland, if those who possess the necessary capital were actuated by the same energetic spirit of enterprise. The splendid flax-spinning factory at Chapelizod, belonging to William Dargan and Company, affords a remarkable illustration and confirmation of our views on this point. We had the pleasure of visiting this fine establishment a few days ago, and were delighted to observe the unmistakeable indications of prosperity which were exhibited in the unceasing activity prevailing in every department, the busy hum of industry that resounded in very portion of the vast building. It is an interesting fact, not generally known, that the manufacture was originally established in Chapelizod by the great Duke of Ormond. It is recorded that one of the earliest cares of this illustrious nobleman, upon the recovery of his estates in the reign of Charles II., was the revival of the linen trade, first established by the Earl of Strafford. He dispatched persons to the low countries to learn the methods practised and the regulations observed there, and invited over from Brabant and other places a considerable number of experienced hands. One body of these industrious immigrants amounted to 500. Some of them were located at Chapelizod, under Colonel Richard Laurence, where houses were built for the weavers, and a considerable trade in linen grew up. Laurence afterwards added, on his own account, the manufacture of woollen cloth. The woollen trade has vanished, but the flax manufacture still remained, and within the last five years has been revived by the most energetic, enterprising, and public-spirited Irishman of our generation – William Dargan – in the same place, probably on the identical spot of ground, where it was first planted by the noble and patriotic liberality of the great Duke. For many years past the factory at Chapelizod belonged to two wealthy and highly-respected citizens of Dublin, the Messrs. Crosthwait. On the death of one of the partners, the survivors became anxious to retire from trade, and in the year 1852 the mills were purchased by Mr. Dargan, and have since been worked by him in conjunction with Messrs. Benjamin and Seaborn Haughton, gentlemen who had thoroughly learned the business in one of the first manufactories in the north of Ireland, and whose tact, knowledge, and practical abilities, are testified by the success which has hitherto attended their management. The new proprietor had no sooner obtained possession of the factory than he set about its improvement with the utmost activity. The building was thoroughly remodelled, and some necessary additions built, the old machinery discarded and replaced by a greater number of new machines of the most improved construction; and, in short, the establishment was perfectly re-organized so as to enable the company to compete on equal terms with rival manufacturers. The sum thus expended in repairing and refitting the mills amounted to upwards of 40,000l. and the success attendant upon that great experiment, which was carried out in the face of many formidable difficulties, has completely justified the outlay. The establishment, or revival on a large scale, of so important a branch of manufactures amongst us must naturally be a subject of general interest and congratulation, The benefits arising from the employment which it affords to hundreds who would otherwise be doomed to enforced idleness and consequent misery, are obvious to all; and the effects produced on every class in the community by the prosperity of native manufacturers are equally apparent – in fact, mere truisms in political economy on which it would be idle to dwell. A brief description of the Chapelizod mills, and of the process of manufacture carried on therein, may therefore prove of some interest to our reader.
The extent of ground covered by the factory, stores, offices, and houses which are being built for the work people is about five acres. The factory itself is a large oblong edifice, five stories in height, built fire proof. Immediately adjoining it is a lower but still lofty building, in which are arranged four immense boilers for the purpose of supplying steam to the engines, by which the machinery is principally worked. Two of the boilers are constructed on the tubular principle, one of these has just been erected by the enterprising firm of Courtney, Stephens, and Company, Blackhall-place, and we believe it is looked upon as fully equal in every respect to the others which were manufactured in England – another indication of Irish manufacturing progress which it is gratifying to perceive. The machinery is worked by steam and water power combined, the whole power used amounting to something over 500 horse power. There are two fine engines of 350 indicated horse power, the larger of the two having been made by Fairbairn of Manchester. The head of water is estimated at 200 horse power, and acts by means of two large water wheels, each eighteen feet in diameter, and twenty-six feet in breadth, so placed that the entire supply of the river Liffey is utilised by these wheels. An ingenious arrangement, termed an improved “expansive motion” has been adopted for the purpose of economising the steam power. This apparatus is self-acting, and so well arranged that, no matter what amount of steam power may be required to give, with the water power, the requisite sum of power, the engine always works at a uniform speed. This is effected by a roller acting on an ingeniously contrived “cam.” When ever there is a full power of water acting on the wheels, the