VINO. 



WEAVING. 



804 



M. da Oennes, U described w " a new engine to make Unen doth with- 

 out the aid of an artificer," by applying water-power a* the moving 

 tone. Toe advantages are thiu enumerated : " 1, Thft one mill alone 

 will Mt ten or twelve of theee loom* at work ; 2, the cloth may be 

 made of what breadth you plea**, or at least much broader than any 

 which ha been hitherto made; 8, there will be fewer knot* in the 

 cloth, lince the thread* will not break ao fart u in other loonu, became 

 the shuttle that break* the greater part can never touch them. In 

 hurt, the work will be carried on quicker and at lea* expense, ainoe, 

 instead of several workmen, which are required in making up of very 

 Urge cloth*, one boy will aerve to tie the thread* of mveral loom* a* 

 fart a* they break, and to order the quill* in the ahuttle." This de- 

 oription remarkably well expresses the exoellencM of the power-loom 

 of the present day ; but we have no evidence that De Uenncs' machine 

 ever came into uae. At variou* time* during the lart century M. 

 Dolignon, U. Vaucamon, Mr. Austin, and Mr. Miller contrived loom* 

 which were to be worked by a winch, by water-power, or by aome con- 

 trivance more expedition* than the common hand-weaving. The fimt 

 power-loom for weaving cotton fabrics WM put up by Mr. Austin in 

 the factory of Mr. Monteith, near Glasgow, in 1798 ; but before that 

 time another machine had been invented, whoee history i* curious and 

 interring. 



The Kev. Dr. Cartwright, brother of the late Major Cartwright, 

 happened, in 1784, to be in conversation with some gentlemen, con- 

 cerning Arkwright's spinning machinery. It was observed that, so 

 loon a* Arkwright's patent expired, so many mills would be erected, 

 and ao much cotton spun, that hands would not be found to weave it. 

 Oartwright remarked that Arkwright must, in that case, invent weaving 

 machinery ; and the idea, thus suggested by himself, seems to have 

 taken hold of his mind ; for he soon afterwards endeavoured to form a 

 machine which should imitate the three movement* in weaving. He 

 succeeded so far as to produce a machine, which he patented in 1785 ; 

 and another, for which a patent was obtained in 1787. He tried to 

 establish a power-loom weaving factory at Doneaster, but failed : 

 Mew*. Orimahaw also endeavoured to set Cartwright's machines at 

 work at Manchester, but similarly failed from various causes; and, 

 after many yean of labour, many patents, and an expenditure of 

 40,000i, Dr. Cartwright was compelled, in 1808, to ask for a grant 

 from Parliament a* a return for hi* losses and exertions. Parliament 

 awarded him 10,000/. One cause which thus delayed the adoption of 

 power-looms was the necessity for stopping the machine frequently, in 

 order to dress the warp as it unrolled from the beam, which operation 

 required a man to be employed for each loom, BO that there was no 

 saving of expense. In the year 1802, Mr. Radcliffe, a cotton manu- 

 facturer of Stockpurt, aided by a workman, Thomas Johnson, made 



I'.t. I 



many contrivance* with a view to remedy this inconvenience, and at 

 length produced the admirable drtmiiy-mariuxe of modern factorial, 

 by which the warp i* driind before it goe* into the loom. At a sub- 

 sequent period Mr. Horrock* and Mr. Maraland, both of SUx;k|rt, 

 made other improvement*, which brought the team-engine fairly into 

 uae for weaving operation*, and thu* power-loom* became established. 

 Still more recently, Mr. Roberta, of the firm of Sharp and Robert., at 

 Manchester, brought the power-loom to a itato of high perfection} 

 and every year add* more and more to the number of such loom* 

 employed in manufacturing districts. 



