LOOM AND SPINDLE—HOOPER,. 657 
There is, therefore, represented in this old Chinese drawing (fig. 
35, pl. 9) a very perfect loom for weaving small designs of simple 
construction. The limit of size and elaboration of the pattern in this 
kind of loom is, however, reached when the number of figure treadles 
and heddles becomes too great for practical use. There is no evidence 
of the Chinese hav- 
ing endeavored to 
weave with an elab- 
orate system of hed- 
dles and treadles 
such as were ingen- 
iously devised in 
England in the 
eighteenth century, 
but which, being 
very difficult to fit 
up and manage, 
were soon super- 
seded. 
Figure 44 (pl. 10), 
taken from the same 
Chinese book as the 
foregoing Chinese 
drawing, shows, in a 
compound loom, a 
figure harness of en- 
tirely different con- 
struction, which is 
evidently made on 
the same principles 
as the perfected 
Kuropean draw- 
loom of the eight- 
eenth century, on 
which were woven 
the most sumptuous 
and intricate webs which the weaver’s art has ever produced. In this 
representation of a pattern weaving loom, instead of the small figure 
harness of five heddles, a large one of quite different build is shown. 
_ Over this harness an assistant weaver, perched aloft at the back of 
the loom, is presiding. He is, in fact, drawing up, according to an 
arranged plan, certain groups of threads required for the formation 
of a pattern. The all-important part of this picture is the portion 
of the loom over which the assistant weaver is presiding. 
73176°—sm 191442 
Fic. 43.—Double harness shed sections. 
