1110 



WEAVING 



Wai Imported in 1873 : 42,689 tons ; value, 221, 951/. 

 Wax Exported in 1873: 20,260 cwts. ; value, 104,600/. 



WAX CANDLES. Wax contains 8175 parts of carbon in 109, which generate 

 by combustion 300 parts of carbonic acid gas. No\v, since 125 grains of wax constitute 

 the average consumption of a candle per hour, these will generate 375 grains of car- 

 bonic acid ; equivalent in volume to 800 cubic inches of gas. According to the most 

 exact experiments on respiration, a man of ordinary size discharges from his lungs 

 1,632 cubic inches of carbonic acid gas per hour, which is very nearly the doubl.e of 

 the quantity produced from the wax candle. Hence the combustion of two such 

 candles vitiates the air much the same as the breathing of one man. A tallow candle, 

 three or four in the pound, generates nearly the same quantity of carbonic acid as the 

 wax candle; for though tallow contains only 79 per cent, of carbon, instead of 81 '75, 

 yet it consumes so much faster, as thereby to compensate fully for this difference. 



When a tallow candle of 6 to the Ib. is not snuffed, it loses in intensity, in 30 

 minutes, 80-hundredths, and in 39 minutes, 86-hundredths ; in which dim state it 

 remains stationary, yet still consuming nearly the same proportion of tallow. A wax 

 candle attains to its greatest intensity of light when its wick has reached the greatest 

 length, and begins to bend out of the flame. The reason of this difference is, that 

 only the lower part of the wick in the tallow candle is charged with the fat, so as to 

 emit luminiferous vapour, while the upper part remains dry ; whereas, in the wax 

 candle the combustible substance being less fusible and volatile, allows a greater 

 length of the wick to be charged by capillary attraction, and of course to emit a longer 

 train of light. 



WEAVING ( Tissage, Fr. ; Weberei, Ger.) is performed by the implement called 

 loom in English, metier a tisser in French, and Weberstukl in German. The process of 

 warping must always precede weaving. Its object is to arrange all the longitudinal 

 threads, which are to form the chain of the web, alongside of each other in one 



parallel plane. Such 



2102 w ft. c ^ _ g _jggj a number of bobbins, 



filled with yarn, must 

 therefore be taken as 

 will furnish the quan- 

 tity 'required for the 

 length of the intended 

 piece of cloth. One- 

 sixth of that number 

 of bobbins is usually 

 mounted at once in the 

 warp mill, being set 

 loosely in a horizontal 

 direction upon wire- 

 skewers, or spindles, in 

 a square frame, so that 

 they may revolve, and 

 give off the yarn freely. 

 The warper sits at A, 

 fig. 2102, and causes 

 the reel B to revolve, 

 by turning round with 

 his hand the wheel B, 

 with the endless rope or band D. The bobbins filled with yarn are placed in the 

 frame E. There is a sliding piece at F, called the heck box, which rises and falls 

 by the coiling and uncoiling of the cord G, round the central shaft of the reef H. 15y 

 this simple contrivance the band of warp-yarns is wound spirally from top to bottom 

 upon the reel, i, i, i, are wooden pins which separate the different bands. Most 

 warping-mules are of a prismatic form, having twelve, eighteen, or more sides. The 

 reel is commonly about 6 feet in diameter and 7 feet in height, so as to serve for 

 measuring exactly upon its periphery the total length of the warp. All the threads 

 from the frame E pass through the heck F, which consists of a series of finely-polished, 

 hard-tempered steel pins, with a small hole at the upper part of each to receive and 

 guide one thread. The heck is divided into two parts, either of which may be lifted 

 by a small handle below, while their eyes are placed alternately. Hence, when one of 

 them is raised a little, a vacuity is formed between the two bands of the warp ; but 

 when the other is raised, the vacuity is reversed. In this way the lease is produced 

 at each end of the warp, and it is preserved by appropriate wooden pegs. The lc:ise 

 being carefully tied up affords a guide to the weaver for inserting his lease-rods. The 

 warping-mill is turned alternately from right to left, and from loft to right, till a 



