642 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1914. 
piece being only 4 inches by 14 inches in size. It formed part of the 
robe of Amenhilep III, who reigned in Egypt 2000 B. C. The 
original is in the Cairo Museum. 
Figure 16 (pl. 3) is a piece of Greek tapestry of about 500 B. C. 
It was discovered in the relics of a Greek colony in the Crimea. 
The original is in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. 
Figure 17 (pl. 3) is a fine piece of Egypto-Roman tapestry woven 
of colored silk unwoven from Chinese webs. The actual size of the 
little panel is 4 inches by 4 inches. It formed part of a child’s tunic 
in the fifth century A. D. 
Figure 18 (pl. 4) is a piece of Persian weaving of the sixteenth cen- 
tury. It may have been woven in Venice by Persian weavers. It is 
an exquisite example of hand-knotted velvet pile, there being as many 
as 400 knots to an inch. The color and ornamentation are superb. 
It it one of the choicest treasures of the Victoria and Albert Museum 
collection and is called the Persian cope. 
The same museum possesses a set of Brussels tapestry of the six- 
teenth century. The figures are life size and are splendidly wrought. 
Figure 19 (pl. 4) represents a portion of one of the panels. 
The subject of figure 20 (pl. 5) is a modern tapestry by Morris & 
Co. The design, “The Passing of Venus,” was made by the late 
Sir E. Burne-Jones. The tapestry took seven years to produce and, 
-being sent to the recent Brussels Exhibition, was destroyed in the 
disastrous fire which took place there, together with many other art 
treasures. 
All these examples of tapestry weaving were made on such looms 
as figure 14 and are really mosaics of plain weaving with a loose weft. 
Figure 21 (pl. 6) is a photograph of the tapestry-weaving work- 
shop of Messrs. Morris & Co., at Merton Abbey. 
In the next lecture I shall deal with spinning machines and the 
development of the loom for automatic pattern weaving. 
II. SPINNING MECHANISM AND THE LOOM FOR AUTOMATIC WEAV- 
ING, PLAIN AND ORNAMENTAL, 
In the present lecture I shall first deal briefly with the spindle in 
its later development from the domestic spinning wheel of the six- 
teenth century to the-machines of extraordinary capacity and exact- 
ness which supply the enormous quantity of yarn of all kinds required 
in the textile industries of to-day. This will clear the way for the 
further and more important study of the loom as used for automatic 
plain and ornamental weaving. 
On the primitive spinning wheel, you will remember, I pointed 
out that the spinning of the thread and winding it on to the spindle 
were separate alternate operations. On the more modern spinning 
wheels the spinning and winding are made simultaneous by means 
