26 BULLETIN 1436, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
rial. Shipments of persimmon logs 8 inches and up in diameter 
and over 8 feet long continued for some time, but since 1900 per- 
simmon, like dogwood, has been shipped in shuttle-block form only. 
SHUTTLES 
The shuttle discussed in this report is the device used in textile 
looms to carry the weft thread or filling to and fro between the 
warp threads or chain. It is a development of the old hand-loom 
shuttle, which was thrown with one hand and caught with the other. 
Not much wear and tear occurred in the hand loom, and almost any 
wood was satisfactory. In the textile industry of to-day, however, 
the shuttle is shot forcibly back and forth across the loom at a very 
high speed, in continual contact with the taut threads of the warp. 
It is evident that the slightest tendency of the wood to roughen or 
check would render the shuttle worse than useless. 
MANUFACTURE 
Approximately 2,000,000 shuttles were made in the United States 
in 1923, about 78 per cent of dogwood, 21 per cent of persimmon, 
and less than 1 per cent of boxwood. 
Manufacturers of shuttles complain that each year they experi- 
ence more difficulty in obtaining perfect shuttle blocks, particularly 
dogwood blocks, and that the percentage of knots in the blocks 
they receive is higher now than formerly, regardless of whether 
they order perfect No. 1 blocks. This is easily explained. More 
and more dogwood timber has matured on areas cut over for other 
timber. Growing in the open the trees retain their limbs longer 
and the wood consequently produces more knots than timber ma- 
tured on areas untouched by the ax. These defects are often hidden 
within the block and do not appear until the shuttle is being made, 
when boring, turning, and trimming reveal them. 
Most of the shuttles made in the United States are manufactured 
in Massachusetts and Khode Island. Some are manufactured in 
New Jersey, more especially the boxwood shuttles for silk mills. 
The silk industry requires a smaller and finer shuttle capable of 
attaining an exceptionally smooth finish. Although a number of 
dogwood shuttles are used, boxwood because of its extreme smooth- 
ness and clean appearance, even though higher priced, is especially 
appealing to broad silk manufacturers. 
For some 10 to 15 years shuttles covered with hard fiber have also 
been manufactured, for use in the silk industry principally. Sheet 
fiber is glued to the outside of dogwood and persimmon. Some who 
have used this combination and prefer the all-dogwood shuttle report 
that under humid conditions the glue of the fiber-covered shuttle is 
likely to soften so that the fiber and wood separate. Some users dis- 
like the fiber-covered shuttle because it is said to wear the metal reeds 
of the loom more rapidly than the all-dogwood shuttle* The rounded 
edges of the reeds are said to become angular more quickly, and the 
fine thread unwinding itself from the quill or bobbin catches on the 
rough edges and causes an interruption in the operation of the loom. 
Shuttle makers in the United States report that shuttle blocks cost 
them from 12 cents apiece at point of origin for the smallest size to 
$1.25 for the largest size. Others who buy blocks on the basis of 
