WEAVING. 



835 



the weaving of silk; it is indeed easier to manage 

 than cotton or linen. The chief thing in weav- 

 ing it, is to prevent the purling of the selvage, 

 from the facility with which the weft shot comes 

 off the bobbin, and this can be as well prevented 

 in weaving by power as by hand. But as the 

 mere saving in workmanship by the power loom, 

 is but a trifle on the yard of silk, and therefore 

 would not greatly increase the consumption by the 

 diminution of the cost, and as it would require an 

 increase of capital to carry it on, and a total change 

 of all manufacturing arrangements, it may be long 

 before machinery is extensively used here. The 

 power loom is making its way into the woollen 

 manufacture but slowly. In the weaving of 

 woollen cloth, from the springiness of the material, 

 the stroke should not be so sharp as in cotton 

 weaving; and in the weaving of flannel especially, 

 the shot should be sent home with pressure rather 

 than with a stroke ; and this is the principal adap- 

 tation that is made in the power loom for woollen 

 goods. The number of power looms at present in 

 use in Great Britain is about 130,000, and of the 

 hand looms, 260,000. The linens and silks, with 

 very little exception, and most of the woollens, 

 are wrought by hand ; and in the cotton depart- 

 ment all the checks and muslins, and almost all 

 the fancy work. As there is more mechanical 

 knowledge and enterprise in the cotton trade 

 than in any other, this manufacture will be the 

 first to be brought wholly under the influence of 

 machinery. Attempts have been frequently 

 made to work checks by power, but they have 

 failed, partly by the complexity of the means 

 for working the boxes, but chiefly by the mischief 

 attending the interruption of the box in rising or 

 falling by the driver or picker. When this inter- 

 ruption happens, something must give way, and 

 that is the box, which is probably broken in 

 pieces. The means for taking back the driver or 

 picker was defective. There was for this purpose 

 a long spring attached to the driver by a cord, and 

 this spring, besides exerting its utmost where it 

 was not wanted, was liable, by the sudden jerk in 

 picking, to snap at the driver, and then the break- 

 age was inevitable. In the improved check loom 

 there is no spring used here. There is a light 

 lever, of the strength of strong wire, movable on a 

 stud fixed near the rocking tree below the web. 

 The one end of this lever reaches up to the driver, 

 and is attached to it; and the other end, or arm, 

 which is a short one, extends to the picking 

 treadle, and a little under it. When, therefore, 

 this treadle descends, it pushes this end of the 

 lever down before it, and the other end attached 

 to the driver is carried to the end of the spindle 

 over the way of the drop box. This mischief 

 therefore, is very simply prevented ; and as there 

 is no incumbrance here in picking, the speed of the 

 loom in working checks need scarcely be reduced. 

 On common power-loom fabrics, 100 to 120 shots 

 per minute may be wrought with all safety. 



Fancy weaving is another very extensive 

 and distinct branch ; and is almost wholly 

 wrought by hand. It consists of the interlacing 

 of the warp and the weft, in such a way as to 

 produce a flower, or figure. This figure can 

 only be produced in weaving by two ways; by 

 relieving the warp from the weft, and by contrast- 

 ing colours and shading. Contrasting and shad- 

 ing can be carried to any extent in weaving; but 

 relieving can be done only to the extent of the 



thickness of the thread. The weft may be thrown 

 almost altogether on the one side, and the warp 

 nearly altogether on the other. This is done by 

 tweeling, and this kind of weaving is, properly 

 speaking, the ground of fancy work The she 1 of 

 plain weaving is always one thread up and one 

 down all over; but this is never the shed in 

 tweeling. There are either two threads up, and 

 two down, which is the nearest to plain work, and 

 which is the common calico tweel for printed 

 goods, or one thread out of 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 

 or any other number up, and the rest down, 

 That is to say, supposing the shed were to be 

 one out of every 8 threads raised, this, which 

 is called a satin tweel, would be wrought by a 

 set of heddles of 8 leaves, and with 8 treadles. 

 Seven-eights therefore of the warp would be on 

 the one side, and seven-eights of the weft on 

 the other. If the warp and the weft were con- 

 trasting colours, black, and white, the under side 

 of the cloth might be of the colour of the warp, 

 white, and the upper side black. If the weaver 

 then had some means for raising a certain portion 

 of the warp, so as to throw the white on the upper 

 side, the portion raised might be so arranged as 

 to form a pattern on the black ground, and this is 

 really damask weaving ; the principle on which 

 table cloths are wrought. In this case, where 

 the warp and the weft are of different colours, 

 the pattern is formed by contrasting and reliev- 

 ing. There are therefore two sheds produced 

 here. The one for working the ground or tweel, 

 by the heddles, and the other for forming the 

 pattern, which is done by the harness. The harness 

 is exclusively used for forming the pattern, and is an 

 ingenious arrangement of cords for this purpose, 

 whereby a very great assemblage of heddles, which 

 would be necessary for even a small pattern, is dis- 

 pensed with ; and the largest and most complicated 

 figure, which could not be worked from heddles at 

 all, is wrought with ease. When this beautiful 

 and ingenious invention was originated is not 

 known, but it has undergone very great improve- 

 ment since the quickening and extension of the 

 trade by machinery. The harness is so arranged 

 on a framing called the carriage, that an assistant, 

 usually a little boy, standing at the side of the loom, 

 can draw the cords and thereby raise the yarn. 

 This could be accomplished, it is apparent, by at- 

 taching cords to the yarn, and placing a pulley case 

 on the carriage, to change the direction of the 

 cords to where the boy stands, at the side of the 

 loom, and this is precisely what is done. The 

 cords that come over the pulleys are called the 

 tail, but as it would require another arrangement 

 of a similar kind, to change the direction of the 

 tail from the horizontal to the perpendicular, for 

 the convenience of being drawn by the boy, and as 

 this would greatly increase the tear and wear by 

 friction, it is dispensed with by extending the tail 

 3 or 4 yards beyond the loom, and attaching to it 

 perpendicular cords, so that when they are pulled, 

 the tail is drawn down, and the yarn raised. The 

 perpendicular cords are called the simple. The sim- 

 ple then represents the whole of the warp. But if 

 there was one cord for each thread, the number of 

 cords would be inconveniently great, and this is 

 obviated by classing them at that part of the cord- 

 age that extends from the yarn to the tail. This 

 part is called the neck. Each cord of the neck 

 is attached to a copper eye, called the mail, to 

 the under part of which, by a short cord, n piece 

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