A hackle, or heckle, is a bed of sharp, long, tapered steel pins driven into a wooden block at regular spacing, used in flax processing to comb the broken and scutched stems. Pulling the stems through a hackle removes the woody straw and shorter fibers, leaving long, aligned fibers ready for spinning into linen; flax is typically drawn through a series of hackles of progressively finer pins during this heckling stage.
Facts
Introduced When (Circa)The English name is attested from Middle English forms by circa 1300 (hechele); hand heckling itself is older and undated, with mechanized heckling introduced only in the nineteenth century. 1 OriginHeckling was originally done entirely by hand; mechanized heckling, using rollers to draw slivers of flax through the hackles, began in the nineteenth century. 1 Introduced era (class) In the Other Atlases
Era Of Origin
Also in History Atlas: the era this subject comes from.
Sources
1. Heckling Flax (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationEtymology section
The noun 'heckle' is thought to be derived from Old English, with Middle English forms hechele, hetchell (c1300), hekele (c1440), hakell (1485), and later hatchel.
History section, mechanization
Heckling was originally done by hand, but began in the nineteenth century to be undertaken mechanically, with rollers drawing the slivers of flax through the hackles.
View the Source Dictionary.com: heckle definition
Dictionary.comIn Group: Fiber Preparation Tools, Definition entryQuote, In Group: Fiber Preparation Tools, Definition entry
an instrument for combing flax or hemp
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