838 



WEAVING. 



whole pattern is finished. The weft is cut in 

 lengths of eight yards, heing the quantity usually 

 wound on one pirn ; and this will make eight shots 

 of a yard wide web, and the pirns are taken in 

 succession, agreeably to the numbers of the slips 

 of design paper, and the colours are placed in the 

 wanner formerly done in setting the weft of cloud- 

 ing. This species of weaving is likewise well 

 adapted to the rug and carpet manufacture. 



The chief inconvenience in the weaving of 

 shawls arises from the dependence of the weaver 

 on the draw boy. He is wholly incapable of pro- 

 ceeding without him, and as much of his success 

 depends on the ability and management of the 

 boy, he is frequently a source of great, uneasiness 

 to the weaver. An invention, therefore, to en- 

 able him to draw the harness shed by the pro- 

 cess of weaving, and thereby dispense with the 

 boy, was much wanted, and eagerly sought 

 after. Various methods for this purpose were in- 

 vented and tried by the trade, but were attended 

 with little success, till the introduction of the 

 French, or Jacquard loom. This invention was 

 originated, and made by M. Jacquard, of Lyons, 

 in 1800, and forms a new era in harness weaving. 

 It is one of those beautiful imbodyings of mecha- 

 nical conception that result from a full and com- 

 prehensive view of the subject, by a master in 

 design. Notwithstanding its great value to the 

 weaver, the inventor of this beautiful and simple 

 machine was more than once exposed to assassin- 

 ation, in consequence of the prejudice of the work- 

 men against his machine. Three attempts were made 

 upon his life he was obliged for years to hide him- 

 self from the vengeance of the labouring population, 

 and his machine was broken up in the public place, 

 by order, and in the presence of the authorities 

 appointed to watch over the trade of Lyons. The 

 ignorance and prejudice which caused the silk 

 weavers to destroy a means of assistance to their 

 labours, capable of being made a great source of 

 benefit to themselves, was not dispelled till the 

 French began to feel the effects of foreign compe- 

 tition in their silk manufacture. They were then 

 forced to adopt the Jacquard loom, which led to 

 great improvement in their silk weaving, and at the 

 present time above ten thousand looms are at 

 work in Lyons. M. Jacquard not only lived to 

 see himself reinstated in the affections of his citi- 

 zens, but was pensioned to the extent of one thou- 

 sand crowns yearly, and became the pride and 

 boast of the operative classes. 



The progress of the introduction of the machine 

 into this country was very slow at first, from the 

 same prejudices which operated against it in France, 

 but it is now extensively adopted in all the manu- 

 facturing districts of England for weaving the 

 fabrics to which it is suited. In Dunfermline in 

 Scotland, a place long celebrated for its manufac- 

 ture of damask table-linen, the machine was in- 

 troduced about the year 1825, and so well was it 

 found to be suited for that sort of fabrics, that 

 there is not one of its 2000 harness looms unsup- 

 plied with a machine, and for weaving very wide 

 table cloths, many have two, three, and a few have 

 four machines on one loom. In Glasgow and its 

 vicinity, they are also increasing very rapidly, the 

 great reduction in price of the machines, which are 

 now manufactured at less than a third of what they 

 were originally charged, having given a wonderful 

 stimulus to their introduction into general use; so 

 much so, that in a few years they will entirely 



supersede the draw-boy in the manufacture of goods 

 of ordinary sized patterns. In the larger flowers 

 for shawls, so many colours are employed, that the 

 price of the cards necessary to produce the pattern 

 may for some time retard the introduction of the 

 machine into that branch of the manufacture ; con- 

 sequently we find that in Paisley where the richer 

 fabrics are the staple trade, its use has not been 

 extensively adopted. 



The inventors of all the plans that were pre- 

 viously tried to supersede the boy, endeavoured 

 to adapt their contrivances to the loom just as 

 they found it, with all the details fitting it for 

 manual operation. It could not, therefore, be 

 otherwise than complicated and expensive, circum- 

 scribed and limited in its application. M. Jacquard, 

 in full mastery of his subject, swept away all the 

 details that were added merely to enable the boy 

 to act upon the harness, that is, the lashes, the 

 simple, the tail, and the pulley box. What he 

 wanted was to raise any given number of the neck 

 cords, by the weaver's treadle, with the least pos- 

 sible inconvenience in weaving, and we shall see 

 how well he accomplishes his object. On the top 

 of the loom above the harness, is fixed a framing, 

 having at its under part a hoard pierced with eight 

 rows of holes, fifty-one in a row. Through these 

 holes, attached to eyes on the ends of an equal 

 number of perpendicular hooks short cords descend, 

 to which are tied the whole neck cords of the 

 harness, the eyes of the hooks resting on the holes, 

 and supporting the whole. The hooks pass up- 

 ward through eyes in as many needles placed in 

 eight horizontal rows one above another, the eyes 

 allowing the hooks a small backward and forward 

 motion, sufficient to permit them, when necessary, 

 to be pushed back out of the way of the lifting 

 bars. One end of each needle is caused to pro- 

 trude through the side of the frame by a spiral 

 spring, on which its other end rests, consequently 

 carrying the hook with which it is connected in 

 that direction. Above this is a movable frame, 

 in which are placed horizontally, and at right 

 angles to the needles, eight flat iron bars, corres- 

 ponding with the eight rows of hooks, which are 

 slightly pressed against the bars by means of the 

 springs acting on the horizontal needles, the 

 curved part of the hooks being just above the bar 

 ready to be lifted by it when the frame is raised. 

 The flat sides of these bars are made to incline a 

 little out of the perpendicular toward the hooks, 

 those which are to be raised being thereby caught 

 with more certainty by the bars on their ascent, 

 and when the frame descends, the tops of those 

 hooks which were not raised are pushed back by 

 coming into contact with the inclined side of the 

 bars, and by this means getting into their original 

 position above them, in readiness to be lifted if 

 required. It will be thus perceived, that as each 

 hook passes through an eye in one of the horizon- 

 tal needles, that if any of their protruded ends were 

 pushed hack, the hook connected with each would 

 be carried along with it out of the way of the bar, 

 and if the lifting frame was now raised, none of 

 those pushed back would be taken up by it. In 

 order to raise any required number of those hooks 

 with the cords and warp attached to them, the 

 following apparatus is employed : a four-sided 

 roller or barrel is suspended ir a swinging frame, 

 exactly opposite the ends of the needles, and hav- 

 ing each of its four sides perforated with holes 

 answering to them in number and position, and 



