CHAP. III.

PLAIN WEAVING.

Antiquity of the Art.-Involved in Obscurity.-Little Improvement in Weaving Apparatus.-Indian Manner of Weaving.-Simple Loom.Mode of its Action.-Warping Machine.-Mounting the Loom.-Shuttle. -Methods of Weaving.-Riband Weaving.-Engine Loom.

THE art of combining and interlacing fibrous substances with a view to the formation of cloth is of the very highest antiquity, so that its origin is involved in deep obscurity. It is impossible to adjudge to any one people the merit of its first discovery: it is indeed highly probable, that many communities might, with perfect justice, lay claim to this merit. The same wants, and the possession of nearly similar means for their gratification, might naturally lead to a discovery of the method whereby those means could be rendered available. The testimony of almost every traveller who has explored new regions acquaints us with the fact that weaving, in some form or other, has been invented and pursued in almost every country, where the inhabitants are led by the nature of the climate to seek protection for their bodies from its inclemency.

It is probable that in its earliest form, weaving consisted merely in the intermixture of substances which had undergone little or no previous preparation. That the first invented cloth was composed of rushes, or straws, or of shreds of the bark and fibrous parts of trees or of plants, which needed not the previous operation of spinning. It must have formed a most important epoch in the progress of any country, when its inhabitants first came to the knowledge, that some among those fibrous substances were capable of being so united by twisting as to form continuous and unbroken threads, whose strength allowed of their taking the place of ruder materials.

The obscurity wherein the whole art of spinning and weaving is involved prevents the formation of any opinion concerning the first adoption of silk among the substances employed in this manner. In the east, the high antiquity of the pursuit of rearing silkworms has already been established; and it would form a very useless subject of speculation to inquire how soon, in that portion of the globe, this pursuit followed the discovery of the weaver's art. It is well known that among European nations the weaving of linen and woollen cloths was practised and brought to a considerable state

of advancement before they arrived at any knowledge of the existence of such a substance in nature as silk; when, therefore, fabrics wrought from this curious and beautiful filament first appeared among the Greeks, it found them prepared, as has been shown, to re-model the costly substance into draperies of more moderate expense; and when, at a still later period, the unwrought material was obtained, there was no longer any difficulty in converting it to purposes at once of usefulness and embellishment.

The machine employed for enabling the weaver to perform his labors has, up to very recent times, been the object of but little change or improvement. In England, where mechanical science has long been made the handmaid of the arts in almost all branches of industry, every improvement which has been introduced in the mechanism of the loom is comparatively recent; and for many of these improvements we have been indebted to foreign invention, rather than to the contrivances of native ingenuity. Looms exactly similar, both in form and arrangement of parts to those which have been used time out of mind by the weaving craft, are still to be seen in daily occupation, preferred even, for every purpose to which they can be made available, by the laboring artisan.

Simple as are these looms, they can yet be favorably contrasted with the rude contrivances still pursued in India, where the wretched weaver performs his labors in the open air, choosing his station under trees, whose shade may protect him from the scorching rays of the sun. Here, extending the threads which compose the warp of his intended cloth lengthwise, between two bamboo rollers, which are fastened to the turf by wooden pins, he digs a hole in the earth large enough to contain his legs when in a sitting posture; then, suspending to a branch of a tree the cords which are intended to cause the reciprocal raising and depressing of the alternate threads of his warp, he fixes underneath, and connected with the cords, two loops, into which inserting the great toe of either foot he is ready to commence his operations. shuttle, wherewith he causes the cross threads or woof to interlace the warp, is in form like a netting needle, and being somewhat longer than the breadth of the warp, is made to perform the office of a batten, by striking the threads of the woof or shoot close up to each other.