steam, by application of the governor principle, is cut off sooner from the engine; but when more steam is required, the roller is lowered on the vertical cam, so that the steam valve is kept open for a longer time, and consequently the steam is not cut off so soon as it otherwise would be. This improved mode of working the valves of the engine has been first adopted at this factory, and has been carried out by the firm of Courtney, Stephens and Co., to which we have previously made allusion. The value of the invention will be better appreciated when we state that it enables the company to produce steam power at a cost of 3 ½ pounds of coal per indicated horse power per hour, which is a saving of at least one-third of the ordinary consumption. Having said so much respecting the power by which the mills are driven, we shall now proceed to notice the material used in the manufacture, and the various processes which it undergoes before it is fitted for the market. The firm of Dargan and Company manufacture on an average, in the course of one year, 600 tons weight of flax, which at 80l. per ton gives an outlay of 48,000l. When this material leaves the mills in its manufactured state, its value is more than doubled in amount. The flax in purchased in France, Belgium, Holland, and in the various towns of the north of Ireland, in each of which places the firm has established its agents. About 300 tons of flax are constantly kept in store, what is used in the mill being regularly supplied by fresh purchases. The flax obtained at home is bought and made up in stone weights, whilst that purchased in foreign countries comes over in bails containing 2 cwt each. The proportions of the various kinds of flax used in this establishment vary, but may be stated generally to be about one-third of French and Flemish, one-third of Dutch, and one-third of Irish. Russian or Baltic flax is not used here at all, but it is extensively imported into Scotland and Belfast, where it is manufactured into coarse fabrics. From the rapid vegetation which prevails along the Russian coasts of the Baltic; the flax grown there is deficient in firmness or solidity, and yields much less in proportion than the flaxes of other countries. The coarseness of the fibre, and the fact that from its peculiar quality it has been found advisable to spin it in a dry state, renders it unsuited for the delicate and highly finished class of articles which are produced at the Chapelizod factory. The flax of France and Belgium is the best in the world, and yields the finest yarns. Indeed Belgium has long been considered almost unapproachable in the quality of her flax fibre, and its export to Great Britain and Ireland, France, Spain, and Italy is a very important source of wealth to that industrious little state, reaching an average annual value of 800,000l. The Dutch flax ranks next to the French and Flemish, not so much from the natural fineness of the quality as from its superior method of preparation. The plant is grown in Holland in immense flats, offering a curious contrast to the small plots of the Belgian petite culture. Its cultivation is so carefully attended to, and its after preparation effected with so much skill and neatness of handling that it commands a good price in the market. The Irish flax is inferior to the Dutch in consequence of careless cultivation and unskilful preparation. Of course we speak generally; but it is undeniable that in this country soil suitable for the plant is not often chosen with care – that ripe and unripe flax are frequently pulled at the same time, and that the long series of processes before the fibre can be obtained in a marketable state, are generally carried out in a very defective manner. Thus, while the finest kinds of French and Belgian flax average 100l. a ton, Dutch averages about £70 and Irish from five to ten pounds less. For the range of purposes to which Irish flax in applied, no other kind is better suited. It occupies a middle place between the Belgian and Russian, but owing to the description of fabrics chiefly made in Ireland, it is employed to a much greater extent than both those sorts combined. As the Chapelizod factory, however, is principally devoted to the manufacture of sewing thread, it becomes necessary to import a considerable quantity of the finest foreign flax for that purpose. As to the carriage of the raw material, it is worthy of remark that such are the facilities of transit afforded by railroads and steam, that flax can be carried to Chapelizod from Belgian and Dutch ports, via Hull and Liverpool, for very little more than the expense of conveyance from any of the inland towns in the North of Ireland, such as Armagh and Tandaragee. The first process to which the flax is subjected in this establishment is termed “roughing,” or straightening the fibre previous to placing the flax in the hackling-machine. This is of course done by hand. When we were introduced into the roughing shop, a number of men and boys were busily engaged in drawing several times, and with great rapidity, bundles of flax through a number of coarse steel hackle pins, placed on a frame before each individual. The fibres having been straightened and any short or broken ones removed by this operation, the flax is afterwards severed into lengths and placed in hackling machines in which the fibres are minutely subdivided. For the finer articles the middle of the flax alone is used, the tops and roots being cut off and laid aside for inferior purposes. To use the somewhat fanciful language of