The application of the power-loom renders necessary the employ- 

 ment of other machines likewise, to effect those preparatory operation* 

 which, in hand-loom weaving, are effected by very simple mean*. If 

 we take a piece of calico as the representative of plain fabrics generally, 

 the mode of proceeding in power-loom factories may be shortly sketched 

 as follow* : 



The rarpuvj-framt, Instead of being employed on the same principle 

 a* the warping-mill sketched in a former page, is so arranged as to be 

 worked by iteam-power. Several bobbins, arranged with their axes 

 parallel and horizontal, hi a compartment at one end of the frame, 

 yield the yarn which is to be collected into a warp. The yarns, pro- 

 ceeding from the bobbins, pass under some rollers and over others, 

 until all are brought into a parallel layer, a comb of fine wires being 

 employed to separate the yarn* equidistanUy. The yarn* are tln-n 

 collected and coiled on a cylindrical beam, which U removed from the 

 warping-framf, and transferred to the dreaing-maehine. This latter is 

 a large piece of mechanism, by which the contents of eight rollers from 

 the wrj ling-frame are collected on one roller or beam, which is to 

 form the warp-beam of the loom ; and in their passage the yarn-threads 

 are coated with the paste or mucilage-dressing, and dried. Four of 

 the rollers are placed at one end of the machine, and four at the other ; 

 and the yarns, proceeding from thence, pass between rollers, of which 

 the lowermost dips into the paste, and becomes thu* coated with it ; 

 they then pass under and over brushes, by which the paste is rubbed 

 into the fibre* ; then over a steam-heated copper box, by which they 

 are dried; and, lastly, are wound on the warp-beam. 



The preparation of the warp in the loom, comprising what are called 

 the draining and mounting, is more simple for the power-loom than for 

 the hand-loom, but is still somewhat intricate. When, however, this 

 is effected, steam-power does all the rest : it forms the shed or division 

 of the warp into two parts ; it throws the shuttle ; it drives up the 

 weft with the batten ; it unwinds the warp from the warp-roller ; and 

 winds the woven material on the cloth-roller. Part of these operations 

 may be illustrated by fy. 6, in which some of the mechanism is 

 omitted to render the rest more clear. The warp, unwinding from the 



beam A, and bending round the roller B, passes through the two leaves 

 of hfddlos c c, by which the sited i* formed for receiving the shuttle at 

 ; and after the action of the batten (not here shown) the finished 

 cluth K results. 



The pressing, finishing, droning, Ac., which the woven good* receive, 

 whether woven by the power-loom or the hand-loom, depend, of course, 

 oo the nature of the fabric. One of the most im]>ortant of those pro- 

 cesses, by which the plain goods become diversified with ornament, 

 i* described under CALICO I'UIHTIHO. 



Weaving, like all other parti of textile manufacture, has been 

 marked by the introduction of many new forms of apparatus within 

 the last fsw yean. We will briefly mention the names of a few, as 

 samples of the whole. Messrs. Tattoo and Hodgkinson have a new 

 small-ware loom, for weaving all kinds of narrow work, such a* ribbons, 

 galloons, chinU-laoe, bed-lace, carpet-binding, tapes. Ac. Mr. Somervilla 

 has introduced a new form of steam-power loom for twill, diaper, and 



wonted goods, especially intended for varying the effects in the mmt 

 web by varying the shed-action. Mr. MncfarUne, of Comrii 

 an arrangement in 1858 for enabling a loom to supply its own shuttle 

 with fresh warp when exhausted or broken, and also to stop itself when 

 any definite number of warp-threads have become broken. Mr. Ingram, 

 of Bradford, patented in 1860 mechanism for obtaining cont 

 action in looms; that is, a method of supplying the loom with weft 

 without stopping it to change the bobbin or cop ; or of giving an addi- 

 tional supply of weft while the loom is in action, and whether the weft 

 be all ued up or only broken. Mr. Sohwabe has invented on in; 

 way of weaving fovnnd dress us. To effect this there is an addition*} 

 warp-beam laid beside the usual one : the warp from this beam if 

 brought into use in producing the body of the dress; but when 

 fringe, cording, ftc., is wanted for a flounce, a portion of the other warr 

 i* brought forward by itself; or else this second warp may only be used 

 in the flounce, and cut off at regular interval*. 



