THE WOOLLEN INDUSTRY IN IRELAND. 393 



the movements which were formerly two now go on simultaneously. 

 Both instruments whirl on the same axis, one, the twister, or spindle, passing 

 through the winder, or bobbin, which revolves loosely on it. But the bobbin 

 and the spindle are connected by separate cords with the fly wheel, and the 

 grooved wheel, or pulley, round which the cord passes is in each case of a 

 different diameter. The bobbin must revolve more quickly than the spindle, 

 for if it did not, the thread would only twist and would not wind. The 

 pulley wheel of the bobbin is therefore smaller in diameter than that of the 

 spindle, and the object is thus attained. The twisting is really done by 

 means of a " fly " attached to the bobbin which also keeps the thread at 

 right angles to the latter. The spindle pulley wheel (as here illustrated) 

 sometimes has two grooves of different diameters. This is to enable the 

 spinner to give a closer or a looser twist to the yarn. The nearer the 

 spindle pulley and the bobbin pulley approximate in size to each other, the 

 closer will be the twist and the slower the work. The fly is set with little 

 hooks along which the thread is shifted according as it gets sufficiently 

 wound up on one part of the bobbin. 



Nothing more ingenious and complete could well be devised than the 

 arrangements of the " small " spinning wheel, which is now in general use 

 in the Donegal hand-weaving industry, though it has not as yet ousted the 

 large wheel in the other districts of western Ireland. In these devices the 

 germ of all later improvements, whatever the motive power may be, is fully 

 contained. The spinning-jenny invented by Hargreaves is merely an 

 arrangement for enabling a single wheel to turn a number of spindles at 

 once. 



The development of the art of weaving was affected in recent times by 

 one striking and epoch-making invention— that of the 

 -_. . Jacquard appliance for pattern weaving — but apart 



°* from this, the methods in use at the earliest times, and 



among savage races at present, show, in principle, but 

 little difference from the perfected looms of the present day. There is a 

 Greek vase painting of about the year 400 B.C., showing the famous loom of 

 Penelope, on which she wove day by day, and picked out night by night, 

 that web of rich and fair design at the completion of which she had 

 promised to make her choice among the suitors who besieged her during 

 her husband's long wanderings after the fall of Troy. The loom there 

 depicted is very similar to the Gobelins tapestry looms used at the present 

 day. In this form of loom, and in early looms generally, the warp is usually 

 set vertically to the ground, not horizontally as is usual at present in all 

 except tapestry looms. Disregarding the latter, which relate to a very 

 special and peculiar branch of the industry, we may say that the modern 

 hand-loom has to provide for three distinct actions in order to produce a 

 woven fabric. There has to be, in the first place, a method of separating 

 and recrossing the threads of the warp, without which the shuttle bearing 

 the thread of the weft would have to be laboriously darned in and out 

 among them. This is done by means of the " heddle-leaves " already 

 mentioned, which are practically sets of strings, arranged on a wooden 

 frame, with eyelet holes in the middle of each through which the threads of 

 the warp are passed. Each set or "leaf" of the heddles is under control 

 of a lever actuated by a treadle below the weaver's foot, by means of which 

 he can raise or depress all those threads of the warp which pass through 

 the eyelet holes in that particular leaf. If two leaves only are used, half the 



