History. Weaving is the art of regularly interlacing threads or filaments, whatever their substance, into cloth. It is distinguished from felting, either—(1) by the alternation of one series of threads first over and then under another series, as in plain weaving; or (2) by the intermittent but regular crossing of the third, fourth, fifth, or other threads, as in twilled weaving; whereas in felting, the fibres are crossed and worked together in all directions. It is distinguished, on the other hand, from mere plaiting, by the antecedent preparation of the thread. (See Spinning.) Those threads which run lengthwise are variously called the "warp," "twist," or "chain;" those which run crosswise, the "weft," "woof," "shoot," or "tram."

Varieties of weaving. In pile-weaving, a third thread is introduced, in addition to these warp and weft threads, and is thrown into loops by being woven over wires of the breadth of the cloth. In some fabrics these wires are drawn out, and the loops are left standing. In others, as, for instance, in the manufacture of velvet and of Wilton carpets, the upper surface is cut. (See Carpet.) Thus a nap or pile is formed.

In figure-weaving, the warp may be divided among a number of healds or heddles, so that threads of different colours may be concealed, or be brought up to the face of the fabric, or be transposed, according to a prescribed pattern. On the order in which the warp-threads are lifted, and the threads of the weft worked in between them, the pattern, whether simple or complex, of every fabric is dependent.

In gauze-weaving, the warp-threads are made to cross each other between every two casts of the shuttle, thus separating the weft-threads, and producing a transparent tissue.

In lace-weaving, the threads of the weft are twisted round those of the warp. In knitting or hosiery-weaving, one continuous thread serves for warp and weft; the stitches form successive rows of loops, and the loops of each row, in turn, are drawn through those of a preceding row.

Finally, in netting, which may be regarded as a rudimentary sort of weaving, the threads are tied into knots at the points of intersection, so as to form meshes of equal size.

Antiquity and universality of the art. If we look at weaving in its rudest form, no handicraft is more ancient, and none more universal. If we look at it in its most elaborate form, and in conjunction with the auxiliary operations, no handicraft can point to a more striking series of improvements, due to the happy inventiveness and the indefatigable toil of a crowd of men of all countries. Who was the first in the long line of inventors is as hopeless a question as it would be to ask who first compared human existence to a web, or our individual lives to the threads of the web or the shuttle of the loom. The allusions to this ancient craft in our Bibles make us all familiar from childhood with its implements. "My life is cut off as by the weaver," says Isaiah. "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle," says Job. To weaving, as being from remotest antiquity the domestic employment of women, the field of human knowledge has rarely a beautiful figure, and the dramatists some of their most touching incidents. By the "gorgeon in the centre web," and the resplendent "dragons with golden jaws, the virgin labour of her shuttle"—woven on the well-preserved swaddling clothes—Creusa proves to Ion that she is his mother. By a description of the ornaments she had long before woven in "the fine-threaded web," Iphigenia is led to recognise Orestes. The antiquaries who have unrolled Egyptian mummies, the travellers who have explored Central Africa, the missionaries who have familiarised us with the habits and traditions of the South Sea Islanders,—all testify to the antiquity and the universality, in some form or other, of textile industry.

The history of such an art must needs be interesting. That history links itself with the colonisation of the Greeks; with the dissemination throughout the new-born Italy of the industrial arts of Constantinople; with the rapid growth of the Italian republics, and with that, more marvellous still, of the great commercial cities of the Netherlands. When the textile industry of the Italians and the history of the Flemings passed over to France and to Britain, its development came to be intimately connected with three questions of State—material policy—the good or ill treatment of aliens; the liberty or thraldom of religious liberty; and the protection or the enfranchisement of trade. With the wise or otherwise handling of these cardinal points the arts of government, the fortunes of the humble craft of weavers have been singularly bound up.

By the liberal treatment of foreigners, in spite of popular discontent and insurrection, Edward III. laid the foundations of our own textile productiveness. By a bigotry, till then unexampled in modern history, Philip II. destroyed the textile industry of the Netherlands. Elizabeth imitated the example of Edward III. on a much grander scale. The native weavers were foreign her day as little disposed to welcome foreign rivals as they had been weavers in the days of the Phantagmets. Changes of fashion had depressed the once thriving trade of Norwich. Multitudes of houses in which the din of the loom had been almost incessant, were now silent and bare. But the admission to the franchise of a single alien, the mayor of Aldermen had to act alone. There was much uproar and some beating. But a few years afterwards the magistrates of Norwich wrote thus to the Privy Council—"The foreigners brought hither a great commodity, namely the making of hays, moecados, grograines, &c., which were not made here before. They have re-edified our houses, and caused a great trade of merchants. . . . They live wholly of themselves, do beg of no man, and do sustain their own poor people. They obey all magistrates and all good laws. They live peaceably amongst themselves and towards all men; and we think our city happy to enjoy them."1

The effects of the bigotry of Philip had been written legibly enough, one may think, on the face of the Low Countries, for those weavers that ran to read. But Archbishop Laud and his master had not exiled by law the best brains and best brains of a country; they were sent to Charles I., whom Elizabeth had secured that freedom of conscience for the enjoyment of which they had fled their country, and to become exiles in their turn, in order to insure its continuance. Some of them returned to the Netherlands to give a new impulse to the textile industry of their fatherland. Others crossed the Atlantic, and laid the foundation of the textile industry of the United States.

By the depopulation of the hives of the Netherlands, France had revolutionized as well as Britain. Silk weaving had been greatly advanced at Lyons and in its surrounding district. Cloth weaving flourished textile at Armentières, as well as at Soissons, Abbeville, and St Omer. "They dustry is of Armentières," says a writer of the sixteenth century, in a France. State paper drawn up for the information of Sir William Cecil, "are the best chapmen the merchants of our Staple have had." But Lewis XIV. was as little careful about the industrial prosperity of France as Laud had been about that of England; and his sphere of action was unfortunately a much wider one than Laud's. At the date of his revocation of the edict of Nantes, the looms of Lyons alone amounted, by the lowest computation, to more than 10,000. One account, of respectable authority, puts the number at 13,000. The revocation reduced them to less than 4000. At Tours, 8000 looms were reduced to 1200, and 40,000 artisans to 4000. Crowds of the best weavers were driven into England, Prussia, and Switzerland. They carried with them not only their textile skill, but their hatred of the superstition and the despotism of which, for a while, they had been the victims. The results of this emigration are very notable in the annals of all the countries to which the exiles betook themselves; but in none are they marked so saliently as in our own. The fugitives came hither at a critical moment. The Dragonnades had aroused an Indignation Establishment which compelled even James II. to seek his justification for a policy of so bold and a religious zeal so exemplary. So intense was that French indignation, that it drove James to request that Lewis would, through his ambassador, offer some diplomatic explanations, by Britain way of throwing a little dust into the people's eyes. London had then the edifying spectacle of excuses offered by a king who had outraged humanity, to another king who wanted only opportunity to do the like. And these excuses were presented by Bonrepos to Castellane, by D'Avaux to Tyrcroil. The ministers who offered

History, and the ministers who received them, heartily approved the atrocities which were apologised for. James, it must be acknowledged, could ill conceal his real feelings. On one occasion, when the treatment of the exiles was under discussion in council, he burst out with the famous interrogatory—"Dogs defend one another; why are they attacked, why may not kings do so too?"

