CLOTH MANUFACTURE. 



Oath but th*y are sometimes the meant of very gr-.M fraud 

 M i"f>e- W1 j imposition j for if llic warp is made of very .1 

 v _"" ** thread*, and the woof of ilackly twitted cotton or woulli'n 

 yarn, when- the fibril* of the stuff, being but slightly 

 brought into contact, are rough and onsy, a great ap- 

 pearance of thickness ai . may be given to the 



eye, when the cloth it absolutely BO flimsy, that it may 

 rn atunder as easily at a sheet of writing paper. 

 Many fraud* of this kind are practiced. A veiy com- 

 mon one is in a kind of fanciful stuff which used to be 

 buwkecl about the streets of London, and most of the 

 large towns of Britain, especially the sea- ports, by a set 

 of men habited like saibrs. Thct,c stuffs were composed 

 of very fine silk warp, and very slackly twisted cotton 

 woof, perhaps eight or ten times coarser than the warp: 

 the silk of course entirely disappeared, and the sem- 

 blance of a very strong fabric of cotton was presented, 

 and told apparently clu-ip, under the pretence of being 

 smuggled home in an East Indiaman. Strength, beau- 

 ty, and cheapm ss, were thus apparently united, and the 

 unwary purchaser, whilst enjoying the triple pleasure of 

 having profitably expended his money, procured a de- 

 sirable acquisition, and outwitted all the precautions 

 which either the government or directors could take, 

 found, to his infinite astonishment and vexation, upon 

 the first application of the finger and thumb, that his 

 purchase, which was generally extolled by the vender, 

 for being a* tough as tlie mainsail of a seventy-four, pro- 

 ved as weak as a cob-web. The impostor generally 

 added to the fraud, by pulling the cloth apparently with 

 great force in that direction in which the coarse woof 

 gave the resistance, but cautiously avoided even a touch 

 against the warp, which would at once have detected the 

 fraud. 



In Fig. 4. Plate CXCIII. is given a representation of 

 the position of a fabric of cloth in section, as it is in the 

 loom before the warp has been closed upon the woof, 

 which still appears as a straight line. This figure may 

 usefully illustrate the direction and ratio of contraction, 

 which must unavoidably take place in every kind of 

 cloth, in a greater or smaller degree, according to the 

 density of the texture, the dimensions of the threadc, 

 and the description of- the cloth. Let AB represent one 

 thread of woof completely stretched by the velocity of 

 the shuttle in passing between the threads of warp which 

 are represented by the round dots 1, 2, &c. and those 

 distinguished by 8, 9, &c. When these threads are 

 closed by the operation of the heddles to form the inter- 

 texture, the first tendency will be to move in the direc- 

 tion 1 b, 2 li, Sec. for those above, and in that of 8a, 9a, 

 Sec. fcr those below ; but the contraction of AB, by its 

 ikuation from a straight to a curved line, in conse- 

 quence of the compression of the warp threads \ b,'ilt, 

 i.e. and la, 2fl, &c. in closing, will produce, by the 

 action of the two powers at right angles to each other, 

 the oblique or diagonal direction denoted by the lines 

 1, 8 2, 9 to the right, for the threads above ; and that 

 expressed by the tines 2, 83, 9, &c. to the left, for the 

 threads below. Now, as the whole deviation is produced 

 by the flexure of the thread AB, if A is supposed to be 

 placed at the middle of the cloth, equidistant from the 

 two extremities, or selviges as they are called by weavers, 

 the thread at 1 may be supposed to move really ii. the 

 direction 1 b, and all the others to approach to it in the 

 directions represented, whilst those to the left would ap- 

 proach in the same ratio, but thclincof approximation would 

 be inverted. By pursuing this plan, which, as far as the 

 writer of this article knows, is totally new, the theory of 

 fabric might be reduced to a very great degree of cer- 



PHT 

 i M.'lll. 

 *' * 



tainty; and here a field is entirely open for the researches 

 of an expert geometrician, to apply the principles of his 

 M-iinee to the most extensive and useful manufacture, not 

 only of this country, but of every other. Fig. 5. repre- 

 sents that common fabric used for lawns, mutlins, and 

 the middle kind of godiis, the excellence of which i 

 consists in the greatest strength, nor in the greatest 

 transparency. It is entirely a medium between 1 

 and Fig. 3. Its principles are in every respect similar to 

 those alreacly noticed. 



In the efforts to give great strength and thickness to 

 cloth, it will be obvious that the common mode of weav- 

 ing by constant intersection of warp and woof, although 

 it may be perhaps the best which can be devised for tli'j 

 former, presents invincible obstructions to the latter be- 

 yond a certain limit. To remedy this, two modes of 

 weaving are in common use, which, while they add to 

 the power of compressing a great quantity of materials in 

 a small compass, possess the additional advantage of afford- 

 ing much facility for adding ornament to the superficies 

 oJ the fabric. The first of these is double cloth, or two 

 webs woven together, and joined by the operation. This 

 is chiefly used for carpets j and its geometrical principles 

 are entirely the same as those of plain cloth, supposing 

 two webs to be sewed together. A section of the cloth 

 will be found in Fig. 6, Plate CXCIII. ; and what fur- 

 ther relates to this part of the subject, in the article 

 CARPET. 



Of the simplest kind of tweeled fabrics, a section is 

 given in Fig. 7, Plate CXCIII. ; and as this is a most 

 important branch of the cloth manufacture, it may be 

 proper to consider it with some attention. 



The great and prominent advantage of the tweeled 

 fabric in point of texture, arises from the facility with 

 which a very great quantity of materials may be put 

 closely together. In the figures, the warp is represented 

 by the dots in the same straight line as in the plain fa- 

 brics ; but if we consider the direction and ratio of con- 

 traction, upon principles similar to those laid down in the 

 explanation given of Fig. 4, Plate CXCIII. we shall 

 readily discover the very different way in which the tweel- 

 ed fabric is affected. 



Thus we see by the Figure, that when the dotted lines 

 are drawn at a b c d, their direction of contraction, instead 

 of being upon every second or alternate thread, is only 

 upon every fifth thread, and the natural tendency would 

 consequently be to bring the whole into the form repre- 

 sented by the lines and dotted circles at a b c d. In point 

 then of thickness, from the upper to the under superfi- 

 cies, it is evident, that the whole fabric has increased in 

 the ratio of nearly three to one. On the other hand, it 

 will appear, that four threads or cylinders being thus put 

 together in one solid mass, might be supposed bnly one 

 thread, or like the strands of a rope before it is twisted ; 

 but, to remedy this, the thread being shifted every time, 

 the whole forms a body in which much aggregate mat- 

 ter is compressed, but where being less firmly united, the 

 accession of strength acquired by the accumulation of 

 materials, is partially counteracted by the want of equal 

 firmness of junction. 



The second quality of the tweeled fabric, tusceytibiliiy 

 of receiving ornament, arises from its capability of being 

 inverted at pleasure, as in Fig. 9, Plate CXCIII. In 

 this figure, we have as before four tliteails, and one al- 

 ternately intersected ; but here the 4 threads marked 1 

 ami 2, are under the woof, while those marked 3 and 4 

 ate above. As this in no way affects the solidity or 

 Strength of the texture, but is merely an auxiliary aid 

 for the addition of ornament) the further discussion of 



Fig. i 



PtlTt 



I'XCUt. 

 I ig. 6. 



PlAT* 



CXCllt.. 

 Fig. 7. 



PLITK 



CXCIII. 

 Fig. 4. 



Pi.-rr 

 CXCIII. 

 Fig. 9. 



