676 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1914. 
A few months ago my attention was called to an illustration in the 
Manchester Guardian which represented a new weaving invention, 
and, on reading the description of it, I found that the inventor— 
Mr. Whalley, of Clitheroe—claimed to have solved the problem of 
the shuttle, which I have pointed out has been the chief obstacle in 
the way of weaving by power. 
Figure 63 (pl. 11) is a photograph of the new loom, which appears 
to me to be likely to revolutionize the construction of machines for 
weaving by power. 
Although at first sight this loom seems to be altogether different 
from previous inventions, an examination of it proves that in most 
essential points the tradition of weaving, which I have attempted to 
explain, still governs it. Three great advantages are claimed for 
it—(1) it is practically noiseless; (2) the weft has no jerk or strain 
upon it; (3) very little power is required to drive it. In addition to 
this, webs of between 11 and 12 feet wide are woven on it. 
There is not time for me to give an adequate description of this 
important invention, but I must notice its salient points, and show 
(1) how it differs from the ordinary power loom and (2) how the 
traditional principles of weaving are still carried on in it. 
First, as to points of difference: All the operations of the loom are 
worked out by its simply turning on its own accurately centered axis. 
By an uninterrupted circular movement in one direction the warp 
is drawn off the warp beam, the shed is opened, and the weft inserted, 
the weft itself is gently pressed close instead of being beaten together, 
and the woven web is delivered and rolled on to the cloth beam with- 
out any strain or jerk whatever. 
There is no shuttle. A case for the flexible cop of wound weft 
takes its place. The cop itself is of enormous length and holds a 
hitherto unheard-of quantity of yarn. 
While the whole loom and its fittings revolve, the cop case remains 
stationary, balanced in the shed, and allows the weft to be drawn off 
it continuously in one direction, as, at each revolution, the successive 
sheds are opened. This forms, of course, a spiral thread in the 
woven cloth, the cloth itself being produced in the form of an enor- 
mous tube. As the cloth passes on to the cloth beam an automatic 
knife cuts it at a place where specially woven doup selvages are made. 
So far all is new. The rest of the mechanism is an ingenious 
rearrangement of the traditional parts of a loom. The description 
of these essential parts requires a diagram of a section of the loom, 
which we have in figure 64. 
In the center of the section is the steel axis, which runs the whole 
length of the loom. 
The perforated comber board, instead of being straight and hori- 
zontal, as in the ordinary Joom, is circular, and is duplicated, the 
holes being most accurately pierced. 
