CLOTH MANUFACTURE. 



693 



Cloth partment, every attempt at weaving of cloth by the agen- 

 >1 ::uf'.r- C y O f mechanical power, will be liable to very great dif- 



' ficulty. Of what has been done, it may now be proper 



PLATE" to P' ve some account, referring for a general view of the 

 CX<_V. mechanical apparatus to Figs. <), 10, and 11. of Plate 

 Figs. 9," 10, CXCV. 



11. 



Machinery for Dressing Warps. 



Machinery An essential point in every kind of weaving is, that 

 the warp be properly prepared or dressed, and this varies 

 according to the nature of the raw material. 



In the woollen manufacture, it is only necessary to 

 have the yarn well scoured, to free it from those impuri- 

 ties which may have been originally in the wool, or which 

 it may have contracted in any of the preparatory pro- 

 cesses of carding or spinning. For the purpose of scour- 

 ing, urine is generally used. After going to the loom, 

 the weaver has no occasion to use any further kind of 

 dressing, and it is only incumbent on him to remove ob- 

 itructions, such as knots, lumps, snarls, twists, &c. which 

 might prevent the free passage of his warp through the 

 heddles and reed, or which, should they pass, would in- 

 tercept the woof, or injure the appearance of the fa- 

 bric. 



The silk, like the woollen, requires no dressing ma- 

 terial to be employed. It is, however, sometimes con- 

 sidered to be useful for increasing the tenacity of weak 

 stuff of this kind, to brush over it very lightly, and in 

 small quantity, a very thin solution of any of the tran- 

 sparent vegetable gums. Gum arabic is most commonly 

 employed for this purpose, which, however, is rarely 

 necessary. 



In flax or linen yarn, the dressing is perhaps the most 

 important and difficult part of the whole duty of the 

 weaver. The substance employed is a vegetable muci- 

 lage, 'generally prepared from flour and water, by the 

 simple operation of boiling them together. It is there- 

 fore the same substance as that which bookbinders use 

 for pasting together sheets of paper or pasteboard, ex- 

 cepting that the latter increase the cohesive power of 

 the paste by the addition of a solution of alum, which 

 is omitted by the weaver, probably because the substance 

 would, in that case, require more time and labour in 

 drying than he finds it convenient to bestow. The use 

 of this substance in the weaver's operation, is evidently 

 the same as in that of the bookbinder, namely, to pro- 

 mote cohesion. But when this is effected, he is still 

 liable to a very serious inconvcniency, which often im- 

 pedes him much in the subsequent operation of weaving, 

 and also frequently deteriorates the quality of his cloth, 

 both in point of smoothness of surface and equality of fa- 

 bric. This inconveniency arises from the effect of the 

 oxygen, or vital part of the atmospherical air, acting 

 too rapidly on the vegetable substance of which his mu- 

 cilage or dressing is composed ; and when this takes 

 place to a great degree, the threads lose so much of their 

 pliancy and elasticity, as proves very detrimental to the 

 form which they must assume in the texture. No re- 

 medy has yet been devised for this, although the incon- 

 venience is much a subject of complaint among weavers, 

 especially those of linen or flaxen goods. In order to 

 counteract, as far as he car, this impediment to his work, 

 the *hop where a weaver works is almost constantly upon 

 the ground floor of the house, and he dispenses with fire 

 as much as he possibly can, even in the coldest weather, 

 and is only a little more profuse, when in consequence 

 of excessive rains, thr moisture, which is most rapidly 

 absorbed by hie warp, produces nearly as great an in- 



convenience as the heat, which he is in general so anxi- 

 ous to avoid. The only two antidotes which have hither- 

 to been tried for these inconveniences are as follow : 

 1st, By mixing the salt brine or pickle of beef or her- 

 rings, in small quantities, with the dressing, in dry hot 

 weather. This produces a beneficial effect to a certain 

 degree ; but should the weather change suddenly, the 

 excessive tendency of the saline substance to imbibe 

 moisture, frequently produces more trouble and delay 

 to the weaver, than even the hardness produced by the 

 heat itself. 2dly, By inducing a degree of fermenta- 

 tion in the dressing previously to using it. This is very 

 frequently practised, and found very Deneficial ; but al- 

 though it certainly has a considerable tendency to resist 

 the atmosphere, it probably in some measure diminishes 

 the cohesive quality. 



It seems probable that this is the plan used in India 

 in the decoction of rice, with which the Indian weavers 

 dress their cotton yarns ; and from the heat of the cli- 

 mate in that country, and the little pains they are known 

 to take in order to preclude the action of the air, it is 

 to be wished that we were better acquainted with the 

 peculiar nature of their process. It is also common 

 sometimes to use a little butter milk along with dressing ; 

 and this being an animal substance, we are inclined to 

 think might, with a little pains to investigate the proper 

 quantity and best process, be made of considerable use. 

 It might also be proper to make some experiments with 

 the different kinds of animal glii/i/ia which are most easi- 

 ly obtained. We know that in another part of the pro- 

 cess of manufacturing cotton, namely, the dyeing of the 

 colour known by the name of Turkey red, the whole 

 preparatory process consists merely in impregnating the 

 vegetable substance with animal matter. The colour 

 is at length given very easily, merely by boiling the 

 cotton previously prepared in a decoction of madder, 

 which is itself a vegetable substance. The animal sub- 

 stances used are sheep's dung and bullock's blood. We 

 know also that colour is destroyed by the action of oxy- 

 gen very rapidly ; we further know, that the very act of 

 fermentation in a great degree deoxydates the substance 

 upon which it acts. From all these circumstances we may 

 infer, that any substance which will resist the oxygen most 

 effectually, is the substance wanted. From this it appear* 

 probable, that some benefit might arise from trials of cer- 

 tain quantities of the weakest kinds of animal jellies ; 

 but as we are not aware that this has been attempted, it 

 is hinted at with hesitation. The common weaver would 

 probably be so disgusted with the labour and loss of 

 lime, which it would cost him to dry the first dressing 

 with his fan, that these inconveniences would induce 

 him to relinquish the experiment with disgust, as' totally 

 impracticable and nugatory. But when the immense 

 importance of supplying this desideratum in a most ex- 

 tensive manufacture is considered, the man of science 

 might find his time less usefully and profitably directed, 

 than in such an. investigation. 



Whatever advantage might accrue to the manufacture 

 of cloth by chemical improvement, would be of very es- 

 sential importance in all the larger establishments, where 

 regularity and economy are equally indispensible with 

 proper apparatus. In short, taken in every view, thii 

 is the grand desideratum both in the linen and cotton 

 manufactures. 



We are only acquainted with three attempts to intro- 

 duce the agency of mechanics for the purpose of dres- 

 sing the whole warp of wcbj previous to commencing 

 the operation of weaving ; and it may be no injustice t 

 the inventors to state, that we Kill consider even the me- 



