Pair of Hackles
THF171107 / Pair of Hackles
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Artifact Overview
Producing linen yarn from the flax plant is labor-intensive and time-consuming. The useable fibers of the plant are encased in a hard outer coating in the stem. After this coating is removed, the fibers are drawn through a series of hackles--boards with sharp metal spikes--to align the long fibers and remove debris and short fibers. For convenience, this double hackle bench combines a coarse hackle at one end with a finer hackle at the other end.
Artifact Details
Artifact
Hackle
Collection Title
Location
Not on exhibit to the public.
Object ID
2017.84.9
Credit
From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Gift of American Textile History Museum, donated to ATHM by Joan Whittaker Cummer.
Material
Iron alloy
Wood (Plant material)
Dimensions
Height: 25 in
Width: 23 in
Length: 45 in
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Related Content
SetSpinning Highlights from the Collections of The Henry Ford
- 16 Artifacts
Spinning frames spin cotton fiber into yarn and then wind it onto a bobbin. This throstle spinning frame could simultaneously spin 64 strands of yarn. (Throstle -- an old name for a song thrush -- refers to the bird-like sounds the machine made.) Machines like this helped produce the large quantities of yarn that growing industrial weaving operations needed in the early and mid-1800s.