LOOM AND THE SEWING-MACHINE JI 



and weaving tend to show that it can be done at an 

 actual saving of labor or money. 



If all the resources of modern science and industry 

 were to be utilized for the purpose of making the 

 spinning-wheel, the reel, and the loom into really 

 efficient domestic machines (as efficient relatively as 

 is the average domestic sewing-machine) , the number 

 of textile-mills which could meet the competition of 

 the home producer would be insignificant. And if 

 modern inventive genius were thus applied to these 

 appliances for weaving, there would be no drudgery 

 in domestic weaving; a saving of time and money 

 would be effected; the quality and design of fabrics 

 would be improved, and everybody of high and low 

 degree would be furnished an opportunity to engage 

 in interesting and expressive work. Such improved 

 machinery would occupy no more space than is now 

 wasted in many homes and the loom-room would give 

 to the home a new practical and economic function. 



Our loom, in spite of the attachment of a flying 

 shuttle, which has increased its efficiency greatly, re- 

 mains one of the most primitive pieces of machinery 

 in our home. There is at present no really efficient 

 domestic loom upon the market. Most of the looms 

 made for what is called "hand weaving" with em- 

 phasis on the silent word "art," are built upon archaic 

 models or devised so as to make weaving as difficult 

 as possible instead of as easy as possible. 



The biggest market for these looms is, I believe, in 

 the institutional field. Weaving is one of the favored 