Concealed to give ostensible encouragement to the poor fugitives, he laboured in secret to undo the effect of his public acts. The French ambassadors (there were then two of them in London) were already alive to the commercial consequences of the establishment in England of so many branches of industry, and pre-eminence of textile industry, in which France had hitherto been unrivalled. The fugitives had set on foot here the weaving of hutestrings, brocades, alamodes, mantzas, paduasoyos, velvets, and of many other choice fabrics, all of which had figured largely in our annual lists of imports. Great efforts were used to bribe some of the first workmen to return, but they had no effect. After the Revolution the number of French settlers was largely increased. From that date, the gradual progress of our woven fabrics becomes one of the most characteristic features in our commercial history.

The main incidents of that progress thenceforward group themselves around two almost interminable domestic struggles. The one was fought with great turbulence and with all sorts of weapons. The other was usually, though not always, carried on in the comparatively peaceful arena of the press and of public discussion. The first struggle lay between inventive genius and popular dread of change. The second lay between a system of policy which looks at pre-eminence in trade as the result of certain great natural laws, with which human legislation can meddle only to its hurt, and another system which regards that pre-eminence as a thing attainable by conferring privileges and enforcing prohibitions. All the combatants aimed at the increase of employment and the security of trade. But they set about their work in a totally different way. On the one hand, the inventors were constantly improving and multiplying the tools of industry; and the economists were preaching the freedom of commerce, and the essential oneness of national interests. On the other hand, the machine breakers went about destroying, to the best of their ability, every new implement which increased the strength or the dexterity of human hands; and the protectionists moved heaven and earth to inculcate the solemn duty of being "independent of foreigners," and to prove that everybody must be a gainer by inflicting as much loss as possible upon his neighbour.

The fecundity with which mechanical inventors went on improving the appliances of textile art is equalled only by the pertinacity with which they were driven from town to town. Some of them narrowly escaped with their lives, and died in foreign exile. Others changed the course of the industry of whole districts and counties by being compelled to set up their staff in places which, but for persecution, they would never have seen. The perseverance of those who fought the battle of free trade—who made British industry the leading industry of the world, and British textile fabrics the most conspicuous branch of that industry—is equalled only by the multiplicity of the expedients by which free trade was obstructed, and every step it won was turned into a reason why it should go no further.

When the weavers of London petitioned against the commercial treaty of 1713, they stated, not without some pardonable exultation, that our woven fabrics in silk alone were already twenty times greater than they had been fifty years before; that we were able to make all sorts of silks, gold and silver stuffs, and ribands, "as good as the French;" that black silk, merely for scarves and hoods, which, at the epoch of the Revocation, were all imported from France, were then made in England to the annual value of more than L300,000; and they attribute these great results to "the encouragement of the crown and of divers acts of parliament;" concluding, of course, with the prayer that parliament will continue to protect English industry.

This discussion was scarcely over when the weavers were once more in arms, not now against France, but against the East Indies. They were stricken with horror at the growing frenzy of Englishwomen for printed calicoes. "Fifteen years back," says the zealous author of *The Attacks of Weavers' true Cause*, "our women among the gentry were the weav- clothed with fine English brocades and Venetians; our East India common traders' wives with slight silk damasks; our good country dames with worsted damasks, flowered russets, and flowered calicoes; and the meanest of them with plain worsted stuffs: whereas, now, those of the first class are clothed with outlawed India chintz; those of the second with English and Dutch printed calicoes; those of the third with ordinary calicoes and printed linens; and those of the last with ordinary printed linens; whereby these famous branches of the weaving trade are almost extinct."

The worthy weavers did not trouble themselves with thinking how it had come to pass that nearly all the wares they advocated had names as outlandish as those of the wares they denounced; or with showing why the labour of British calico-printers was less worthy of "protection" than that of British weavers; or why parliament ought to welcome Indian silk and reject Indian cotton. They clinched their argument by warning the legislature that "the wearing of printed or painted commodities puts all degrees and orders of womankind into disorder and confusion." The lady cannot well be known from her chambermaid. But when our womankind were clothed with silk and woollen commodities, those mistakes were avoided, and a tolerable order observed."

Facts and logic like these were powerful enough to procure an enactment (1721) which made it penal to sell or to weave calico. When that enactment was no longer tenable, it was still penal to weave calico unless the warp was wholly of linen (1736). And this continued to be British law until 1774. To trace, downwards, the course of similar legislation would be a long task.

The sufferings of the hand-loom weavers, in their hopeless struggle against power-looms, make a sad chapter in British history. It is very painful to read of the execution at Lancaster, for destroying a power-loom factory, of eight persons, one of whom was a boy still so nearly within the power-immunities of childhood as to die whilst calling on his mother to save him. But it would be more painful still to form any adequate conception of the miseries endured by thousands of families in their long warfare with an irresistible antagonist. The severities of 1812 did not prevent the devastations of 1826, when the wooded cloughs and the wild moors of Lancashire and Yorkshire swarmed with bands of turbulent men, in whom recklessness and timidity, ignorant cunning, and bluff simple-heartedness, were strangely blended. Nor have the sufferings which attended the quiet tenacity with which multitudes of weavers who took no part in the riots clung to a doomed employment, and sent up petition after petition for parliamentary aid, taught their successors that, for the purpose of staving off industrial revolutions, a parliament is as powerless as a pauper.

How textile industry has gradually outgrown all these impediments, and has attained its present extraordinary development, cannot even be indicated within the prescribed limits of such an article as this. But the results of a long process will be seen, in brief, in our statistics of textile fibres and of textile exports. To a summary description of the ordinary methods and implements of weaving, we add some account of the laws which regulate textile labour when carried on in factories, and of their operation hitherto.

I.—TEXTILE FIBRES.

To the several articles Cotton, Flax, Hair, Hemp, Silk, and Wool, we refer the reader for information with respect to each of those fibres. Here, we have but to notice the relative extent to which these several fibres are used for weaving purposes. Jute (not heretofore noticed) is rapidly becoming a prominent material for the weaver. In India it has long been used for coarse cloths of various kinds. In this country it is now extensively used for sacking and other like fabrics, and also for mixture with other fibres. The quantity of jute imported in 1846 was 186,000 cwt.; in 1856, 731,093 cwt.; in 1859, 1,061,288 cwt.

The following table exhibits the quantity of each of the enumerated fibres imported into the United Kingdom, in each year, from 1854 to 1859 inclusive:

| Fibres | 1854 | 1855 | 1856 | 1857 | 1858 | 1859 | |--------|------|------|------|------|------|------| | Wool | 106,121,955 | 99,300,446 | 116,211,392 | 129,749,898 | 126,738,723 | 133,284,634 | | Silk | 8,557,239 | 7,548,759 | 8,235,657 | 12,718,867 | 6,638,845 | 10,218,333 | | Cotton | 887,333,104 | 891,751,952 | 1,023,886,304 | 960,318,896 | 1,034,342,176 | 1,225,989,072 | | Flax | 1,593,235 | 1,293,435 | 1,687,041 | 1,866,250 | 1,283,905 | 1,432,037 | | Hemp | 729,564 | 728,391 | 771,533 | 782,271 | 886,631 | 1,059,119 | | Jute | 481,733 | 539,297 | 731,093 | 618,833 | 738,085 | 1,061,288 |

The next table exhibits the computed real value of the textile fibres so imported:

| Fibres | 1854 | 1855 | 1856 | 1857 | 1858 | 1859 | |--------|------|------|------|------|------|------| | Wool | L. 6,499,004 | L. 6,527,325 | L. 8,664,420 | L. 9,681,541 | L. 8,972,218 | L. 9,831,007 | | Silk | L. 6,454,357 | L. 5,493,204 | L. 8,496,145 | L. 14,238,667 | L. 6,110,576 | L. 10,598,676 | | Cotton | L. 20,175,395 | L. 20,848,515 | L. 26,448,224 | L. 29,288,827 | L. 30,106,968 | L. 34,559,636 | | Flax | L. 3,384,216 | L. 3,317,122 | L. 3,633,194 | L. 3,524,767 | L. 3,020,879 | L. 3,769,058 | | Hemp | L. 1,817,905 | L. 1,471,049 | L. 1,319,907 | L. 1,216,664 | L. 1,222,393 | L. 1,469,390 | | Jute | L. 553,993 | L. 447,167 | L. 612,290 | L. 646,356 | L. 619,668 | L. 790,383 |

In addition to these fibres, long employed for weaving purposes, other fibres, more or less adapted for like employment, either as substitutes or as aids, are rapidly coming into notice. Most of these are of Indian growth. They have usually been prepared for the market by very imperfect processes, and therefore their capabilities are very imperfectly known. But as the want of larger supplies of fibrous material becomes increasingly evident, these processes must needs be amended. As a field for producing such material, the capabilities of India are immense; and we are but upon the threshold of their effective development. British Guiana has also shown that it possesses similar capabilities on a considerable scale.

