Alan Summerly Cole

“ If more than one shuttle is used it may be necessary' to feel for each, instead of alternate threads of weft. In such cases a fork is placed beneath the centre of the cloth and lifted above a moving shuttle' if in falling it meets with weft it is arrested, and the loom continues in motion, but if the weft is absent the prongs fall far enough beneath the shuttle race for a stop to act upon a lever and bring the loom to a stand. To prevent a complete wreck of the warp it is essential to arrest the loom when a shuttle fails to reach its appointed box. ”

“ After leaving the loom all threads A are cut by pushing a knife lengthwise between the plain cloth and the pile. As each pick is severed both pieces rise vertically and the fibres open out as at B. Since the pile threads are from two to six times as numerous as those of the ground, and rise from an immense number of places, a uniform brush-like surface is formed. Raised figures are produced by carrying the threads A beneath the ground cloth, where no figure is required, so that the knife shall only cut those portions of the pile weft that remain on the surface. ”

“ When the surface of a piled fabric is irregular, also when cut and looped pile are used in combination, design is no longer dependent upon colour, for in the former case pile threads are only lifted over wires where required, at other places a flat texture is formed. In the latter case the entire surface of a fabric is covered with pile, but if the figure is cut and the ground looped the pattern will be distinct. ”

“ One texture may be constantly above the other and connected at the selvages only, as in hose pipes and pillow slips; or at intervals a thread may pass from one texture into the other, in which event both are united, as in many styles of bed-covers and vestings. ”

“ A wire terminating in a knife with a sloping blade, on being withdrawn, cuts the pile and produces a brush-like surface. The mechanism for operating the wires is placed at one end of a loom and consists of an arm which moves in and out; at each inward movement a wire is inserted, and at each outward movement one is withdrawn. In weaving tapestry carpets, and certain other fabrics, a wire and a shuttle move simultaneously, but a shuttle passes through the ground warp, while a wire passes beneath the pile. ”

“ As compared with true tapestries, the loom-made articles have more limited colour schemes, and their figured effects may be obtained from warp as well as weft, whether interlaced to form a plain face, or left floating more or less loosely. Every weft thread, in passing from selvage to selvage, is taken to the surface where required, the other portions being bound at the back. Some specimens are reversible, others are one-sided, but, however numerous the warps and wefts, only one texture is produced. ”

“ Temples must keep a fabric distended to the breadth of the warp in the reed, and be self-adjusting. This is usually accomplished by small rollers whose surfaces are covered with fine, closely set points. The rollers are placed near the selvages of a web which is prevented from contracting width wise by being drawn tightly over the points.
Looms are varied in details to suit different kinds of work, but as a rule fabrics figured with small patterns are provided with healds for shedding as at L, while those with large patterns are provided with the Jacquard and its harness. ”

“ A thread is attached to a rotating pirn, and a vibrating guider leads it to and fro inside the shaper. Both spindle and pirn recede from the shaper until the pirn is full, when they become stationary. Hanks are carried by ryces, and cops and ring spools by skewers. Cop winders are chiefly used for coarse yarns, which they coil upon bare spindles. By this means a greater length of weft can be placed in a shuttle than when pirns are used. Warp winding consists in transferring yarn from cops, ring spools or hanks, either to warpers, bobbins or cheeses (see Cotton-Spinning Machinery) . ”

“ A is face weft; B back weft, and the circles are warp threads; of the latter C, D, are beneath both B and A. This diagram will serve equally as a longitudinal section of a warp-backed fabric, if A represents a thread of face warp, B a thread of back warp and the circles are weft threads. Weft backing is capable of giving a more spongy feel to a fabric than warp, because softer materials may be used, but in these fabrics the length output of loom is reduced by reason of the wefts being superposed. ”

“ Brocades are fabrics in which both sets of threads may be floated irregularly upon the surface to produce ornamental effects, and they may be taken as typical of all one warp and one weft fabrics that are figured by irregularly floated materials, whether the threads are uniformly or irregularly distributed, and whether one weave or several weaves be employed. ”

