WEAVING-LOOM, a machine for weaving cloth, silk, &c. by raising the threads of the warp in order to throw in the shoot, and strike it close. Of these there are various kinds, distinguished by the different sorts of cloths, stuffs, silks, &c. in which they are employed; and which are chiefly distinguished by the number and variety of the threads they raise in order to work the warp, either plain or in figures, by making more or less of the woof or shoot appear through the warp. In order to give a general idea of weaving, we shall here describe the parts of the common weaver's loom. See Plate DXXXIX. fig. 1. in which ef, ef are the front posts, and g, g the back posts of the loom; l, l, m, m, n, n are the lams in their place at Q, or, as they are called in some parts of Scotland, the biddles, and in others the slaves. They are composed of strong threads, stretched between two horizontal bars, an upper and a lower. The threads of one lam are so disposed as to pass between the upper threads of the warp, while they admit the lower threads to pass through loops or small holes in them, and the disposition of the threads of the other lam is such, that while they pass between the lower threads of the warp, they admit the upper threads to pass through the small holes just mentioned. The lams are suspended from the cross bar or lam-breaker HH, by means of ropes n, n passing from the upper bars of
Weaving. the lams over the pulleys at EE, and balanced by weights at the other ends. From the lower bar of each lam or biddle a rope passes to the treadles or moveable bars at OO; so that when a foot presses a treadle, the lam fastened to it sinks, while the other rises by means of the balancing weight suspended from the pulley at E. The workman then throws in the woof by means of the shuttle, and closes it by one or two strokes of the lay or batten, of which WB, WB are called the fewords, CC the cap, or in Scotland the upper shell, DD the block or under shell, and PP the reed or comb contained between these shells. LL is the bench on which the workmen sit; for the loom which our figure represents is constructed for weaving cloth of such a breadth as to require two workmen, who have their quills in a box d on the middle of the bench on which they sit. Between the workmen's bench and the batten or lay is the breast-bar I, I, a smooth square beam, in which there is an opening to let the web through as it is wove. From this opening the web SS passes to the knee-roll or web-beam GG, round which it is rolled by means of the spokes, visible in the figure, and kept from being unrolled by a wheel with teeth and clench, visible likewise in the figure. In some looms the web passes from the knee-roll to the wooden frame X, to be dried as it is wove. Opposite to the breast-bar, and on the other side of the batten or lay, is the cane-roll or yarn-beam, on which the warp is rolled when put into the loom, and from which it is gradually unrolled as the work proceeds. TT are bobbins filled with yarn of the warp to mend such threads of it as may be broke in the weaving; and B b, B b are clues of the same kind of yarn with the borders of the warp, to mend such threads as may there be broken.
Fig. 2. represents the common shuttle with the v vacancy in the middle, in which the quill with the woof is placed on a spindle or axis. As this shuttle is thrown with one hand in at one side of the warp, and received with the other hand at the other side, it is obvious, that when the web is of a breadth too great for a man to reach from one side of it to the other, two workmen must be employed and much time lost. To remedy this inconvenience, a new shuttle has, in this country, been lately brought into very general use, and called the flying shuttle, because it flies through the warp with wonderful rapidity on two steel rollers RR (fig. 3.) This shuttle is not thrown with the hand, but moved backwards and forwards by a very simple piece of machinery, of which fig. 4. will give the reader a sufficiently accurate conception. To each end of the batten or lay L is fastened a kind of open box B, b, with the bottom or horizontal side exactly on a level with the threads of the warp of the intended web. In each of these boxes is a vertical piece of wood D, d, of considerable thickness, called a driver. This driver is moved easily on an iron spindle or axis from one end of the box to the other by means of a slender rope CCCD, and a handle H is seen in the figure. When the weaver is to begin his work, he lays the shuttle on its rollers in the box B with the iron tip T (fig. 3.) touching, or almost touching, the driver D (fig. 4.) Then moving the handle H, with a sudden jerk, towards the box b, the driver D forces the shuttle with a rapid motion thro' the warp till it strikes d, which is impelled by the stroke to the further end of the box b. The two drivers D and d have now changed their positions in their respective boxes; so that the driver which was at the front of its box before, is now at the farther end of it, and vice versa. Then by a sudden jerk of the hand towards B the shuttle is driven back till it strike D; and thus is the work continued without the weaver having occasion ever to stretch his arms from one margin of the web to the other. That the shuttle may not, by the unsteadiness of the work-
man's hand, he driven zig-zag through the warp or out of the place in which it ought to move, the guiding or driving rope CCCC is made to pass through smooth holes or loops C, C, at the ends of the ropes EC, EC, suspended either from the cross bar on the top of the loom or from the swords of the batten.
This shuttle, we should think, a great improvement in every kind of weaving loom, though some of the older tradesmen, with whom we have conversed on the subject, contend, that it is valuable only in what they call light work, such as cotton or linen cloth, or when the web, if woollen, is very broad.