an able writer on this subject, in the process of hackling, the flax, severed in lengths between the jaws of a devouring monster, will be squeezed into clasps, to be pushed into another implement of torture where it will be raised and lowered, torn and scraped, and, losing one-third of its substance, be carried on to another room. Different descriptions of hackling machines are used in this establishment, but that which appears to give most satisfaction is the flax dressing machine invented and manufactured by James Combe and Co., Belfast. A description of this very ingenious and useful machine may be interesting. It has two circles thirty inches diameter, with six gradations of hackles, and is suited for dressing flax about thirteen inches long, to spin to about 140 leas per pound, of which it will dress four to five hundred per day with four boys attending it; but the principle is equally adapted for, and is here successfully applied to, the finest as well as the coarser numbers of yarn. Both sides of the flax are hackled on each gradation, of fineness of hackles, before it passes to the next by reversing the direction of the rotation of the circles of hackles, which is effected in a very simple manner by the action of the machine itself changing the position of a strap from one pully to another; the circles are so light, and run so easily, that the reversing is accomplished without any appreciable loss of time, and is rather an advantage than otherwise, by causing the hackles to act genuinely when they first begin to cut into the flax. The machine is self-acting in all its movements, the attendants having merely to place the holders filled with flax in a slide, at one end of each circle, after which they are carried through the machine, and the flax is acted upon gradually by hackles of each degree of fineness in succession. The hackle pins are arranged in lines at intervals, varying from about a quarter of an inch to three or four times that distance apart, according to the fineness of the work for which the machine is intended. By this arrangement a large number of hackles act simultaneously, and are passed through the flax, which enables the machine to do fine work with open hackles; and the flax lies so lightly on the points of the pins that a great yield of dressed flax is obtained. The operation of hackling having been completed the flax is sorted by men who, from long practice and experience, are able, with the greatest ease and certainty, to arrange it in parcels according to the different degrees of fineness. The several bundles are then tied up (the respective qualities being marked thereon) and placed in store, where they are allowed to remain some months in order to give the fibre time to recover its natural coolness and softness before the further processes of manufacture and entered upon. The next operation is to pass the flax through the “spreading machine,” which is done altogether by girls, requiring as it does no exertion of strength, but simply manual dexterity and care. The object of this process is to bring the fibres into the condition of a long narrow band of uniform thickness. As the “stricks,” or bundles of flax from the hackling machine are of different thickness, they are spread on a table, the thin part of one being placed against the thick part of another. The sheet of flax thus prepared is passed on endless leather belts between a pair of rollers on to a series of upright hackle teeth, which have a progressive motion from the back to the front of the machine. These teeth still further comb and parallelise the fibres as they are moved onwards to a second pair of rollers, which, revolving faster than the first, draw out or lengthen them. The thin sheets of flax from the different rollers are passed in slits made through the doubling plate of the machine, and, being united into one, are finally passed between a pair of rollers and delivered into a tin can. In this condition the flax is technically known as “sliver,” and has the appearance of a ribbon about three inches wide. The length of the sliver contained in each can must be the same and is regulated by the machine itself. A number of cans are then selected, containing a certain weight of slivers, which are passed through a machine called a drawing frame, the object of which is still further to parallelise the fibres. This process not only parallelises the fibres but tends to equalise the quality of the flax, making the slivers of uniform strength and texture, by combining many into one. This, which is called “doubling and drawing,” is several times repeated through machines of various degrees of fineness until all defects are got rid of, and an uniform sliver obtained. The machine next used is called the roving frame, the duty of which is to give the sliver, as proceeds from the last drawing frame, a certain amount of twist to enable it to be wound upon large bobbins, and to prevent the fibres being separated while passing through the hot water in the spinning process. The roving frame is of very ingenious construction, and includes Arkwright’s useful invention – the differential or equalising motion. A series of spindles are made to rotate with great rapidity vertically; these pass through a board upon which rest a series of bobbins, up the central tube of which the spindles pass. The bobbins, by Arkwright’s invention, are made to rotate independently of the spindles, and at different speed. To the top of the spindle a fork is attached, the ends of which are bent downwards, so as to be on each