Linen
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2008-07-16T19:06:15Z
Invertzoo
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[[Image:Handkerchief.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Linen handkerchief.]]
[[Image:Linen cloth.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Linen cloth recovered from the [[Dead Sea]].]]
'''Linen''' is a [[textile]] made from the [[fiber]]s of the [[flax]] plant, ''Linum usitatissimum''. Linen is labor intensive to manufacture, but when it is made into garments, it is valued for its exceptional coolness and freshness in hot weather. It is superior to [[cotton]] in this regard.
Textiles made of [[cotton]], [[hemp]], and other plant fibers have also sometimes been referred to as "linen", which can make the exact meaning of the word somewhat vague, depending on the context.
The collective term '''linens''' is still often used generically to describe a class of [[weaving|woven]] and even [[knitting|knitted]] bed, bath, table and kitchen textiles. The name linens is retained because traditionally, linen was used for many of these items. In the past, the word "linens" was also used to mean lightweight [[undergarment]]s such as [[shirt]]s, [[chemise]]s, waistshirts, [[lingerie]], and detachable shirt collars and cuffs, which were manufactured almost exclusively of linen.
Linen textiles appear to be some of the oldest in the world: their history goes back many thousands of years. Fragments of straw, seeds, fibers, yarns and various types of fabrics which date back to about 8000 [[Before Christ|B.C.]] have been found in Swiss lake dwellings. Linen was used in the [[Mediterranean]] in the pre-[[Christian]] age.
Linen was sometimes used as currency in [[ancient Egypt]]. Egyptian [[Mummy|mummies]] were wrapped in linen because it was seen as a symbol of light and purity, and as a display of wealth. Some of these fabrics, woven from hand spun yarns, were extremely fine, and cannot be matched by modern spinning techniques.
Today linen is usually an expensive textile, and is produced in relatively small quantities. It has a long "staple" (individual fiber length) relative to [[cotton]] and other [[natural fiber]]s. <ref name="textiles"> Textiles, Ninth Edition by Sara J. Kadolph and Anna L. Langford. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall </ref>
==Flax fiber==
===Description===
Flax fibres vary in length from about 25 to 150 [[centimeter]]s (18 to 55 [[inch|in]]) and average 12-16 [[micrometre|micrometers]] in diameter. There are two varieties: shorter tow fibres used for coarser fabrics and longer line fibres used for finer fabrics. Flax fibers can be identified by their typical “nodes” which add to the flexibility and texture of the fabric. The cross-section of the fibre is made up of irregular polygonal shapes which contribute to the coarse texture of the fabric. <ref name="classifications">Classifications & Analysis of Textiles: A Handbook by Karen L. LaBat, Ph.D. and Carol J. Salusso, Ph.A. University of Minnesota, 2003</ref>
===Properties===
Highly absorbent and a good conductor of heat, linen fabric feels cool to the touch. Linen is the strongest of the [[vegetable fiber]]s, with 2 to 3 times the strength of cotton. It is smooth, making the finished fabric lint free, and gets softer the more it is washed. However, constant creasing in the same place in sharp folds will tend to break the linen threads. This wear can show up in collars, hems, and any area that is iron creased during laundering. Linen has poor elasticity and does not spring back readily, explaining why it wrinkles so easily.
Linen fabrics have a high natural luster and their natural color ranges between shades of ivory, [[ecru]], tan, or grey. Pure white linen is created by heavy bleaching. Linen typically has a thick and thin character with a crisp and textured feel to it, but can range from stiff and rough to soft and smooth. When adequately prepared, linen has the ability to absorb and lose water rapidly. It can gain up to 20% moisture without feeling damp.{{Fact|date=September 2007}}
When freed from impurities, linen is highly absorbent and will quickly remove perspiration from the skin. Linen is a stiff fabric and is less likely to cling to the skin; when it billows away, it tends to dry out and become cool so that the skin is being continually touched by a cool surface. It is a very durable, strong fabric and one of the few that are stronger wet than dry. The fibers do not stretch and are resistant to damage from abrasion. However, because linen fibers have a very low elasticity, the fabric will eventually break if it is folded and ironed at the same place repeatedly.
Mildew, perspiration, and bleach can also damage the fabric, but it is resistant to moths and carpet beetles. Linen is relatively easy to take care of since it resists dirt and stains, has no lint or pilling tendency and can be dry cleaned, machine washed or steamed. It can withstand high temperatures and yields only moderate initial shrinkage. <ref name="classifications"/> Linen should not be dried too much by tumble drying: it is much easier to iron when damp. Linen wrinkles very easily, and so some more formal linen garments require ironing often in order to maintain perfect smoothness. Nevertheless the tendency to wrinkle is often considered part of the fabric's particular "charm", and a lot of modern linen garments are designed to be air dried on a good hanger and worn without the necessity of ironing.
A characteristic often associated with contemporary linen yarn is the presence of "slubs", or small knots which occur randomly along its length. However, these slubs are actually defects associated with low quality. The finest linen has very consistent diameter threads, with no slubs.
