COTTON 167 



to be woven. The ends of these threads pass through steel 

 eyes which can be raised or lowered in sets. All the even 

 threads form one set ; the odd ones another. 



The Weft or Woof is the yarn wound on to a shuttle (corre- 

 sponding to the needle in darning). When one set of warp 

 threads is raised, the shuttle passes between them and those 

 which remain unraised. Then the process is reversed ; the 

 unraised ones are raised, and the others lowered, and the 

 shuttle passes back. 



After each journey of the shuttle from side to side, an 

 instrument pushes the weft up close against the preceding weft. 



CENTRES OF MANUFACTURE . In England the South Lancashire 

 and Cheshire coalfield on the western side of the Pennines is 

 the chief seat of the cotton manufacture. 



The abundance of coal and water, the dampness of the 

 atmosphere, and the nearness to the sources of supply in the 

 New World, were some of the advantages which told in favour 

 of this locality in the past, and they are advantages which 

 still exist, though the raw cotton used does not at present 

 all come from the west. 



Manchester, with nearly one million inhabitants, is the centre 

 of this district, and Liverpool, on the coast, the most important 

 town, both for the import of the raw material and the export 

 of manufactured goods, though ocean steamers can now come 

 by the Ship Canal right up to Manchester itself. 



SPINNING is carried on chiefly in the South, at Oldham, 

 Bolton, Ashton, and Rochdale ; WEAVING in the North, at 

 Blackburn, Burnley, Preston, and Bury. 



Cotton goods, chiefly hosiery and lace curtains, are also 

 manufactured at Nottingham on the York, Derby, and 

 Nottingham coalfield. As the threads used in these articles 

 are necessarily very strong, the dry atmosphere is not a disad- 

 vantage ; they are not liable to become brittle and snap as 

 fine threads do. 



In Scotland Spinning is carried on in the west at Glasgow 

 and Paisley, on the Clyde coalfield. 



