Process for bleaching linen yarn: a secret recipe

Description of a process for bleaching yarn to be used for tape-weaving, early nineteenth century.

A member of the Philips family started tape-weaving at Tean, following a study of the techniques used in Holland and a Dutchman taught the local carpenters how to make the looms. The whiteness of fabric was important to its final value, and the recipes were therefore commercially sensitive. Employees were forbidden to pass on any information relating to these secrets. The bleaching process would not have been pleasant because of the smells and acidic nature of some of the noxious substances used.

The bleaching process described here was in a letter sent to the Tean mills, and it relates to both full-white and half-white bleaches. The account shows what an extensive and time-consuming process it was, in lots of separate stages and requiring also lots of space, both for the large cisterns and rollers, and for the outside space needed for drying: the yarn had to be laid out on the grass for a fortnight if the weather allowed.

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