478 THE FARMER'S AND 



provements have been made of late in looms, particularly 

 in weaving cottons, muslins, and silks ; nevertheless, the 

 old-fashioned common loom is still employed, particularly 

 in Spitalfields and other places, for weaving plain silks. 

 The first operation in weaving is to extend the warp 

 yarn in parallel lines. This is effected by means of a 

 contrivance called a warp-mill; and it is then rolled 

 carefully round a thick roller in the loom, A, called the 

 warp-beam, having a weight, c, suspended from it to keep 

 the warp stretched. From this the warp, M M, forming 

 the length of the piece, is stretched to another roller in 

 the loom, called the cloth-beam, B, before the cloth is 

 wound upon it when completed. Every thread of the 

 warp between the two beams passes through loops in two 

 sets of vertical threads, stretched in frames called kiddles, 

 d d and e e, which are connected by strings at bottom with 

 two treadles, D and E, to be pressed up and down by the 

 weaver's feet. The use of these treadles is to separate 

 the threads of the warp, by raising and depressing each 

 thread alternately, and thus making way for the weft to 

 pass through ; the two treadles being so united by a rope 

 and pulley, that the depression of one must cause the rais- 

 ing of the other. The weft is driven from one side to the 

 other through this space, called the shed, by means of a 

 shuttle thrown from the hand. The shuttle is a small 



box pointed at both ends, and contains a small bobbin of 

 cane, called the quill, having the weft wound on, and 

 which runs on as the shuttle is thrown. No sooner is a 

 thread of weft thrown by the motion of the shuttle, than it 

 is driven up close to the last thread of weft by the blow 

 of a comb-like apparatus, called a batten, L, which co 



