SECTION FIRST.

PLAIN WEAVING.

WINDING OR SPOOLING.

THE Common custom of spinners is, to reel the yarn into hanks, or skeins of a given length, and in this state, to deliver it for the purpose of being made into cloth.

This process does not come within the compass of the present section; although the arts of spinning and weaving, which form the two great divisions of labour in manufacturing cloth from the raw material, are so intimately blended, that hardly any thing analogous to the one art, is entirely foreign to the other. At present it will be sufficient to consider yarn in the hank

state.

The first process in linen and cotton yarn, is boiling in the hank. The fibres of the former, being long and tenacious, require only to be freed from impurities by means of boiling water, and soap or potash. To the latter a certain proportion of flour is added, to increase its firmness. When these operations have been performed, and the yarn has been thoroughly dried, it is wound upon bobbins, commonly called spools. This is done, generally for hand looms, by means of the common bobbin wheel, and swifts or runners, which are so well known that we think it unnecessary to give drawings of them.

WARPING.

The warping mill forms a circle, or rather a polygon inscribed within a circle, and the yarn is wound around it in the form of a spiral or screw, by which means a very great length may be produced in a small compass. Warping mills, for hand looms, are constructed of different heights and circumferences, according to the particular species of goods for which they are designed, or the

room which they are to occupy. A plan and elevation of those used in the manufacture of silk, cotton, and other goods will sufficiently illustrate the principle of their construction, and these will be found in figs. 3, 4, and 5.

Fig. 3 is a ground plan and Fig. 4 a profile elevation, and the same letters refer to corresponding parts in both figures. The circumference of a mill is generally five English ells of 45 inches each, and is divided into 20 equal parts of 11 inches or of an ell to each. The mill is built upon three horizontal frames, one of which is represented at A Fig. 3. The circular piece L is of solid wood with a mortise B in the centre, having a square axis passing through it, in each end of which axis is an iron pivot or journal. The lower pivot works in a socket and the upper in a round hole or bush, the axis being placed perpendicular to the horizon. The mill is turned about by a trundle F, from which motion is communicated to it by a crossed band H, passing around its circumference, as near to the floor as convenient. The arms or radii (20 in number) are dovetailed into grooves in the centre piece L, and their extremities are mortised into the upright standards which form the circumference of the mill, and which being exactly 11 inches

asunder, from centre to centre, divide that circumference into 20 equal parts. The arms are numbered from 1 to 20, and appear very plainly in Fig. 3; but the standards at their extremities appear only as sections.

In Fig. 4 nine of the upright standards are quite visible, and are numbered from 2 to 10. Near the circumference the arms are connected and kept firm by round pieces of wood, as represented in Fig. 3.

E is the heck, as it is usually called. It consists of a number (120, or more,) of steel pins, with a round hole or eye in the upper end of each, through which a thread passes in the process of warping. The pins are placed alternately in two frames, distinct from each other, and either of them may be raised at pleasure. By these means what is called the lease is formed, and it is most essential in every stage of the operation of weaving, as the whole regularity of the yarn in the loom depends upon it. Fig. 5 is a front elevation of a part of a heck, for the purpose of showing more distinctly the way of lifting the alternate threads, when required. The steel pins of the heck ought to be very carefully polished for the sake of smoothness, and should be tempered hard, to preserve the eyes from being worn by the friction of the threads passing through them.

D is a frame of wood, on the upper part of which are fixed a convenient number of pins, in a perpendicular direction, and at equal distances. Upon each of these is a small pulley of hard wood, which runs freely round. These serve to guide the yarn upon the mill, and also to divide it into portions called half gangs or bouts, which are useful in the subsequent operation of beaming, as will be hereafter described. On the end of the frame D is a square box, through which a perpendicular post C passes, and upon it the whole frame D slides up or down, when the mill is set in motion. This is effected by means of a cord passing over the pulleys NN, Fig. 4, and fixed to the end of the axis of the mill.

When the mill is turned one way, the cord winds around the axis and raises the frame D; when turned the contrary way, the cord unwinds and the frame is lowered. Four small rollers are generally placed in the inside of the box to diminish the friction of the post C. G. Fig. 3, is a horizontal section of the frame for containing the bobbins, or as it is commonly called the bank.

Two cross pieces of wood, I and K, pass between the upright standards which form the circumference of the mill; in each of them are too smooth round pins, on which the leases are formed. Near to the upper lease pins I, is another pin M, and upon this the warp is turned. The cross piece I is fastened to the mill, but that at K is moveable.

OPERATION OF WARPING.

The number of bobbins which are to form the warp are placed in the frame or bank G, so that the threads may unwind from the upper part of them; the threads are then passed successively, through the eyes of the heck E, and the whole being knotted together are fixed to the pin M, upon the mill, (see Fig. 3.) The mill is then turned slowly, until the top lease pins at I, come nearly opposite the heck. The warper then, lifting half of the frame or thread guide, passes the forefinger of his left hand through the space formed between the threads which are raised and those that remain stationary; he then sinks the frame which had been lifted, to its former place, and lifts the other. (One half of the threads in the gang or bout passes through each of these guides.)

Into the space formed by this he inserts his thumb, and carefully places the yarn upon the two pins at I, the first passing through the interval kept by his fingers, and the second through that kept by his thumb. Every alternate thread is thus crossed and the lease

is formed. He now divides his yarn into portions, as nearly as possible equal to each other, to form half gangs. These are kept separate by passing along different rollers on the frame D, (see Fig. 3.) until he arrives at the lowest lease pins K. Turning the mill gradually and regularly round, he winds the yarn about it in a spiral, formed by the descent of the frame D, until he has completed a number of revolutions sufficient to produce the length of the web, and then fixes the lower pins at the proper place. Upon these he turns his warp, forming another lease, by passing every division, or half gang of his yarn, alternately, over and under each pin. This lease differs from that formed upon the upper pins only in this respect, that instead of being formed by the crossing of the individual threads, it is produced by crossing the half gangs, and is used, as formerly stated, in order to preserve regularity in the operation of beaming. The lower lease being now formed, the warper turns the mill in a contrary direction until he arrives again at the top, and repeats the former process till he has collected upon the mill the quantity of warp required in the web. As soon as this has been effected, he secures his leases, by tying round one half of the yarn upon each pin, cuts away his threads, and drawing the warp gradually off the mill, links it into a succession of loops called a chain, forms it into a bunch, or ball, and in this state it is delivered to the

weaver.

In this consists the whole operation of warping. It is an important part of the duty of a warper to be very careful that any threads which may be broken in the process, be immediately tied, that they may not be crossed over the others.

We shall now proceed to the next operation, which is Beaming.

BEAMING.

When the weaver has received his warp, his first care is to wind it upon the beam in a proper manner.

Having ascertained the number of half gangs, and the breadth of the web, he passes a small shaft through that formed by the first. This gives him the lease for beaming, and keeps the half gangs distinct. An instrument or utensil called a ravel is then to be used. We have not given any figure of this because it differs in nothing from a reed, excepting that the intervals are much wider, and that the upper part may be taken off, for the purpose of putting the half gangs in their respective places.

Ravels, like reeds, are of different dimensions, and one proper for