The

With this rude apparatus the patient Indian succeeds in weaving fabrics, which, for delicacy of texture, cannot be surpassed, and can hardly be rivalled by the European weaver, even when his labors are aided by the most elaborate

machinery. But it is only in climates where the absolute natural wants of man are few, and under systems of government where the oppressions of the dominant casté deprive the unhappy bulk of the people of all means for attaining more than suffices for the barest supply of those wants, that such labors can be so performed.*

The art of weaving varies but little, whatever may be the material which is the subject of the manufacture. The principal difference discernible in the construction of looms intended for the weaving of silken or of woollen fabrics consists in the greater strength and stability required for the latter machine, in consequence of the less delicate nature of the substance employed.

The simple loom, ordinarily used in weaving plain silks, is similar to the following representation :

A is the beam or yarn-roll, on which the threads which form the warp are wound, after being regularly spread in a manner which will be described; B is the cloth-beam or breast-roll, to which the ends of the warp are also attached, and on which the woven silk is wound when finished; C is a

*Note FF.

weight attached to the frame of the loom, and suspended over the yarn-roll to produce, by the friction of its cord, the requisite tension of the threads of the warp; D E are treadles, on which the weaver presses his feet alternately; and, as the treadle D is attached to the heddle* or harness d d, while the other treadle E is attached to the heddle e e, it will be evident that the depression of each treadle will correspondingly influence the position of its heddle. The two heddles d d and e e are each formed of two horizontal sticks, connected through their whole extent by numerous small cords of an equal length; and the two heddles are so united by a rope and pulley, as shown in the drawing, or by any other convenient apparatus, that the depression of one must cause the raising of the other. These heddles, which are commonly called the harness of the loom, are furnished with loops at the points where they will be intersected by the warp, each individual thread of which is passed, in regular succession, through the cords of one or other of the heddles, so that each alternate thread of the warp is passed through the loops of the one heddle, while the intermediate threads are passed between the cords of that one, and through the loops of the other heddles. It is now evident that the depression of the heddle d d, by means of the treadle D, will cause the depression of all the threads of the warp which pass through its loops, and at the same time will raise the heddle e e, together with all the intermediate threads of the warp which pass through its loops, leaving, between the two divisions of threads, a space of about two or three inches, which is called the shed, for the passage of the shuttle. A modern improvement substitutes for the loops small metallic eyes, through which the warp threads are passed, and by this means the wearing of the threads is in some measure avoided: these eyes are called mails. The frame F G G H is called the batten or lay, and for greater clearness is shown by a separate drawing.

This batten is suspended by its bar F from the upper framing of the loom in such a manner that it will swing to and fro as on a centre of motion. A shelf, called the shuttlerace, is formed by making the bottom bar H broader than the side rails G G, so that it projects about an inch and a half beyond them on the side furthest from the breast-roll. The

* This part of the apparatus is known in some parts of the country by the name of Healds, in other places, as in London, the weaver uses the distinctive name of Lames, but as that of Heddle appears to be most generally ap. plied, the latter name will be used preferably in this volume.

ends of this shuttle-race are prolonged by boards, which form troughs or boxes I I, in each of which is placed a piece of wood or thick leather, K K, called a pecker or driver, and these drivers are made to traverse on small guide wires fixed between the side rails G G and the ends of the troughs I I. The drivers are united by a slack string fastened to each, and meeting at the handle j. L is the reed which is composed sometimes of small portions of split reeds or canes, but most frequently of flattened steel or brass wires. These are

fixed, like the teeth of a comb, in a frame which rests upon the shuttle-race H, and the threads of the warp are passed through the interstitial spaces of the reed. These are covered by a top piece, having a longitudinal groove along its lower side, and which is called the lay-cap. M M (fig. 11.) are cylindrical bars of wood made smooth, which are placed horizontally between the alternate threads of the warp, to prevent their becoming by any means entangled. Sometimes three of these sticks are used, and then one of them is inserted in the shed and drawn to its proper station, while the threads of the warp are actuated by one treadle, and the other two are introduced when the other treadle is depressed. By this means a longitudinal crossing of the threads of the warp is effected which renders them still less liable to entanglement. N is the weaver's seat, and being hung by rounded ends, resting in corresponding brackets fixed to the framing, the position of this seat accommodates itself to the convenience of the weaver in the different movements of his labor.