Processing of hemp
As a first step hemp went through a soaking process. Depending on the temperature of the water, the hemp cork was soaked under water for 7 to 14 days to loosen the valuable fibre on the outside of the stem from the inner, woody tissue of the hemp. Hemp soaking was common in both still and running water. Soaking in major rivers was banned by authorities because substances leaching from hemp poisoned fish stocks. For hemp soaking, stakes were beaten down the bed of the water and placed tied sheaves either individually or in larger bundles of 5 to 20 sheaves held together with straw ropes when processing hemp. Depending on the depth of the water, it was stacked in several rows to be covered by water. Therefore, hemp put in the soaker was pressed: it was covered with straw, cross-stakes were used to put stumps, stones and possibly mud on top.
The second step was to process the fiber part gained from the soaking process. The inner woody part, rotten during the soaking procedure, was shattered so that it fell out of the precious fiber strips in small pieces. The debris thus falling out was called pozdorya or, in the southern part of the Great Plain, chepue. Hungarians used several ways to do this. The most common one is the hemp crusher, which is identical in shape and structure to the tiller, but has a stronger, coarser finish. Very often, the work was preceded by a pre-crush phase. Most of the time, this just meant having a handful of hemp choke in their hands, crunching them at quarters or fifths of their length so that they could break it more easily on the crusher. This so-called hemp crushing process was more popular in the Trans-Tisza region, where in addition to crunching into pieces, hemp fibers were also folded, that is people trampled on it thoroughly with their feet before the fiber was further processed with the hemp crusher.
Another way of hemp softening was done by a machine powered by water energy, usually operated by watermills, notably stream mills. Its structure was identical to those used in the compression of woolen fabric, except that in this case the dropped jerk fell on a smooth, dry sole beam, and softened the lump of fiber placed under it with his heavy, rhythmic blows. The built-in levers on the crankshaft rotating in a thick, iron-ended, iron-shaft-ended bushing bearing rotated by gear ratio, differing at an angle of about 30 degrees, collided with the handle of the hemp-breaker’s percussion mechanism or jerk during rotation, lifting it and dropping it. The rotational energy was thus transformed into intermittent motion, work. The falling jerk crushed the fibers of hemp laid on the base beam of the hemp crusher. The miller had to pay customs every tenth mark for using the hemp crusher.
After the softening process was over hemp fiber was combed on a hemp comb. A pure hemp bundle was classified according to the thickness of its fibers. From the thinner thread bundle, the yarn was braided with a spindle. The thread was lowered from a knot tied at the end of the gusage, which was braided into yarn by spinning the spindle. They spun yarn with fox from a tow, which was thicker. The braided yarn was thrown on his motoll. The amount of yarn was calculated from the length of the motolla and the number of lifts that were used to throw the yearn onto the motolla. Yarn making was the women’s winter occupation. The finished yarn was stored in balls. Depending on the quality of the yarn, the weaver weaved cloth and burlap from the material entrusted to him. From the coarsest bundle, he spun the obligatory steed, halter, rope, which he sold at fairs.
