THE EMIGRANT'S HAND-BOOK. 479 



sists of a long narrow frame, with a number of slit pieces 

 of reed, cane, or wires, arranged perpendicularly, and 

 so close that every thread of the weft passes through two 

 of them : this batten is suspended in a horizontal position 

 by two vertical laths, which are movable, like a pendu- 

 lum, from a centre position at the top of the loom, F. The 

 weaver placed on the seat, N, lays hold of this batten, 

 and by pulling it toward him forcibly, he strikes the last 

 thrown thread of weft up to the cloth that is forming. 

 When a certain number of threads of the weft are thus 

 thrown by the shuttle, and brought up close by the batten 

 and reed, so much cloth is made, and the cloth-beam is turn- 

 ed round to wind it up ; this beam is prevented from going 

 back by a ratchet wheel and click fixed on the end. Thus 

 the operation in working the loom for weaving plain cloth, 

 consists of three simple movements : First. Opening tne 

 thread, or separating the threads of the warp alternately 

 to admit the shuttle, which is effected by pressing the 

 treadles that move the heddles. Second. Throwing the 

 shuttle by hand to form ttie weft. Third. Pulling the 

 batten and reed to strike nome tne weft, and again push- 

 ing it back to the heddles. 



The fineness, or rather the closeness of texture in 

 cloth, depends upon the number of laths or dents which 

 the reed contains within a given space, and which, of 

 course, determine the number of threads of warp in the 

 same space. The yarn of the weft is always somewhat 

 finer than that of the warp, and the number of shoots of 

 it in a given space must consequently always exceed the 

 number of threads of warp in a similar space ; that is to 

 say, a square inch of cloth must contain a greater number 

 of threads of weft than of warp. 



The perfection of weaving depends very much upon 

 stretching the warp exactly parallel, and likewise on roll- 

 ing them with great regularity upon the yarn-beam. It 