The Abaca or Manilla hemp-tree (Musa textilis) yields a layer of outer fibre, called Vandata, which is employed for cordage, and inner layers called Lupis, which are used by the natives for weaving very delicate fabrics. Between these, are intermediate layers of a fibre called Tanoz, of which are made web-cloths and gauzes four yards long, and of various degrees of fineness. The fibres are dried, scraped, and beaten with a wooden mallet, their ends are then gummed together, and they are wound into balls. The value of this article in the London market ranges from L.30 to L.55 per ton.

China grass fibre (Urtica Nivea) is chiefly imported from China and from Assam. Three several crops can be obtained in the season; the first yielding strong and coarse fibres; the second and third yielding delicate fibres suitable for fine fabrics. In 1849, a patent was obtained for an ingenious process of boiling the stems in an alkaline solution, after they have been previously steeped in water at 90°. They are then washed and dried by steam. An interesting series of specimens illustrative of this process, and some beautiful fabrics woven from the fibre—both alone and mixed with other textile materials—were shown at the Exhibition of 1851. To three several groups of such samples prize-medals were awarded.

Allied to the China-grass is the Neigherry nettle (Urtica Heterophylla), samples of whose fibre, hackled by Neigherry Messrs Marshall, were shown by Colonel Sykes to the nettle British Association at its Leeds meeting in 1858. These samples, in the opinion of the manipulator, afforded proof how well this fibre is adapted for flax-spinning machinery, and of the possibility of introducing “a warp of great strength, which so corresponds with all the essentials of real wool, that, when mixed with wool, they will both take the same dyes, mill and dress together, and will certainly manufacture a good cloth.” In 1851, the Coimbatore Local Committee sent to the Great Exhibition samples of a fine flax-like fibre, the produce of another kind of nettle abundant in Mysore, and expressed their conviction that, if well prepared and procurable in quantity, it is fitted to compete with flax in the manufacture of very fine textile fabrics.

The separation of the mudar or yercum fibre (Calotropis Gigantea, an asclepiadaceous plant) is difficult, since water injures it, so that the process becomes one of mere manipulation. Dr Royle, however, reported of it as a fibre well calculated to answer many of the purposes of flax. The pods of this plant are full of a glossy silk-like down, which the natives spin into a fine soft thread. Mixed with one-fifth of cotton, a well wearing cloth is produced, “which stands washing and takes a dye.” Sansevieria or Moora Mudar fibre has also been manufactured into a useful sort of cloth. Sansevieria The Sansevieria is a liaceous plant, which may be found all fibres over India, and is common along the Coromandel, Malabar, and Bengal coasts. This fibre is remarkable for its whiteness and its cheapness of production.

The long and rigid leaves of the pine-apple tribe (Bro. Pine-apple meliaceae) abound in fine white fibres, which are capable of being woven into beautiful fabrics. Some readers will remember the admiration which was excited by a series of specimens of muslin-like tissues (botiste d'ananas) from the Philippine Islands, exhibited in 1851. Samples of this fibre were forwarded from Malacca, Singapore, Java, and Celebes. Instead of twisting them, the natives gum the ends together, in order to make a long thread. The plantain or banana (*Musa paradisiaca*) belongs botanically to the same family as Manila hemp, but its fibre is not so fine. By adequate preparation, however, it may be made into fabrics of elegant appearance, as well as into coarse and strong ones. Hitherto, it would seem, little care has been bestowed on the separation and assortment of the fibres. The extraordinary productiveness of this plant as a food-producer has been the sole reason of its cultivation, but every plant yields from three to four pounds of fibre, the utilising of which needs only labour and care.

The aloe fibre has also great capabilities. One sort is obtained from the great aloe (*Agave Americana*), another from the *Agave vivipara*. The latter kind is also known as silk-grass fibre. Hitherto, the chief obstacle to its easy adaptation to textile purposes has been the glutinous gum in which these and other similar fibres abound. In the Report of the Jury on the second class of products exhibited at Paris in 1855, praise is accorded to a recently patented process of Messrs Perelli-Ercolini of Turin for the extraction of this gum. By that process, it is stated, the fibres are converted into a soft, bright, and flossy material, which the patentees call *perellian silk*, and which is capable of being spun and woven by the ordinary mechanism. But it does not appear that the product was examined by the Jury itself.

There are other fibres worth consideration in regard to their textile applicability. In addition to the works mentioned in the note, several recent volumes of the *Journal of the Society of Arts* may be consulted with advantage.

II.—TEXTILE PROCESSES.

The frame-work of the ordinary hand-loom consists of four upright posts connected by cross-beams, as well in the centre as at top and bottom. On the centre beam (called the *warp-beam*) at the back of the loom (fig. 1), the heddles, which hang from pulleys at the top of the loom, contain, together, as many pieces of twine as there are threads in the warp. If the warp contain 100 threads, each heald will contain 50 twines, with loops in the middle, through which the warp-threads are drawn. Each heald is connected with a treadle, which, by the pressure of the weaver's foot, raises one heald and depresses the other, and consequently raises one-half of the threads of the warp and depresses the other half, making an opening (called the *shed*) in the warp for the passage of the shuttle (fig. 2), which contains the weft-threads. The *batten* or lathe (fig. 3) is a movable frame suspended from the top of the loom (between the outer frame and the healds), for the purpose of striking or beating home the weft. The sides of the batten are called the *swords*; its bottom the *shuttle-race*, both ends of which are closed so as to form two short troughs, in which move two pieces of wood called *pickers*, or fly-shuttles. To these pickers strings are attached, which meet in a handle, held by the weaver in his right hand, and which enable him, by a sharp jerk, to project the shuttle along the shuttle-race, first in one direction and then in the other. The picker was the invention of John Kay of Bury, by whom it was patented in 1733. The comb-like frame in the centre of the batten (fig. 3) is called the *reed*. Through its teeth, as well as through the healds, the warp threads pass, and thus the reed serves to keep the work perfectly even.