===Measure===
The standard measure of bulk linen yarn is the '''lea'''. This is a specific length, or indirect grist system, i.e. the number of length units per unit mass. A yarn having a size of 1 lea will give 300 yards per pound. The fine yarns used in handkerchiefs, etc. might be 40 lea, and give 40x300 = 12,000 yards per pound. The symbol is NeL. '''(3)'''
More commonly used in continental Europe is the Metric system, Nm. This is the number of 1,000 m lengths per kilogram.
In China, the English Cotton system unit, NeC, is common. This is the number of 840 yard lengths in a pound.
=== Production method ===
The quality of the finished linen product is often dependent upon growing conditions and harvesting techniques. To generate the longest possible fibers, flax is either hand-harvested by pulling up the entire plant or stalks are cut very close to the root. After harvesting, the seeds are removed through a mechanized process called “rippling” or by [[winnowing]].
The fibers must then be loosened from the stalk. This is achieved through [[retting]]. This is a process which uses bacteria to decompose the pectin that binds the fibers together. Natural retting methods take place in tanks and pools, or directly in the fields. There are also chemical retting methods; these are faster, but are typically more harmful to the environment and to the fibers themselves.
After retting, the stalks are ready for “scutching”, which takes place between August and December. Scutching removes the woody portion of the stalks by crushing them between two metal rollers, so that the parts of the stalk can be separated. The fibers are removed and the other parts such as [[Linseed#Flax seed|linseed]], shive, and [[tow]] are set aside for other uses. The short fibers are separated with [[heckling comb]]s by 'combing' them away, to leave behind only the long, soft flax fibers.
After the fibers have been separated and processed, they are typically spun into yarns and woven or knit into linen textiles. These textiles can then be bleached, dyed, printed on, or finished with a number of treatments or coatings. <ref name="classifications"/> <ref name="allfiberarts">[http://www.allfiberarts.com www.allfiberarts.com]</ref>
An alternate production method is known as “cottonizing” which is quicker and requires less equipment. The flax stalks are processed using traditional cotton machinery; however, the finished fibers often lose the characteristic linen look.
See also: [[Textile manufacturing#Flax|hand processing flax]]
=== Producers ===
Flax is grown in many parts of the world, but top quality flax is primarily grown in Western Europe. In very recent years bulk linen production has moved to Eastern Europe and China, but high quality fabrics are still confined to niche producers in Ireland, Italy and Belgium.
=== Uses ===
Over the past 30 years the end use for linen has changed dramatically. Approximately 70% of linen production in the 1990s was for apparel textiles whereas in the 1970s only about 5% was used for fashion fabrics.
Linen uses range from bed and bath fabrics (table cloths, dish towels, bed sheets, etc.), home and commercial furnishing items (wallpaper/wall coverings, upholstery, window treatments, etc.), apparel items (suits, dresses, skirts, shirts, etc.), to industrial products (luggage, canvases, sewing thread, etc.).<ref name="textiles"/> It was once the preferred yarn for handsewing the uppers of [[moccasin (footwear)|moccasin]]-style shoes ([[loafers]]), but its use has been replaced by synthetics.
A linen handkerchief, pressed and folded to display the corners, was a standard decoration of a well-dressed man's suit during most of the first part of the 20th century.
Currently researchers are working on a cotton/flax blend to create new yarns which will improve the feel of denim during hot and humid weather.<ref name="agr_research">“Flax Fiber Offers Cotton Cool Comfort”, Agricultural Research magazine November 2005 issue</ref>
Linen fabric is one of the preferred traditional supports for [[oil painting]]. In the United States cotton is popularly used instead as linen is many times more expensive there, restricting its use to professional painters. In Europe however, linen is usually the only fabric support available in art shops. Linen is preferred to cotton for its strength, durability and [[archival]] integrity.
In the past linen was also used for books (the only surviving example of which is the [[Liber Linteus]]). Due to its strength, in the [[Middle Ages]] linen was used for [[shield]]s and [[gambeson]], much like how in [[Classical antiquity]] and [[Hellenistic]] Greece linen was used to make multi-plied [[Hoplite]] [[cuirass]]es. Also because of its strength when wet, [[Irish linen]] is a very popular wrap of pool/billiard cues, due to its absorption of sweat from hands. Paper made of linen can be very strong and crisp, which is why the United States and many other countries print their currency on paper that is made from 25% linen and 75% cotton. <!-- this reference has to be replaced '''(3)''' -->
== History ==
Linen has been used for table coverings, bed coverings and clothing for centuries. The exclusivity of linen stems from the fact that it is difficult and time consuming to produce (flax in itself requires a great deal of attention in its growth). Flax is difficult to weave because of its lack of elasticity, and therefore is more expensive to manufacture than cotton. The benefits of linen however, are unmatched.
The [[Living Linen]] Project was set up in 1995 as an Oral Archive of the knowledge of the [[Irish linen]] industry still available within a nucleus of people who were formerly working in the industry in Ulster . There is a long history of linen in Ireland.
