744 CASK 



avoirdupois. The waste in picking, carding, and spinning, aiaoxmts to about one-third 

 of its weight. 



Tho mills for spinning Cashmere wools have multiplied very much of late years in 

 Franco, and the prices of the yarn have fallen by from 25 to 30 per cent., notwith- 

 standing their improved fineness and quality. 



In both modes of manufacture, the piece is mounted by ' reading-in ' the warp for 

 the different leaves of the heddlcs, as is commonly practised for warps in the Jacquard 

 looms. The weaving of imitation shawls is executed, as usual, by as many shuttles 

 as there are colours in the design, and which are thrown across the warp in the order 

 established by the ' reader' The greatest number of these weft yarns being introduced 

 only at intervals into the web, when the composition of the shawl requires it, they 

 remain floating loose at the back of the piece and are cut afterwards, without affecting 

 in the least the quality of the texture ; but there is considerable waste of stuff in the 

 weaving, which is worked up into carpets. 



The weaving of the imitation of real Cashmere shawls is different from the above. 

 The yarns intended to form the weft are not only equal in number to that of the colour 

 of the pattern to be imitated, but, besides this, as many little shuttles or pirns (like 

 those used by embroiderers) are filled with these yarns as there are to be colours 

 repeated in the breadth of the piece ; which renders their number considerable when 

 the pattern is somewhat complicated and loaded with colours. Each of these small 

 bobbins or shuttles passes through only that portion of the flower in which the colour 

 of its yarn is to appear, and stops at the one side and the other of the cloth exactly at 

 its limit ; it then returns upon itself after having crossed the thread of the adjoining 

 shuttle. From this reciprocal intertexture of all the yarns of the shuttles, it results 

 that although the weft is composed of a great many different threads, they no less con- 

 stitute a continuous line in the whole breadth of the web.upon which the lay or batten 

 acts in the ordinary way. We see, therefore, that the whole art of manufacturing this 

 Cashmere cloth consists in avoiding the confusion of the shuttles, and in not striking 

 up the lay till all have fulfilled their function. 



In the Oriental process, all the figures in relief are made simply with a slender pirn 

 without the shuttle used in European weaving. By the Indians the flower and its 

 ground are made with the pirn, by means of an intertwisting, which renders them in 

 some measure independent of the warp. In the Lyons imitation of this style, the 

 leaves of the heddles lift the yarns of the warp, the needles embroider as in lappet 

 weaving, and the flower is united to the warp by the weft thrown across the piece. 



Paris manufactures the French Cashmere, properly so called, of which both the 

 warp and the weft are the yarn of pure Cashmere down. This web represents with 

 fidelity the figures and the shades of colour of the Indian shawl, which it copies ; the 

 deception would be complete if the reverse of the piece did not show the cut ends. The 

 Hindoo shawl, as woven at Paris, has its warp in spun silk, which reduces its price 

 without much impairing its beauty. 



Lyons, however, has made the greatest progress in the manufacture of shawls. It 

 excels particularly in the texture of its Thibet shawls, the weft of which is yarn spun 

 with a mixture of wool and spun silk. 



Nimes is remarkable for the low price of its shawls, in which spun silk, Thibet down, 

 and cotton, are all worked up together. 



It appears that M. J. Girard at Sevres, near Paris, has succeeded best in producing 

 Cashmere shawls equal in stuff and style of work to the Oriental, and at a lower price. 

 They have this advantage over the Indian shawls, that they are woven without seams, 

 in a single piece, and exhibit all the variety and the raised effect of the Eastern colours. 

 Women and children alone are employed in his factory. See INDIA SHAWLS. 



CASK. (Tonneau, Fr. ; Fass, Ger.) Much ingenuity has been displayed in cut- 

 ting the curvilinear and bevelled edges of the staves of casks by circular saws. Sir 

 John Robinson proposed many years back that the stave should be bent to its true curve 

 against a curved bed, and that while thus restrained, its edges should be cut by two 

 saws s s, placed in radii to the circle, the true direction of the joint as shown by the 

 dotted circle fig. 439, representing the head of the cask. Mr. 

 Samuel Brown obtained a patent in November 1825, for certain im- 

 provements in the machinery for making casks. His mechanism 

 consists in the first place of a circular saw attached to a bench, 

 with a sliding rest, upon which rest, each piece of wood intended 

 to form a stave of a cask is fixed ; and the rest being then slidden 

 forward in a curved direction, by the assistance of an adjustable 

 guide, brings the piece of wood against the edge of the rotatory 

 saw, and causes it to be cut into the curved shape required for 

 the edge of the stave. Tho second feature is an apparatus with cutters attached to a 

 etandard, and traversing round with their carrier upon a centre, by means of which 