This glance at the construction of the loom will facilitate preliminary comprehension of all the processes connected with weaving, from first to last; but it somewhat anticipates their order. The first of them is that of warping, which is simply stretching the number of threads necessary to form the warp equally, and laying them parallel to each other. This is commonly done by means of a *warping-mill*, as it is usually called, which consists of two parts, namely, a vertical frame or rack in which the bobbins are placed, and the reel on to which the warp is wound. The vertical frame is constructed so as to allow about fifty bobbins to be so fixed as to revolve easily, and to keep the yarn as it leaves the bobbin at equal distances. The several yarns are then brought to a focus, as it were, and made to pass through what is called a heck-box, whence it is wound round a large reel, so constructed in point of size as to gauge or measure off the warp. The reel is 6 feet in diameter and 7 or 8 in height, and is made to revolve by an endless rope passing round two wheels, one of which is turned by the warper. In order that the warp may be wound spirally on the reel, the heck-box, containing the rollers which guide the yarns, is made to rise and fall by a simple contrivance. It is made to slide up and down one of the upright supporters of the reel, by being suspended from a cord, which, passing over a wheel or pulley, winds round the axle of the reel, or

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1 Statistical Abstract of the United Kingdom, No. 7 (1844 to 1853), passim; Royle, The Fibrous Plants of India, 37, 41, 55, 64, 89, 247, 308-9, 345-353, 364-7; Public Documents of the Indian Government ("Minutes relating to Fibrous Plants"), No. 954; Sykes, "Notes on Indian Fibres" (Journal of the Statistical Society of London, xxi. 454-455); Rapports du Jury de l'Exposition Universelle de 1855, 58, 75, 76; Minutes of Evidence before the Select Committee on Colonization (India), 1859. Weaving is unwound, according to the way in which the reel is turned. One-sixth part of the warp is usually wound off the bobbins at once. When the first portion of yarn is wound off, the clue or end of the yarns is crossed over pins projecting from the frame of the reel, and the reel is turned the reverse way, so that the yarn from the next set of bobbins descends by the descending motion of the heck-box, containing the guide-rollers. This process is repeated backwards and forwards until the whole warp is completed, when it is taken from the reel, and wound upon a stick into a bundle or large ball, the different doublings of the successive portions of the warp, as above described, forming separate crossings, in appearance not unlike a ball of lamp-cotton on a gigantic scale. The equal portions of the warp aid the weaver in counting its yarns.

Besides this division, the warp-mill makes another, which separates the yarns alternately, so as to facilitate their alternate arrangement in the geer or heddles. In the heck-box, as we have already explained, are the guide-pins, which conduct the yarns from the vertical frame to the reel. These pins are inserted in two separate pieces of wood alternately. One piece of wood is lifted by a handle, which raises the alternate yarns. This occasions a space or division between the two sets of yarns, in which a wooden peg is placed. The other set of yarns is then raised by similar means, and the result is that the alternate yarns are crossed over the ends of the intermediate yarns. This is called the lease, and is carefully tied up so as to guide the weaver when he beams the warp.

In the state in which the warp is wound off the reel, as just described, it is delivered to the weaver; but before he winds it on to the warping-beam it must be sized. This consists in treating the warp with some glutinous solution, size or starch, for instance; the object being to render the yarns or threads of the warp smooth and even for wetting. This is done sometimes by the hand and sometimes by a machine. Generally, it is dipped into the warm size, and squeezed by the hands and dipped again, until it is thoroughly soaked through. The machines in use merely imitate this process, the yarn being dipped and passed through rollers twice or thrice, by which the size or starch is introduced into the interstices of the yarn. It is then dried, in the case of woollen yarn, by being spread out in a field; and, in other cases, in a drying-house for the purpose. When thus sized, the yarn is ready for the loom.

The perfect equality of tension to which the warp is subjected in the loom is of the greatest importance to the perfection of the cloth. If some of the yarns be looser than the rest, the cloth will be of unequal strength, and uneven to the eye, and its value will be less in proportion. The first operation towards extending the warp is framing or winding it on to the warp-beams; equality of tension much depends on skilful beaming. In order that the warp may be laid evenly on the beam, an instrument is used similar to the reel already described, except that it is not so fine. It is called a ravel or separator, and is composed of strips of cane fastened into a rail of wood, and secured at the upper part or extremities of the teeth by another piece of wood, called the cape. This cape is movable, and, before it is put on, the yarns of the warp are passed between the teeth of the ravel, and the cape is put down to secure the yarns in their places. This being done, the warp is gradually and carefully wound upon the beam in the order in which it is destined to be wound off in the process of weaving.

In very broad goods, whether of cotton, linen, or woollen, the co-operation of several hands is necessary to the effecting of this process. Two persons must hold the ravel, one at least must watch the proper tension of the threads, and a fourth gradually turns the beam. In this the weavers aid each other.

The warp being now upon the beam, every yarn has to be passed through a loop or eye of the heddles; this is called drawing. Two rods of wood are first inserted into what is called the lease—that is, the two crossings formed by the guide-pins of the warping mill, as already described. These rods are tied firmly together at the ends, the original ties are cast off, and the warp is spread out to its proper breadth. The effect of these lease-rods is to keep the alternate yarns which pass through one heddle from the intermediate yarns which pass through the other.

The warp-beam is suspended behind the heddles, and the passing of the yarns through the loops is done by two persons, the weaver and his assistant. The former, being in front of the heddles, opens the loops; and the latter, selecting the proper thread, which, as we have explained, cannot well be mistaken, delivers it to be drawn through the open loop or eye. This being done, the yarns are drawn through the reed by a hook called the reed-hook or sley. Two threads pass through each interval of the reed, the one below and the other above the warp; and in order to preserve this division, there is another rod of wood, which divides the warps into what are called spiltfuls, the division being just the reverse of the lease-rods. By these several contrivances, the threads of the warp are so easily distinguished, that if one break in the course of weaving, a very common occurrence in the case of a break-warp, it is easily traced and taken up.

The accuracy of the lease being thus carefully preserved, the cords which move the heddles are attached. This is so arranged that the motion communicated by the heddle is continuous—that is, while one heddle is depressed, the other must be equally raised, so that the warp is opened equally, as already described. The reed is now attached to the lay or batten, and is kept firmly in its place by the cape, and the whole is so nicely hung as not to overstrain the weaver's arm in striking the weft home. An ill-poised batten creates great fatigue; and to avoid this, and perform its work effectually, it should be hung midway between the heddle and the woven portion of the work. The whole distance between the last woven shoot of the weft, called the fall, and the heddle, forms the space in which the batten describes its arc; and the greater it is the harder the stroke. In light goods, accordingly, it is small, in heavy goods greater; and, as this also in part depends upon the length of the sword, or pendulous portion of the batten, the whole must necessarily bear a proportion to the size of the loom. The loom for narrow and light goods is small in all its parts; the loom for broad and heavy goods is of course large and strong. Properly poised, the batten returns to its position by its own weight as soon as the stroke is made. All that now remains to be done is to knot the near ends of the warp into small portions, and to tie them to a shaft attached to the cloth-beam. The warp-beam being properly adjusted, and the due degree of tension being given to the warp, lying thus evenly between the two beams, the weaver's operations may commence.

Those operations are very simple. They consist—(1.) Weaving Of the depression of the treadle with the foot; (2.) Of the operation throwing of the shuttle by a jerk of the picker; (3.) Of the beating close home of the weft by the batten. But the use of just the right degree of force, and no more, requires both experience and continued attention.

Thus far we have been concerned only with plain weaving, in which every alternate thread of the warp is taken up, and a fabric is produced which, if examined through a magnifier, would present an appearance like this:

Now, suppose the two heddles, instead of taking up the Weaving alternate threads of the warp were so arranged that one of them took up three threads in succession, and the other only one; it would follow that the threads of weft would not appear equally exposed on the surface of the warp, but would in some places pass over three threads, and in others only one. The result would be a figured face, as depicted in the annexed diagram. The white portion of this figure represents the threads of warp, the black the threads of the weft, covering one out of four and three out of four threads alternately. This variation of the number of threads of warp exposed is the simplest species of figure, for it can be produced by two heddles. It supposes no difference in the yarns as compared with plain weaving; it requires no difference in the operations of the weaver; it requires no increase in the number of the heddles; all it requires is a different arrangement of the warps through the loops or eyes of the heddles; and when that is done, all the processes proceed as before.

