165 [ 175 ] 



are to be raised or lowered together, are to be included in the same 

 lash. The number of lashes required for very simple patterns, on very 

 narrow silks, is considerable, amounting to fort}', sixty, or more. It 

 is obviously, therefore, in these cases, impossible to give motion to the 

 warp, by attaching a treadle to each lash. The way in which the 

 lashes were actually raised, was to pass the end of each lash through a 

 hole in a horizontal board, to fix to the lash a piece of wood like a 

 bell-pull, and to employ a boy (thence called a draw-boy) in pulling or 

 drawing down each lash in succession, so that the weaver had only to 

 throw the shuttle and give directions to his boy. 



Each cord of a lash having a weight hung to it, the aggregate weight 

 of the whole lash is considerable, so that the labor incurred by the 

 draw-boy was great, and considerable dexterity (the result alone of 

 long practice) was required to prevent mistakes, and much loss of 

 time. Hence the weavers were very dependant on their draw-boys, 

 and the idleness or illness of one of them threw the weaver, for the 

 time, out of work. 



Various ineffectual attempts had been made to supersede the living 

 draw-boy by machinery, but with little if any success, till Mr. Duff 

 brought forward an engine for the purpose, which was rewarded by 

 the Society of Arts in London, in ISIO. Mr. Duff's engine, by means 

 of a very ingenious contrivance, enables the weaver, by pressing al- 

 ternately on two pair of treadles, to produce the regular elevation and 

 depression of the lashes without the assistance of the boy. 



The weight of the lashes, and the friction of the machine being con^^ 

 siderable, it was necessary to adjust, accordingly, the length of the 

 levers or treadles by which it was put in motion; in consequence of 

 which, a tread of ten inches was thought necessary, that the weaver 

 might not be oppressed by the weight. 



It was soon, howevei", found, in practice, that the exertion of rais- 

 ing the feet ten inches for every motion of the treadle, was excessively- 

 fatiguing to the weaver, and apparently occasioned a predisposition to 

 rupture, so that the machine came only into very limited use. 



About two or three years ago, Mr. Jones, since dead, (an engine 

 maker) attempted to shorten the tread, by fixing on the axis of the 

 driving wheel two cranks, each about two thirds of the length of the 

 radius of the wheel; but the mechanical disadvantage at which they 

 worked, and the manner in which they were connected with the trea- 

 dles, increased the weight and friction so disproportionately to the ad- 

 vantage gained by shortening the tread, as to render it wholly inap- 

 plicable in practice. 



About last Christmas, (1822) Mr. Hughes, a weaver, fixed a small 

 grooved wheel on the axis of the driving wheel, and connected it to 

 the treadles by means of two cords passing over pulleys. It might be 

 supposed that any advantage thus gained by shortening the tread, 

 would be counterbalanced by the increased weight required to be over- 

 come. This, however, is not practically the case. When the thigh 

 of the weaver is raised, so as to be nearly horizontal, as necessarily 

 happens at the commencement of a tread ten inches in height, the 