The use of linen for priestly vestments was not confined to the Israelites, but from Plutarch, who lived and wrote one hundred years after the birth of Christ, we know that also the priests of Isis wore linen because of its purity.
===Antiquity===
When the tomb of the Pharaoh [[Ramesses II]], who died 1213 BC, was discovered in 1881, the linen wrappings were in a state of perfect preservation - after more than 3000 years.
In the Belfast Library there is preserved the mummy of "Kaboolie,' the daughter of a priest of Ammon, who died 2,500 years ago. The linen on this mummy is in a like state of perfection. When the tomb of Tutankamen was opened, the linen curtains were found intact.
===Earliest linen industry===
In olden days, in almost every country, each family grew flax and wove the linen for its own use; but the earliest records of an established linen industry are 4,000 years old, and come to us from Egypt. The earliest written documentation of a linen industry comes from the [[Linear B]] tablets of [[Pylos]], [[Greece]], where linen is depicted as an [[ideogram]] and also written as "ri-no" ([[Greek language|Greek]]: λίνον, ''linon''), and the female linen workers are catalogued as "ri-ne-ja" (λίνεια, ''lineia'')<ref name="Francoise Rougemont: Flax and Linen Textiles in the Mycenaean palatial economy"> [http://www3.lu.se/klass/textiles/throughsociety.html#rouge Flax and Linen Textiles in the Mycenaean palatial economy] </ref><ref name="American Journal of Archaeology"> [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-9114%28197910%2983%3A4%3C469%3ATAYTCS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V&size=LARGE&origin=JSTOR-enlargePage] </ref>.
The [[Phoenician]]s, who, with their merchant fleet, opened up new channels of commerce to the peoples of the Mediterranean, besides developing the tin mines of [[Cornwall]], introduced flax growing and the making of linen into Ireland before the birth of [[Christ]], but the internal dissensions, which even in those early days were prevalent in [[Erin]], militated against the establishment of an organized industry, and it is not until the twelfth century that we can find records of a definite attempt to systematize flax production.
When the Edict of Nantes was revoked, in A.D. 1695, many of the Huguenots who had to flee the country settled in the British Isles, and amongst them was Louis Crommelin, who was born, and brought up as a weaver of fine linen, in the town of [[Cambrai]]. He fled to Ulster, and eventually settled down in the small town of Lisburn, about ten miles from [[Belfast]].
During the late war Cambrai became well known as one of the centers of the most desperate fighting. The name "cambric" is derived from this town.
Although the linen industry was already established in Ulster, Louis Crommelin found scope for improvement in weaving, and his efforts were so successful that he was appointed by the Government to develop the industry over a much wider range .than the small confines of Lisburn and its surroundings. The direct result of his good work was the establishment, under statute, of the Board of Trustees of the Linen Manufacturers of Ireland in the year 1711.
===Religion===
In the Jewish religion, the only law concerning which fabrics may be used together in clothing regards the mixture of linen and wool. This mixture is called ''[[shaatnez]]'' and is clearly restricted in {{bibleverse||Deuteronomy|22:11|HE}} "Thou shalt not wear a mingled stuff, wool and linen together" and {{bibleverse||Leviticus|19:19|HE}}, "'...neither shall there come upon thee a garment of two kinds of stuff mingled together.'" There is no explanation for this in the Torah and any attempt to explain the restriction is generally considered futile. This is a type of law known as ''[[hukim]]'', a statute beyond man's ability to comprehend.<ref name="religion"> The Jewish Primer, by Shmuel Himelstein. New York, NY: Facts On File, 1990. </ref>
==Linguistic note==
The word linen is derived from the [[Latin]] for the [[flax]] plant, which is ''linum'', and the earlier [[Greek language|Greek]] ''linon''. This word history has given rise to a number of other terms:
*[[line]], derived from the use of a linen [[yarn|thread]] to determine a straight line;
*[[liniment]], due to the use of finely ground flax seeds as a mild irritant applied to the skin to ease muscle pain
*[[lining]], because linen was often used to create a lining for [[wool]] and [[leather]] clothing
*[[lingerie]], via French, originally denotes underwear made of linen
*[[linseed oil]], an oil derived from [[flax]] seed
*[[linoleum]], a floor covering made from linseed oil and other materials
In addition, the term in [[English language|English]], ''flaxen-haired'', denoting a very light, bright [[blonde]], comes from a comparison to the color of raw flax fiber.
== External links ==
* [http://www.ars.usda.gov www.ars.usda.gov]
* [http://www.uftm.org.uk/collections_and_research/archival_collections/Living_Linen_Archive/?q=linen Living Linen Index] - an oral archive of a nucleus of people who have worked in the Irish Linen industry in the 20th century.
* [http://www.deliberatelife.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=163&Itemid=70 Making linen from flax]
* [http://www.fergusonsirishlinen.com/aboutLinen/?ID=2 History of Irish linen]
* [http://www.irishlinenmills.com Irish Linen] - The Fabric of Ireland
== References ==
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[[Category:Fiber plants]]
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