In the above description we have supposed no difference in the colour of the warp and weft, the only alteration in the appearance of the cloth being produced by the threads of weft exposed on the surface of the warp; but it must be evident that if the warp yarns consist of different colours, the cloth produced by the loom, arranged in the ordinary way, will be striped in the longitudinal direction of the web; and if the heddles be arranged as just described, the result will be a checked fabric, and this still without any change in the process of weaving.

The simplest variation in the operation of weaving is the employment of two or more shuttles containing bobbins of different coloured threads. If woven in the common loom, the weaver making an equal number of shoots of two colours alternately, the cloth produced would be striped in the transverse direction. With the heddles arranged as above described, or with two coloured warps, any variety of check may be produced.

For the convenience of using two or more shuttles containing weft different in colour, fineness, or material, movable shuttle-boxes are employed, so contrived as to slide up and down the swords and bars of the hatten or lay, and by means of a loom capable of being adjusted to the shuttle-race on a level with the opposite driver.

A further means of varying the pattern consists in increasing the number of the heddles, each having a certain proportion of the warp-yarns attached to it, and each being moved by a separate treadle. The threads raised cover that shoot of weft which passes over the warp yarns not raised, and is exposed to view on their surface. The number of threads thus raised being capable of being varied as many times as there are heddles, being indeed capable of an immense number of combinations, it follows that figures may be described, or names and sentences woven in, to suit the fancy of the weaver, or the caprice of his customers. It will be observed that the employment of an additional number of heddles is only a contrivance to increase the weaver's means of varying the distribution of the warp, and consequently of the weft, for the one cannot be accomplished without the other; and when we add to this the employment of two or more coloured warp yarns, and of two or more coloured wefts, together with the adaptation of the said colours to the figure produced by the arrangement of the heddles, we at once perceive that the possible combinations are extremely numerous.

Twilled fabrics are extremely various and complicated in their character, and it is difficult to convey an idea of their structure within the space to which we are limited. The best way to gain a clear conception of the nature of a twilled cloth, is to take a small piece, say of merino or shalloon, and partially unravelling it, so as not wholly to disengage the weft from the warp, examine its structure through a single magnifier. It will then be seen that the weft yarns, instead of interlacing the warp yarns alternately and at regular intervals, as in the above figures, take up only every third thread, and that too at irregular intervals, so that the interlacing marches across the piece diagonally, and not transversely, thus (Fig. 6):

In some of the finer fabrics, the interlacings occur only at the fourth, fifth, or sixth threads.

Under the old system of weaving, the number of combinations was limited only by the number of heddles. But if the heddles were very numerous, the loom was crowded, and the weaver overtasked. The introduction of the drawloom made the first great improvement. The harness of the draw-loom was so arranged that no part of the warp was depressed; but such of the threads as were to be above the weft were raised, and the shuttle passed through. But of that invention enough has been said in the article Carpet.

The next great improvement consisted in the invention of the famous Jacquard engine, first exhibited at Paris in 1801. The history of this invention is too instructive to be wholly passed over.

Joseph Marie Jacquard had become a weaver against his will. It was probably his dislike of the paternal calling that gave the first impulse to the inventiveness which has so signally lessened its drudgery. He was amongst the many artisans who were driven from Lyons during the Reign of Terror, and who returned thither at the eve of the Consulate. The first fruits of his return was the Jacquard machine, in its original form, as shown at the National Exhibition of Industry, held at Paris in 1801. In the following year he took out a patent for his machine, but did nothing towards making it profitable. He freely imparted his plans and ideas to all comers, and seemed chiefly intent on perfecting them. In proportion as the mechanism became known in Lyons, it excited discontent and opposition. Jacquard went on steadily with his experiments, and offered to transfer to the city the entire property of his inventions, and to devote his time to its service, in return for a very small pension. Napoleon, when signing at Berlin the decree which authorised the municipality to pay to Jacquard an annuity of L.60 (1500 francs), is said to have remarked, "Here, at all events, we have a man who is content with a little;" and he conferred on the inventor, in addition, the right to take a premium of L.2 for each loom that should be set to work on his principle. But the grant was of small avail to him. Almost every weaving-room into which his mechanism was introduced added to the number of his opponents. Journey-men said that it spoiled their webs, and that its object was to throw them by and by out of work. Foremen caballed against it, because it altered arrangements in which they had found both profit and self-importance. Masters said less about the invention, but abused the inventor as a plagiarist. According to them, there was nothing wonderful in the machine, and very little that was new. At length, the turbulent weavers threatened Jacquard's life; and on one occasion went near to throw him into the Rhone. In many instances the mechanism already in use was pulled down and sold by auction, piecemeal; the wood as old wood, the iron as old iron. The model itself was brought Jacquard's from the Palais des Arts to the Place des Terreaux, and there publicly burned. Jacquard's patent was suppressed, and proceedings were taken against him to recover the value of materials alleged to have been spoiled in the attempt to weave fabrics with machinery unsuited to its purpose, and a Conseil des Prud'hommes gave its verdict against the inventor. It was with no small difficulty that he induced the council to stay execution, whilst, with his own hands, he reconstructed a dismounted machine, and wove with it a fabric which the Prud'hommes had just decided could not be so woven. Conclusive as was the refutation, the new machine made very slow progress until many years had elapsed. But when it did emerge, it revolutionised the trade. The inventor has now a statue on the spot where the invention was publicly burned.

The Jacquard engine may be attached to almost any kind of loom. It is fixed to the top of the loom, in a direction perpendicular to the harness, the cords of which are attached to the lifting-hooks \(a\). Every one of these lifting-hooks is passed perpendicularly through an eye in a corresponding needle \(b\). These needles lie in rows in the frame \(c\). Let it be remembered that the figure is a mere skeleton of the engine itself, as the holes and needles are extremely numerous, say eight rows of fifty each, forming as many leases in the warp. The horizontal needles protrude through the frame \(c\) at \(b\), and are kept extended in their position by spiral springs \(e\), placed in cavities at the opposite end of the frame \(c\).

By this arrangement the needles have a play in the direction of the spring. They yield to pressure, and on its removal return to their former position. The needles have an elongated loop at the extremity nearest the spiral spring \(f\), with a pin passing through it so as further to limit the range of the needle. The following figure represents one of these needles, with its eyelet, loop and pin, and spring.

Immediately over the frame \(c\) is a corresponding frame \(g\), having bars arranged across, that is, at right angles with the needles. There is one bar for every row of lifting-hooks. This frame, when the engine is in operation, is alternately lowered upon the frame \(c\), and raised from it by a strong lever attached to the treadle and moved thereby. When the frame is lowered, the lifting-bars, the ends of which are seen at \(h\), make their way immediately under the curved ends of the lifting-hooks, so as to raise them, or such of them as are not prevented from being taken up, in the manner presently to be described, when the frame is raised. Supposing all the wires to be taken up, the hooks will appear as at fig. 11; but that would take up the whole warp.

It should be observed, that the lifting-bars are shaped like blunted knife-blades, having the broad part inclined out of the perpendicular, so that, in descending, their lower edges steer clear of the curved head of the lifting-hooks. As, however, they descend still farther, the flat parts of the bars press against the curved heads and force them against the springs. The lifting-bars, still continuing to descend, at length get entirely below the curved head, when the spiral springs cause the horizontal needles, and consequently the lifting-hooks, to regain their position; and when the frame \(g\), with its lifting-bars, is again raised, the bars must necessarily raise the lifting-hooks.

