LINEN

(Germ, leinwand.) A species of cloth woven with the fibres of the flax plant {Linum usitati imum). The origin of the manufacture of linen is lost in its antiquity. In the time of Hero dot us linen was an article of export from Egypt, where it had been used from time immemorial; but it is evident that in ancient times its use was limited to the noble and the rich. In modern times linen constitutes a staple manufacture in almost all European countries; but more especially in Germany, Ru ia, Switzerland, Flanders, England, Scotland, and Ireland. In England it has been prosecuted for a very long period; but until of late years its progre has been inconsiderable, compared at least with that made in other branches of manufacture. This seems to be partly owing to the attempts to bolster up and encour^e the manufacture in Ireland, partly to the absurd restrictions that were for a lengthened period laid on the importation of foreign flax and hemp, and partly to the rapid growth of the cotton manufacture — fabrics of cotton having to a considerable extent superseded those of linen. It is only within the last fifty years that any machinery has been used in the production of linen cloth, the first mills for the spinning of flax having been constructed at Darling ton about forty-eight years ago. {See Flax, Hemp.) The principal seat of the manufacture is— in England, Leeds and its immediate vicinity, and in Lancashire, Dorset, Durham, and Salop; in Scotland, Dundee, which indeed may be regarded as the chief seat of the British manufacture (see Geo. Diet., art. "Dundee ";; and in Ireland, the province of Ulster. The entire value of the linen manufacture of Great Britain and Ireland is estimated at 8,000,000/., and the total number of persons employed in it about 185,000. {Statist, of the Brit. Empire, vol. i. 679.) LINE OF BATTLE, is the line formed by the ships of the fleet when ranged ahead and astern of each otlier, at equal distances, and close-hauled, or nearly so. It may be formed accordingly upon either tack. The line i8 composed of ships of not le than two decks, thence called line-of-ballUSMps. Ti)e line is also called the line ahead. LINE OF BEARING, THE, is formed by the ships of the fleet when ranged on a line six points from the wind, at equal distances, and with their heads in any direction whatever. The line is called by the name of that tack upon which if the ships were to haul to the wind together they would form the line ahead. For example: suppose the wind N., and the ships in a line W, N.W. and E. S. E. of each other: this is the starboard 668 LIST. line of bearing, whether the ships are going free, or close-hauled upon the larboard tack. [s. 681]