side of the spindle, like to letter U inverted. One arm of this fork is hollow, and has at its lower extremity a delivering of spring finger. The sliver is passed from the drawing rollers attached to the frame down the hollow tube of the fork and passes round the bobbin. The degree of twist and winding in, is entirely due to the difference of speed between the spindle and its attached fork and the bobbin rotating on the spindle. The revolutions of the fork give the twist – the difference of speed between the bobbin and the spindle gives the quantity wound on the former. If the finger always remained at the same height the roving would be wound up at one place of the bobbin only; to distribute it equally over its surface the frame on which the bobbin rests moves up and down. The bobbins when full of roving laid uniformly on are taken off the spindles, and the rovings thus produced are spun into yarn or thread by means of the throstle machine, the arrangements of which are similar to those of the roving-frame. The process of spinning flax is nearly the same as in the cotton manufacture, with the exception that in spinning the former the rovings are previously passed through hot water of 120° to 212°. This is necessary, as they have not the same tendency to combine as the fibres of cotton. The tow – which may be termed the refuse of the manufacture, being somewhat analogous in nature to cotton, is prepared by machines resembling those used for that material, and spun into a coarse description of yarn. We may remark that the gearing throughout the factory is of the most superior description, equal, in fact, to that of any mill in the empire, owing to its judicious arrangement and great strength. It is beautifully polished, and each “journal” or “bearing” has attached to it a small machine called a “lubricator,” which emits oil at intervals, according to adjustment, and ceases to oil the shafts whenever the mill stops, by which regular lubrication and a considerable saving of oil are affected.
As we have already stated, the manufacture principally carried on in these mills is that of sewing thread. Of the coarse yarn which is produced from the inferior portions of the flax, some is woven into cheap fabrics in the establishment, and the remainder sent into the market. After the thread has been spun much remains to do before it is fitted for sale. It has to be sorted, skeined, boiled, dyed, and finished, partly by hand, partly by machinery, and it has then to be made up in various forms to suit the different markets. These operations afford a great deal of employment, and are all carried on by girls, some of whom are very young. It was most interesting to watch the rapidity and skill with which these intelligent young girls, all neatly and comfortably clothed, went through the several operations of winding off the thread, cutting it into certain lengths, weighing it, and finally making it up into compact parcels weighing one pound each. The thread is dyed in the establishment, and every imaginable shade of colour can be produced. We have examined various specimens which were remarkable for strength and fineness. Indeed, the productions of the Chapelizod factory have already acquired a reputation equal to that of any other articles of the class, and are eagerly enquired after in every part of the world. The greater portion of the thread is exported to England, Germany, and America; and the demand for it has latterly increased so much that, although the mills are in full operation, working sixty hours per week, under the factory act, the company have more orders than they can execute. As proof of the superior quality of the manufacture, we may mention that some exquisite specimens of variously coloured linen thread were exhibited at the late exposition in Paris, and obtained the only medal awarded to any British house for that class of article. A workshop is attached to the factory in which the machines are repaired, and two lithographic presses are kept constantly at work, printing labels, invoices, &c. The number of hands employed is about 1,000, of whom 200 are men and boys, and the remaining 800 young girls. The men earn on average from 15s, to 1l per week, and the girls from 3s. to 6s. The wages are paid every fortnight, when the sum of 600l. is distributed. With a laudable desire to increase the comfort of his workpeople, Mr Dargan has recently commenced the erection of a number of neat four-roomed cottages, which will soon be completed. A reading room is also attached to the factory, well supplied with the leading journals and a variety of periodicals, and having a lending library of 300 volumes. The subscription to the reading-room is 1d. per week, and the subscribers number 250 persons, young and old. Some of the artizans, gifted with musical tastes, have formed themselves into a band, and play several evenings in every week for their own and their neighbours’ entertainment. We are happy to state that the artizans of Chapelizod are not more remarkable for their intelligence than for their general good conduct. The managers have found them singularly tractable, reasonable, and amenable to rule. At first, indeed, when the improved machinery was being introduced, some difficulty arose, but the temporary prejudices were speedily removed by the tact and kindness displayed by the managers, and the good sense of the workpeople, who are now not only satisfied with their position, but firmly attached to their liberal and spirited employers by the bonds of mutual esteem and good will.