In order to prevent the taking up of the whole warp, it will be obvious that any pressure upon any number of the horizontal needles at \(b\) will force in the spiral springs, and thus remove the lifting-hooks out of the reach of the lifting-bars. In fig. 9, half of the hooks are so pressed in. To produce a figure, therefore, all that is necessary is to have the power of regulating the order in which the needles \(b\) are pressed forward upon the spiral springs; and this is effected by means of a square revolving bar (fig. 9), pierced with holes corresponding in number and position with the needle-points \(b\), and a number of perforated card-boards (fig. 10), which pass over it in endless succession with its revolutions.

The reader will now clearly comprehend the operation of the bar and the cards. If the bar be moved against the frame \(c\), the needle-ends \(b\) will pass into the holes, and all the lifting-hooks will remain within the influence of the lifting-bars; but if the cards (fig. 10), being partly perforated and partly whole, be placed over the perforated bar, it must be obvious that such of the needles as are prevented from entering the holes of the bar, by the intervention of the unperforated portions of the cards, will be pressed against the springs, and the lifting-hooks will be removed from the operation of the lifting-bars; while those needles which pass through the perforated portions of the cards into the corresponding holes of the bar will be unaffected, and the lifting-hooks connected with them will be taken up.

As the perforation of the cards is the means by which the harness is raised,—the absence of perforation determining what part of the warp shall not be raised,—it is necessary to have one card or slip for every shoot of weft, until the whole pattern is described. The whole are loosely looped together at the corners, so as to form an endless chain, one whole revolution of which completes the pattern.

The cards are exactly fitted to the bar by means of studs \(i\) upon the latter, corresponding with larger perforations \(j\) in the former. The studs will be seen projecting from the section of the bar in fig. 11, the lettering of the whole of which figure corresponds with the others, so as to enable the reader to trace each part of the machine.

The mode of setting the Jacquard engine in operation is as follows:—The bar (fig. 9), marked \(k\) in the section, the end only being there seen, is suspended in a frame \(m\) by its axis \(l\), which is swung so as to hang something like the lay or batten of the loom, and to move upon the side of the frame \(c\), through which the needle-ends protrude, and to retire therefrom with an equable motion. It will be seen by fig. 9, that the bar has at one end four pillars \(n, o, p, q\); \(n, o,\) and \(p\) only being seen in fig. 9. Each of these pillars is seized in succession by the hook \(r\), by which means each revolution is divided into fourths. The equability and precision of this movement is secured by the T-shaped bar, which is pressed uniformly on the uppermost pillars by the action of a spring.

A careful inspection of figs. 7 and 11 will now, we hope, convey to the reader a clear conception of the manner in which the machine works. It will be seen that a roller \(u\) is attached to the frame \(g\) by a curved arm. This roller works Weaving in a hook-shaped bar \( r \), and as the frame \( g \) is raised, the Processes roller \( u \) ascends with it, and necessarily moves the frame \( m \) to which it is attached away from the frame \( c \), through "pass eight"—"take up two"—"pass eight"—"take up one." In this way he proceeds from shoot to shoot, until the draught is completed. It will be observed that the counting is facilitated by every ten spaces being divided by stronger lines.

To punch the holes in the cards for the Jacquard en-Cardine an ingenious machine is employed. It is a sort of punching-counterpart of the engine itself, being provided with lifting-cords, wires, and needles, so arranged, that by pulling the cords, the needle-heads are protruded. Answering to the revolving bar, and in front of the needle-heads, is a perforated iron plate, about two inches thick, provided with a set of movable punches, which are driven forward by the protrusion of the needle-heads, and deposited in another perforated plate temporarily placed to receive them.

In order to move the proper cords, and so deposit the proper punches destined to describe the pattern on the card, the operation of drawing in is performed on a frame provided with a number of vertical threads answering to the warp of the goods to be woven. These threads are taken up with a long needle by one man, another directing as before; and, when completed, the proper threads are attached to the corresponding cords of the punching-machine, and the proper punches are deposited in the movable plate. This being done, the blank card is placed against the face of the movable plate, and against the cutting end of the punches. Both are then removed together, and placed upon another perforated plate, when the punches are driven through, and the card is cut at the requisite spot. Each card is numbered, so that there cannot be any mistake in attaching them together; and as every part of the punching-machine gauges with the corresponding part of the Jacquard engine, the precision throughout is perfect.

Power-loom weaving may be said to be almost yet in its infancy. But nearly two centuries have passed since the idea of applying mechanical power to weaving was first broached. The originator was M. de Gennes, a naval De Gennes' officer of considerable distinction, who communicated his mechanical plan to the French Academy of Sciences in 1678. "The advantages that may be drawn from this engine," says the author, "above the ordinary loom, are these: (1.) That one mill will set ten or twelve of these looms at work; (2.) That you may make the cloth much broader than any hitherto made; (3.) There will be fewer knots in the cloth; (4.) The work will be carried on quicker and at less charge, . . . since one boy will serve to tie threads of several looms as fast as they break, and to arrange the quills about the shuttle. The account given to the Academy was translated at the time into our own Philosophical Transactions (June 1678), but excited little attention. A hundred and twenty years afterwards Dr Edmund Cartwright set to work on the same problem with memorable success. The circumstances under which he achieved it have been narrated in the article CARTWRIGHT. An extensive series of improvements has led to the modern power-loom in its latest form. But the principles of the machine will be as well exhibited Power in the ordinary power cloth-loom long used in the great cloth-loom woollen factories of Yorkshire, as in any other.

The frame-work \( AAAAA \) (fig. 13) is of cast-iron, and is made of great strength, so as to support the heavy work which the cloth-loom has to undergo.

B is the breast-beam, against which the weaver stands, and over which the woven cloth passes in its way to the cloth-beam \( C \), around which it is wound as the work proceeds. The breast-beam is made smooth, the edges being rounded, so that the cloth meets with no impediment in its progress round the cloth-beam.

At the back of the loom is a corresponding arrangement for the warp; that is, there is a warp-beam parallel with Weaving the breast-beam, and a roller parallel with the cloth-beam, so that the plane of the warp is kept in a horizontal position. Its tension is preserved by a weight slung round the warp-roller, and acting in a direction contrary to the winding of the cloth-beam. The manner in which this operates will be seen by inspecting figure 14.

The mode of suspending the heddles is shown by the letters \(a\), \(a\), \(a\). In the smaller looms, used for cotton or worsted weaving, a single cord passing over a roller is found to be sufficient; but in weaving broad cloths, which are set in the loom twelve quarters in width, to allow for shrinking in the fulling and scouring, the length and weight of the gearing requires double support.

The cranks, by which the lay or batten is put in motion, as shown in figure 16, are marked \(b\), \(b\), \(b\). The reader will observe that it is only their lower portion that can be seen, the upper part being concealed by the breast-beam.

The shuttle in the loom here represented is thrown by a single whip-lever in the centre of the loom, moving alternately to the right and left, instead of by two levers, one placed at each end of the loom. The sudden jerk necessary for the sharp motion of this picking lever, which, he it observed, must imitate the sharp motion of the weaver's right hand, is produced by the rollers \(d\), \(d\) affixed to the shaft \(D\), which, at every half-turn of the said shaft, strike down the rollers \(e\), \(e\) alternately, and draw the whip-lever \(c\) towards them by shortening the cords \(f\), \(f\). The picking cord \(g\), \(g\) being thus alternately drawn to the right and the left, moves the shuttle along the shuttle-race \(h\), \(h\) in a manner with which the reader must now be familiar.