“ Besides the headles there is a hanging reed or comb, and between the reeds of it the warp threads are passed and fastened to a roller or cylinder. After throwing his shuttle once or twice backwards and forwards, the weaver pulls the comb towards himself, thereby pressing his weft and warp together, thus making the textile which he gradually winds from time to time on to the roller. This advance in the construction of the loom is also virtually of undateable age; and except for more substantial construction, there is little difference in main principles between it and the medieval loom of fig. ”

“ Eventually the weaver was called upon to furnish articles possessing lustre, softness and delicacy; or those that combine strength and durability with diverse colourings, with a snowy whiteness, or with elaborate ornamentation. In cold countries a demand arose for warm clothing, and in hot ones for cooler materials; while commerce and industry have requisitioned fabrics that vary from normal characteristics to those that exceed an inch in thickness. In order to meet these and other requirements the world has been searched for suitable raw materials. ”

“ The demand for warp stop motions was, however, small until automatic weft supply mechanisms were adopted. The majority of those devices now in use are constructed upon Dr Cartwright's lines, but some are so attached to wire healds that, at one position in every shed, an unbroken thread supports both heald and detector until a thread falls, when a detector is engaged by a vibrator, and the driving mechanism is dislocated. In other warp stop motions pairs of threads are crossed between the lease rods, and a wire passed between them is held forward by the crossed threads until one breaks ”

“ But if a knife is longer than the breadth of a fabric it receives only a slight lateral movement, and must be periodically removed for sharpening. In plain and printed goods healds control all the warps; but in figured goods, other than those made from printed warps, a Jacquard is needed to lift, and a creel to hold, the pile threads.
Single Pile Looms.—The chief feature which renders most single pile looms dissimilar from others is the mechanism by which wires are woven upon, and withdrawn automatically from, a ground texture. Wires are of two kinds, namely, without and with knives ”

“ In the manufacture of heavy fabrics, however, it may be necessary to deliver the warp by positive gearing, which is either connected, or otherwise, to the taking-up motion. The cloth is drawn forward regularly as it is manufactured by passing it over the rough surface of a roller, I, and imparting to the roller an intermittent motion each time a pick of weft is beaten home. ”

“ Also, when two or more shuttles are driven successively from the same side of a loom, if the picking tappets rotate with the second shaft, those tappets must be free to slide axially in order to keep one out of action so long as the other is required to act. The warp beam F is often put under the control of chains instead of ropes, as used in hand looms, and the chains are attached to adjust ably weighted levers, G, whereby the effectiveness of the weights may be varied at pleasure. ”

“ In weaving these fabrics healds are used to govern the ground warp, but a Jacquard is needed for the pile. It must form two sheds, the lower one to receive a shuttle, the upper one to make a selection of threads beneath which the wire is to pass.
Terry Looms.—Looms for weaving piled textures, of the Turkish towel type, have the reed placed under the control of parts that prevent it from advancing its full distance for two picks out of every series that separate one line of loops from another. At such times the weft is not beaten home, but a broad crack is formed. ”

“ Preparing Warp and Weft for Weaving—The power loom is only one of a series of machines which revolutionized weaving. Although early inventors of the power loom did much to perfect its various movements, the commercial results were disappointing, chiefly because means had not been devised for preparing warp and weft in a suitable manner for such a machine. ”

“ As the drum rotates the threads are drawn from the bobbins and wrapped in even coils upon the beam. On most of these machines mechanism is attached for arresting motion on the fracture of a thread, and also for accurately measuring and recording the lengths of warp made. When full, a warpers beam holds threads of much greater length than are needed for any warp, but they are insufficient in number. ”

“ Weft Winding—Weft yarns invariably receive simpler treatment than warp yarns; in many cases none at all. Cops and ring spools pass direct to the loom unless their dimensions are unsuited to the shuttles, in which case they, together with wefts bleached or dyed in hanks or used in a saturated condition, require winding upon pirns, or into cops of suitable sizes. Pirn winders differ greatly in construction, but the majority are furnished with conical shapers, consisting either of slip cups, or of cone rollers mounted upon studs. ”

“ As 'the griffe rises with vertical hooks a shed is formed, and a thread of weft is passed across the warp. The griffe then descends and the operation is repeated but with a new combination of lifted threads for each card. A Jacquard may contain from 100 to 1200 hooks and needles, and two or more machines may be mounted upon the same loom.
Since Jacquard's time attempts have been made to dispense with hooks, needles, springs, cards, the cylinder and several other parts; machines have also been specially designed for effecting economies in the manufacture of certain fabrics ”

