LOOM AND SPINDLE—HOOPER. 647 
The silk fiber, on being unwound from the cocoon, is found to be 
a continuous, double thread of about the four-thousandth part of an 
inch in diameter. It takes from 
eighty to a hundred threads of 
natural silk to make up one 
thread of the size of the finest 
~pun flax. It may be well under- 
stood, therefore, that special 
preparation of silk thread and 
specially delicate appliances are a 
necessary for weaving it. This HUN BIE 
necessity proved to be, as is pro- 
verbially the case, the mother of 
many inventions, and there can 
be no doubt it is from the origi- 
nal Chinese weaving appliances 
that almost all succeeding im- 
prevements in looms and loom 
fit. gs have been derived. 
In order to describe the im- 
provements in the loom required 
for weaving fine silk, reference 
must made to figure 28, which 
shows. primitive loom fitted with 
a heddie rod for the purpose of raising the threads of the warp 
alternately with those raised by the shed stick. 
Two heddle rods in an up- 
right loom would be no great, 
if any, advantage; but if the 
warp be placed horizontally, 
the manipulation of the suc- 
cessive openings for the weft 
is much more convenient for 
the weaver, who sits at the 
end of the warp instead of in 
front of it. 
Figure 29 shows a very 
convenient form of Indian 
loom with the heddle rods 
suspended from the branch of 
a tree and having the heddle 
loops connected with another pair of rods beneath the warp. The 
lower rods have strings hanging from them, each terminating in a 
ring. By placing one of his great toes in each ring the weaver can 
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Fic. 28.—Primitive looms. (One fitted 
with two heddle rods.) 
Fic. 29, 
Primitive loom (India, etc.). 