The mode of throwing the loom out of gear will be readily understood by every one who has seen machinery of any kind worked by a shaft and band. \(l\), \(m\) is a split drum, \(l\) being connected with the shaft, and \(m\) being unconnected therewith. It follows, that when the band is brought over the drum \(l\), the shaft is necessarily set in motion, whereas the instant it is cast off upon the loose drum \(m\), the machinery is stopped. The band is cast off and the loom thrown out of gear by means of the lever \(k\), which, when pushed to the right, moves the forked lever which holds the band \(i\) in a lateral direction sufficiently to effect the purpose.

Figure 14 is an end view of the loom; \(X\) being the cloth-beam, \(Y\) the roller, and \(Z\) the batten, the motion of which is described by figure 16.

After the description already given of the processes necessary to the weaving of a piece of cloth, very little further explanation is necessary to enable the reader to understand the operations of the power-loom, and the manner in which motion is communicated, from its first source, to the heddles, the shuttle, the batten, and the warp, all of which correspond with unerring regularity; conducting the work with a degree of precision which it would be wrong to say the hand cannot attain, but which certainly can only be achieved by the skilful few.

The motion of the heddles is produced by two eccentric wheels or tappets, acting upon two levers or treadles, furnished with friction-rollers. While the short radius of one tappet is on one treadle, so as to permit the elevation of the corresponding heddle, the long radius of the other presses down the other treadle. Fig. 15 exhibits one of the tappet-wheels, the... Weaving short radius, pressing upon its treadle, the dotted lines showing its position on its half-revolution, when the long radius is brought to operate on the treadle.

The shuttle, as already stated, is thrown by means of the whip-lever, shown in front of the plate. To this is attached the cord which moves the picker, similarly arranged to the fly-shuttle of the hand-loom. Some looms have two whip-levers instead of one, in which case they are placed at the ends of the loom instead of in the centre. In either case the rollers are so placed that they act upon the whip-levers at the precise moment that the heddles have sufficiently shed the warp. If an inspection of figure 13 fail to make the reader comprehend this, a consideration of the manner in which the several motions are connected, as presently described, will remove the difficulty.

The stroke of the batten or lay is produced by a crank \(a\) (fig. 16) in the main or driving-shaft, which elongates the arm \(b\), and moves the batten \(c\) forward against the last shoot of the weft. The dotted lines show its alterations of position. At the first quarter turn of the crank, it is brought to a position horizontal with the arm \(b\); at the next quarter turn, the crank is again perpendicular, and the batten is in its middle position; at the third quarter turn, the crank is again horizontal with the arm, a portion of the arm being within the crank, and the batten being then at the greatest distance from the last shoot of the weft, that is, the woven portion of the cloth.

It is scarcely necessary to add, that the main, uppermost, or driving-shaft, \(E\), is connected with the lower shaft, \(D\), to which the tappets and jerk-rollers are fixed by means of cogged wheels. The wheel of the driving-shaft being half the circumference of the wheel of the lower shaft, the former makes two revolutions to one of the latter, or, in other words, the driving-wheel communicates just half of its own velocity to the lower wheel. Thus, in one revolution of the lower shaft, the warp is shed and the shuttle thrown twice, while, to complete two strokes of the batten, two revolutions of the driving-shaft in the same time are necessary.

It needs no great culture of the eye to have noticed in exhibitions of machinery how often and how strikingly improvements in power and efficiency are at the same time improvements in form and appearance. To the Exhibition of 1851, Mr Harrison of Blackburn contributed a power-loom of 1795 and a power-loom of 1850 (of both of which the reader may see figures in the Illustrated Official Catalogue), very illustrative of that combination. There, also, was seen a fine example of the Jacquard loom, as applied to the manufacture of furniture damask, by Messrs Taylor of Halifax. And in the Patent Museum may now be seen an excellent example of the modern power-loom, as constructed upon the patents of Kenworthy and Bullough (1841, No. 87901); of James Bullough (1842, No. 9507); and of Ephraim Taylor (1857, No. 2296). In this loom are embodied five several improvements of practical importance:

1. Mechanism whereby the loom is stopped when the weft thread breaks or is absent; 2. Mechanism whereby the loom may be instantly stopped when the driving-strap is shifted; 3. Another arrangement, by which the loom is stopped whenever the shuttle does not get clear of the shed; 4. An improved temple for keeping the cloth distended to one uniform width; 5. Instead of weighting the warp-beam, the necessary resistance is obtained by the use of springs, fixed to the framing, and connected with ropes wound around the end of the beam. For weaving heavy cloth, additional resistance is obtained by means of two levers, connected by rods with the slay swords.

The latest curiosity in the mechanical history of weaving is the "electric loom" of the Chevalier Bonelli, of Milan. His first machine, constructed in 1854, at Turin, and afterwards improved at Berne, gave good assurance that electro-magnetic weaving was a possibility, but did not weave. Further improvements in 1859 have resulted in a machine which will actually work, and a most ingenious machine it is. The bobbins of the Jacquard loom M. Bonelli converts into electro-magnets. The design he paints on a sheet of tinfoil, the unused portions of which are covered with non-conducting varnish. The pattern, connected with one pole of a battery, passes slowly over a roller, under a vast number of brass teeth, communicating by insulated wires with the bobbins, which are connected with the other pole. Thus, as the tinfoil revolves, the exposed portion transmits the current through the brass teeth, and transforms the bobbins into electromagnets, which attract and hold the bars opposite their respective points attached to the threads of the warp. As the lever descends, the bars are held up, the threads are raised below, and the shuttle passes between. The covered portion of the tinfoil of course transmits no current. There is an ingenious contrivance for keeping the teeth free from dust, so that the action of the electric fluid may be perfectly unobstructed. There is another arrangement for insulating the colours, when they are more than two, and for transmitting the current to each colour in its order.

In the accompanying woodcut (for which we are indebted to the courtesy of Mr P. Le Neve Foster, secretary of the Society of Arts), \(A\) (fig. 17), represents the plate pierced with holes, which plays the part of the card. Each of the small pistons or rods, \(b\), forming the armatures of the electro-magnets \(c\), have a small head \(d\), exactly opposite the needles \(e\) of the Jacquard, and are capable of passing freely through the holes of the pierced plate \(A\). When the plate is slightly lowered, the heads of the pistons are prevented from passing; so that its surface then represents a plain card. The pistons are supported on a frame \(f\), which allows them to move horizontally in the direction of their length. At each stroke of the shuttle, the frame, carrying with it the plate \(A\), has, by means of the treadle, a reciprocating motion backwards and forwards; and, in its backward movement, presents the end of the pistons to one of the holes of the electro-magnets; and by means of certain special contrivances contact with the magnets is secured. When the frame \(f\) returns with the plate \(A\), towards the needles of the Jacquard, the electro-magnets, which become temporarily magnetised by the electric current, hold back the pistons, the heads of which pass through the plate \(A\), and rest behind it. On the other hand, the electric magnets, which are not magnetised—the course of the current having been interrupted—permit the other pistons to be carried back, their heads remaining outside the plate and in front of it. At this moment the plate, by means of an inclined plane beneath it, is lowered slightly, thus preventing the heads of the pistons passing through the holes by the edges of which they are stopped, so as to push against the needles of the Jacquard; on the other hand, the heads of the pistons, which have passed within and to the back of the plate, leave the corresponding holes of the plate free, and the needles of the Jacquard, which are opposite to them, are allowed to enter. In order to put the electro-magnets into circuit, one of the ends of the wire, forming the coil of each of the magnets, is joined to one common wire in connection with one of the poles of a galvanic battery. The other end of the coil wire of each magnet is attached to a thin metallic plate \( m \), having a point at its lower extremity. All these thin metallic plates are placed side by side, with an insulating material between them, formed like the teeth of a comb \( n \). At a given time these thin plates rest with their lower extremities on the sheet \( P \), which bears the design, and is wrapped round the cylinder \( Q \). Obviously, as this metal plate rests on a metallised or on a non-conducting portion of the design, the corresponding electromagnet is or is not magnetised; and its corresponding piston does or does not press against the needle of the Jacquard.

