648 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1914. 
pull down either set of loops at will and make alternate openings for 
the shuttle carrying the weft. His hands are thus left free to 
manipulate the shuttle. 
The addition of a long comb, equal in length to the width of the 
warp, Was an immense improvement to the loom. The divisions in 
it were originally made of split reeds, hence it was called the reed, 
and is still so called, although the divisions are now always made of 
steel. 
The effect of the long comb, with the warp threads entered in it, 
swinging in its heavy 
frame (see fig. 30), was 
not only that the weft 
was beaten together 
more evenly and with 
less individual strain 
on the threads, but the 
width of the woven 
web was kept auto- 
matically the same. 
Figure 31 is a longi- 
tudinal section of the 
essential parts of a 
loom at the point of 
development now ar- 
rived at. It is lettered 
for reference. A isthe 
roller on which the 
warp is wound in the 
first instance. B is the 
roller onto which the 
woven cloth passes. 
C C are the sticks pre- 
serving the cross 
which keeps the warp 
— a in order. D is one of 
Fic. 30.—The reed fitted in its frame. two pulleys suspended 
, from the top of the 
loom frame, over which cords pass after being attached to the ends 
of the top laths of the two heddles. At E are two treadles which are 
tied to the lower laths of the heddles. Between the heddles and B the 
reed-is shown suspended. 
One treadle is represented depressed. This has pulled down one 
heddle and raised the other in consequence of the cord which passes 
over the pulley D. This movement has effected an opening in the 
TTT 