“ In England the first patent was obtained by John Kay and John Snell, in 1745, for additions which enabled it to be worked by hand, by water, or other force, and in 1760 John Snell appears to have added the draw harness for weaving flowered ribbons. In 1765 a factory in Manchester was filled with ribbon looms which were either invented by M. Vaucanson, or Kay and Snell, but one weaver could only attend to one machine. When worked by hand it was known as the bar loom, because the weaver oscillated by hand a horizontal bar that set in motion all parts of the machine. ”

“ Group 2 includes all backed and reversible fabrics, as well as those ornamented with extra material and compounded. Cloths intended for men's wear are often backed, the object of which is to give weight and bulk to a thin texture without interfering with the face effects. Either warp or weft may be used as backing; if the former there are two series of warp to one series of weft threads, while in the latter there are two series of weft to one series of warp threads. The face material is superposed upon that of the back, but the ratio of face threads may be one or two to one of back. ”

“ So soon as the reed again moves through its normal space three picks of weft are simultaneously driven home, thus closing the gap, and causing part of the pile to loop upward, the remainder downward. The system is available for plain and figured effects. Gauze Textures are woven in looms having a modified shedding harness, which, at predetermined intervals, draws certain warp threads crosswise beneath others, and lifts them while crossed. Also, a pensioning device to slacken the crossed threads and thus prevent breakages due to excessive strain. At other times the shedding is normal. ”

“ Over each box he mounted a spindle, and upon it a driver, or picker. Bands connected both pickers to a stick which the weaver held in his right hand, while with the left hand he controlled the batten. Thus: a treadle is pressed down by one foot to form a shed; the batten is pushed back till a sufficient portion of the shed is brought in front of the reed, and the depressed threads lie upon the shuttle race; a clear way is thus provided for the shuttle. ”

“ By his plan a cylindrical hopper, placed over one shuttle box, is charged with cops or pirns. At the instant fresh weft becomes necessary the lowest cop in the hopper is pressed into a shuttle from above, the spent one is pressed out from beneath, and the new weft is led into tne shuttle eye, while the loom is moving at its normal speed. The mechanism is controlled by the weft fork, or by a feeler which acts when only a predetermined quantity of weft remains inside a shuttle. Many inventions are designed to eject an empty shuttle and introduce a full one ”

“ The north-eastern Irish industry of damask weaving owes much to French Protestant refugees, who settled there towards the close of the 17th century, though linen manufacture had been established in the district by a colony of Scots in 1634. Dunfermline in Scotland is said to produce as much damask as the rest of Europe, but there are important manufactories of it at Courtrai and Liege in Belgium, in Silesia, Austria and elsewhere. ”

“ Chinese weavings had for some time been coming into Persia, and doubtless instigated the more skilled weavers there to adapt their shuttle looms in course of time to the weaving of stuffs with greater variety of effects than had been hitherto obtained by them ”

“ In nets all threads are held in their appointed places by knots, which are tied wherever one thread intersects another. Hosiery fabrics, whether made from one or many threads, are held together by intersecting a series of loops; while lace fabrics are formed by passing one set of threads between and round small groups of a second set of threads, instead of moving them from side to side. Notwithstanding the foregoing limitations, woven fabrics are varied in texture and have an enormous range of application. ”

“ Warp-backed fabrics, whether uniformly coloured or striped, do not materially reduce the output of a loom, for every weft thread adds to the cloth length. Reversible fabrics may have either two series of differently coloured wefts or warps to one of the other series, in which event they may be similarly figured on both sides by causing the threads of the double series to change places, as in the design and transverse section, fig. 14; or, by allowing one series to remain constantly above the other, as in backed cloths, both sides may be similar or dissimilar
Fig. ”

“ Healds may be operated either by tappets or dobbies, but the range of usefulness in tappets is generally reached with twelve shafts of healds and with patterns having sixteen picks to a repeat; where they are unsuitable for heald shedding a dobby is used. A dobby may resemble, in construction and action, a small Jacquard; if so the selection of healds that rise and fall for any pick is made by cards. In other types of dobbies the selection is frequently made by lags, into which pegs are inserted to pattern in the same manner that cards are perforated. ”