Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/543

WEAVING 523 III., and afterward Elizabeth, are said to have laid the foundation for that prominence in tex- tile manufactures for which England is still distinguished. In ordinary or plain weaving, two distinct series or sets of threads or yarns, that traverse the web at right angles to each other, are to be distinguished. The first is the series of threads running the whole length of the piece or web to be produced, and most commonly known as the warp; the second, generally called the weft or woof, is the series of threads crossing and interlacing with the warp, and is in effect one continuous thread passing at one throw alternately over and under the warp threads from one side of the piece to the other, and at the return throw also alternately, but on the reverse sides of the same warp threads; and so on, from the be- ginning until the whole length of the warp threads becomes a woven piece or cloth. In all styles of weaving, the warp threads are first affixed upon the proper parts of the loom ; while the weft is wound in single threads on many small spools or bobbins, which are set one after another, as required, in a small hol- lowed and boat-shaped instrument, the shut- tle ; this, being thrown back and forth between the warp threads, parted as presently to be described, delivers the weft by its unwinding from the bobbin. The frame of the ordinary hand loom consists of four upright posts joined by cross beams, at the middle, and at top and bottom. The centre beam, or cylinder, at the back of the loom, is the warp beam. The cen- tre beam in front, just above the weaver's seat, is the cloth beam, on which the piece is to be wound. Just below the cloth beam, in front, is the breast beam, against which the weaver may lean in working. By a cross piece at top, with pulleys and cords, the two leaves of hed- dles or healds are suspended a little way back from the cloth beam ; these being attached respectively to opposite ends of the same cords, and below to treadles on which the feet rest, the pressing down of either treadle depresses the leaf of heddles corresponding, and elevates the other. The leaves are light vertical frames, extending the width of the piece, each having ranged along it the heddles, or equidistant vertical twines, in number answering to half the required number of warp threads, and each twine having at the middle a loop or eye through which a warp thread is to be passed. In plain, as in all other modes of weaving, it is necessary first to lay together in the loom the number of threads requisite to form the width of the cloth ; this is called warping, and was at one time done by use of a simple arrange- ment known as a warping frame. The more convenient " warping mill " was afterward introduced. In "beaming," the threads are wound as evenly as possible on the warp beam of the loom by passing them between the teeth of a comb, or of an instrument known as a ravel or separator. The next operation is that of " drawing," in which the warp threads are passed from the warp beam in their proper order through the loops of the respective hed- dles, from one side to the other, and attached forward along the cloth beam. By this ar- rangement, at each depression of one treadle, the corresponding half of the threads is carried down, the other half of them raised ; and be- tween the cloth beam or edge of the cloth already woven in front, and the heddles behind, the parted sets of threads thus leave a triangu- lar space or opening, called the shed, through which the weaver throws or otherwise drives the shuttle from side to side of the piece. Just in front of the heddles, and back of the path of the shuttle, is suspended the batten, lay, or lathe, a movable frame having its axis at the top of the loom ; the vertical rods forming its sides are the swords ; its bottom is the shuttle race, the ends of which, just beyond the sides of the piece, are closed so as to form short troughs, in which the shuttle is arrested and started again at either side ; while its middle portion is a sort of upright comb, the reed, having a tooth rising between every two con- secutive threads. By seizing this batten and bringing it forw ard sharply after each thread or weft has been deposited, the weaver drives up the thread to its place in the cloth. How- ever improved or complicated the loom, the principle of weaving is in all forms substan- tially that now described. Before warping, the yarn is commonly sized, as by dipping suf- ficiently in size of starch, wringing and drying ; and in weaving cotton or other yarns, these often require to be dressed as the weaver pro- ceeds, being rubbed at intervals, as they are unrolled from the beam, with some mucilage or size, then brushed or combed, and dried by fanning ; in this way the yarns are made more smooth and tenacious. For weaving broad goods, four, six, or even eight yards in width, much dexterity and precision is requisite in the throwing of the shuttle with sufficient and not too much force ; while in the so-called engine loom, for weaving narrow webs, such as ribbons and galloons, several shuttles work as many webs at the same time. It is only in the simplest mode of hand weaving that the shuttle is still thrown alternately by the two hands. About 1V40 John Kay invented the fly shuttle ; in this mode, a continuous firm cord has a wooden handle, or " picking peg," at its middle, and placed conveniently in front of the weaver ; the ends of the cord act on " pickers," one in each trough or box at the ends of the shuttle race, these pickers lying beyond or out- side the shuttle, and either one impelling it by being slidden along a horizontal wire at a jerk given with the picking peg to the cord in that direction; by this means the hand weaver moves the shuttle both ways with the ripht hand, while he manages the batten with the left. Stripes across the piece are obtained by chang- ing of shuttles, so as to employ the different col- ors or yarns as often as the proper widths of stripe are produced. This changing of shuttles