A PRIM1T1\'H FRAME FOR WEAVING NARROW FABRICS. 



By Otis Tupton Mason, 

 Curator, Divhion of Ethnology. 



"Tela jngo vincta est; stamen secernit arundo; 

 Inseritur medium radiis siibtemen acutis; 

 Qnod digit! expedinnt, atque inter flamina dnctum 

 Pereusso feriunt infecti peetine dentes." 



(Ovid— PaKas and Araclme, lines 65-58.) 



INTRODUCTION. 



The textile art among savage and barbarous peoples, as well as in 

 the hands of country folk in civilization, consists in the joining of 

 flexi])le materials in filaments — straw, splints, threads, etc. The sim- 

 plest of these activities is twisting or twining. The making of sennit 

 or braid comes next. After that will follow basketry, matting, net- 

 ting, lace work, and even fabrics, all made, out and out, with the 

 fingers. 



The second step in the textile art, as in all others, will be taken with 

 the aid of some kind of device which hastens or perfects the operation 

 of the hand. There will be knives to split the material, gauges to 

 replace the finger nail, spindles, bobbins, frames, and shuttles, of very 

 humble structure, forsooth, but all of them containing the working 

 principles of the most advanced apparatus having the same functions. 

 Omitting all other textile processes, attention will be directed here to 

 weaving proper, or the use of mechanical appliances to this end among 

 primitive peoples. 



In any style of mechanical weaving, however simple or complex, 

 even in darning, the following operations are performed: First, rais- 

 ing and lowering alternately different sets of warp filaments to form 

 the "sheds;" second, throwing the shuttle, or performing some oper- 

 ation that amounts to the same thing; third, after inserting the weft 

 thread, driving it home and adjusting it by means of the batten, be it 

 the needle, the finger, the shuttle, or a separate device. 



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