Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/504

LOOM. 446 varp-tliread is above the filling-thread, wliile the altornatc threads are below and the posi- tions of the warp-threads are reversed for the next filling-thread — then two hcddle-franics or harness are required and the warp-threads are drawn through the eyes of Ihe hed- dles, threads one, tliree, live, etc., being arranged on the first of the two harness while the threads two, four, six. etc.. are arranged on the second. After being 'drawn' in the harness, the threads are 'reeded" — that is, passed through the inter- stiees of the loom-rccd in pairs, and the reed to be used is the one to give the correct number of warp-tlircads wanted to the inch in the finished fabric; it will hold these llireads at a uniform distance apart for the full length of the warp during the jirocess of we;iving. The loom-liarness is suspended from a roller, 5, placed at the top and near the front of the looiu-frame, and each is fastened to one of a ])air of treadles, DD, directly beneath ; the weaver depresses first one treadle, which ]nills down the harness-frame with which it is connected and simultaneously raises the sec- ond harness-frame with its attached treadle, sep- arating the warp-threads and forming a shed, S, as above described. The shuttle is thrown through the shed either by the hand of the weaver or by a quick jerk imjiarted to it from the weaver's hand by a combination of straps and springs. After the shuttle has deposited the filling in the slied the reed, which is held firmly in a frame swinging from above called a hatten, 3, is forced forward quickly by the hand of the weaver pressing the filling in place: the second treadle is now depressed while the licddle-frames reverse fheir former position, changing the rela- tive position of the warp-threads, and the shuttle is passed tlirough the new shed and the filling is again beaten up. Jfuch skill on the part of the weaver is re- quired to operate a loom of this kind, and even with the most expert weaver the production is slow. Nevertheless, such a loom is a great im- provement over the primitive apparatus on which the ancient Egyptians wove their delicate fabrics. Their loom, as well as that of the early Greeks and Romans, was as simple in its construction as the device of the native of India, who selects two near-growing tree-trunks, usually palms 'because of their straightness, for his loom-frame, two bamboo roHers. one for the warp, the other for the woven cloth, which he fastens at the proper distance from each other by wooden pins driven in the ground under the palms — after having dug a hole large enough to contain his legs, al- lowing him to sit upon the ground. The rude strapping which is to cimtrol the warp-threads is sus|)cii(led from the trees, and the weaver seats himself with his feet in the hole he lias prepared, and inserts his great toes in certain loops of the strapping: by alternately moving his feet up and down the shed is formed and the filling is drawn through with a stick not unlike a huge knitting-needle, which serves not only as a shut- tle, but also to beat up the filling against the cloth already woven. It seems that in nearly all the earlier types of loom the warp was placed periiendicnlarly, and it is not until the fourteenth ccntiirv that ■we find the loom with the wnrp stretched hori- zontally and the heddlcframcs operated by treadles. It was not until the eighteenth cen- tury, however, that a succession of improvements LOOM. started the revolution which has taken place in the art of weaving. The first was a mechanical arrangement to tlirow the shuttle, instead of the weaver's hand. In 173.3 John Kay, of Eng- land, invented a device known as the 'llyiiig- shuttle' and 'picking-stick" — by which the sliuttl.' received a blow and was driven through the sheil, and after the shed had been changed was struck in a similar way at tlic other end and driven back. By this invention a mucli more rapid motion was obtained than was possible with the hand shuttle. At the time of the introduction of the 'fiyiiig shuttle' the loom was supplied with a shiillli- box at each end of the battcnj these shutth- hoxes are receptacles which receive the shuttle as it is driven across and release it as it is driven back into the box at the opposite end; they are placed on a level with that part of the batten called the shuttle-race and can receive but one shuttle at a time, so it is obvious that should the weaver wish to introduce more than one color of thread in the filling, the loom must be stopped in order to change shuttles for eacli change of filling. In 1760 Kay invented the drop- hox, an attachment consisting of a tier of shuttlc- bo.xes, one above the other. The several C(jiiiparl- ments of the drop-bo.x attachment could be filled with shuttles, each containing a difi'erent color of filling, and when a certain color was wanted the box, or compartment, containing that color could be brought to the level of the shuttle-race and the shuttle driven across and back until an- other color was wanted. The modern box-loom, or loom having more than one box (as the sinr/le-box loom has) at each end of the latlir. as the batten is now generally called, may have two, four, or six boxes at one end and one at the other, or two, three, or four boxes at each end ; the latter are called pick-and-pich looms, as the shuttle may be sent across for a single pick of one color and changed at the opposite end for one with a new color, while with a loom having one box at one end it is readily seen that only multiples of two threads of filling can be used no matter how many boxes are at the oppo- site end, the shuttle being obliged to cross and return before the color can be changed by the drop-box. The first successful power-loom was invented in 17S5 by Edmund Cartwright (q.v. ). Several unsuccessful attempts had previously been made to produce a practical power-loom; early in the seventeenth century there is reported to have been set up in the city of Dantzig "a rare invention for weaving four or five webs at a time without any human help." This raeclianisra and its author met the fate of many later in- ventors, for it is further recorded that "the in- vention was supprest because it would prejudice the poor people of the town and the artist was made away secretly." In lf!7S another power- loom was constructed by a Frenchman named De Gennes, which possessed many of the features of the modern loom : but it never came into prac- tical use. In 1702 a power-loom was set up in a weaving-mill in ^Manchester, but it proved a failure. Cartwright's first loom was crude, especial- ly as the inventor was unacquainted with prac- tical mechanics or with the art of weaving: but he continued his efforts until he produced a satisfactory machine. In this pursuit he spent