Such, in brief, is the arrangement for producing fabrics of not more than two colours, one in the warp and the other in the weft. When several colours are required, each separate colour is insulated from its neighbour by removing a thin slip of the foil at the margin. These insulated pieces of foil are connected by means of other small strips which pierce through the paper, and are conducted to another strip running along the edge of the band, in a way which serves to connect, by a conductor, each special colour with its special current of electricity.

How that which is at present a beautiful example of mechanical ingenuity may succeed in adapting itself to the hard and multifarious requirements of commerce, is a problem which only time can solve. But there seems to be good ground for anticipating very brilliant results.

### III.—LEGAL REGULATION OF TEXTILE LABOUR IN FACTORIES.

The hours and the conditions within which the textile labour of women and children may be employed in factories, and the hours within which such labour, as respects all work-people, must be restricted, are prescribed for the United Kingdom, by the Acts of Parliament, of the 3 and 4 Will. IV., c. 103 (29th August 1833), called *The Factory Act*; of the 7 and 8 Vict., c. 15 (6th June 1844), called *The Factory Regulation Act*; of the 10 and 11 Vict., c. 29 (8th June 1847), called *The Ten Hours Act*; of the 13 and 14 Vict., c. 54; and of the 16 and 17 Vict., c. 104 (20 August 1853), called the *Children's Labour Act*.

By the second of these Acts it is provided that the word "factory" shall be taken to mean all premises within which any mechanical power shall be used to work any machinery employed in any process incidental to the manufacture of cotton, wool, hair, silk, flax, hemp, jute, or tow, either separately or mixed together.

The first steps towards legislation in this direction were taken as far back as 1802. At that period factory labour was little developed. But the evils, especially in relation to the treatment of children, were already frightful. The demand for labour had been for a time in excess of the supply, and had been fed by the most reckless means. The Act of the first Sir Robert Peel checked some of the grosser abuses, but it made no provision against many others. Small as was its scope, it met the very nearly unanimous opposition of the employers of that day, and excited almost as many prognostications of the consequent and inevitable ruin of trade as have uniformly attended every onward step in the same path, down to the year 1860.

The Commissioners of 1833, after a most elaborate and impartial inquiry throughout the kingdom, reported (1.) That the children employed in all the principal branches of manufacture were kept at work during the same number of hours as the adults; (2.) That the effects of that protracted labour on such children were permanent deterioration of their physical constitution; the production of disease often wholly irremediable; and their exclusion from the means of adequate education; (3.) That the provisions of the then existing law, such as they were, had been, "in country situations, seldom or never attempted to be enforced;" that in several principal manufacturing towns they were openly disregarded; that in others their operation was extremely partial and incomplete; and that, "even in Manchester, where the leading manufacturers felt an interest in carrying the act into execution as against the evasions practised by the small mill-owners, the attempt to enforce its provisions, through the agency of a committee of masters, had for some time back been given up." On the whole, they found that the existing law had been almost entirely inoperative with respect to its legitimate objects; and that "the large classes of work-people who came within its provisions had been familiarised with contempt of the law, and with the practice of fraud, evasion, and perjury."

By the Act of 1833, and the amended Act of 1844, it is enacted provided that no children under eight years of age shall be admitted into textile factories; that from eight to thirteen the labour they shall work only 6½ hours a day, and shall receive educational instruction at prescribed hours, and for 3 hours daily at the least. By the Act of 1847, no person under the age of eighteen, and no female above the age of eighteen, shall be employed in any factory for more than 10 hours in any one day, nor for more than 58 hours in any one week. By the Act of 1850, it is provided that no young person, and no female above the age of eighteen, shall work in any factory before the hour of six in the morning, or after the hour of six in the evening (save to recover lost time, and then not later than seven in the evening). There are also provisions as to meal-times, as to holidays, and as to the proper condition and ventilation of the buildings.

It is further enacted that no child or young person shall be allowed to clean any part of the mill gearing in a factory against whilst the same is in motion; that no child or young person shall be allowed to work between the fixed and traversing parts of any self-acting machine, while the latter is in motion by the action of the mechanical power; and that every fly-wheel directly connected with such motive power, whether in the engine-house or elsewhere, and every part of a steam-engine, and every hoist or teagle near to which children or young persons are liable to pass or to be employed, and all parts of the mill gearing in a factory, shall be securely fenced.

Penalties are imposed for all breaches of the enactments as to the hours and methods of labour, and provision is regulation made for the appointment of four inspectors of factories, to carry those enactments into effect; to examine from time to time the children and young persons so employed; to inquire into the causes of accidents by machinery; and generally to report to one of the principal Secretaries of State on all matters connected with the due execution of the Factory Acts.

The evidence of existing evils which induced the legislature to pass these various repressive acts was of the most conclusive kind. The caution displayed in the gradual application of the principle which animates them, and in testing by actual experience the results of each step that had been taken, before taking another step in the same direction, was remarkable. The evidence of progressive reform, in proportion as the powers conferred by the Factory Acts have been made increasingly fitter for the attainment of their object, has been irrefutable. But the arguments by which it is sought to discredit this legislation, and to obstruct its progress, remain precisely what they were when it began. Because parliament once meddled too much with matters of trade, it is argued that it ought never to meddle with matters of trade at all. Because there are employments from which no human authority can ward off gross abuses, it is declared to be evident that no human authority ought to attempt to ward off abuses from any. But an enlightened public opinion has been found strong enough to extinguish, by inaction, an "Association of Factory Occupiers," which characterised the self-evident proposition that factory owners ought not to sit on the bench to decide factory prosecutions, as "a gross reflection upon the known character of the magistracy;" which raised a common fund to defray penalties, whenever they might deem such prosecutions to be improper and " vexatious;" and which sought, by destroying the independence of the inspectors, to emasculate the law. The contrast between the language of 1855' and that of 1860,—as seen, for example, in the recent debate on the Bleaching Works Bill,—is very significant. And the public opinion which has brought that contrast about, will assuredly be strong enough to extend the equitable provisions of the Factory Acts to those branches of textile industry which are yet in need of them.

The total number of prosecutions and informations instituted by the inspectors under the Factory Acts, from 1836 until 1854 inclusive, was 3696. The circumstances of every prosecution and its results have been clearly recorded, and fully reported to parliament. To this vigilant inspection and unremitting enforcement of the Acts—as far as the legal machinery avails—the signal success of the legislation of 1833 is wholly due. All previous Acts, having no system of inspection, were utter failures. All similar laws in other countries, without inspection, have failed in like manner.

In France, the employment of children in textile factories is governed (theoretically) by a law of the 22nd March 1841, which is framed partly on the model of the British law, but which extends to ordinary workshops as well as to factories possessing mechanical motive-power, provided that not less than 20 work-people are employed in them. No child under eight years of age can be employed at all. None between eight and twelve can be employed during more than 8 hours out of every 24 hours; and those 8 hours must be divided by sufficient intervals of rest. From twelve to sixteen years of age, the hours of labour may extend to 12, with similar intervals. No person under sixteen can be employed on Sundays or holidays. A subsequent law of the 8th Sept. 1848 limits the hours of labour of adults, in factories of all kinds, to 12; reserving to the government "power to declare exceptions to this enactment in those cases" where the nature of the work, or of the mechanism, may require it.

Mr Redgrave, in 1855, made a careful inquiry into the operation of these measures, and arrived at the conclusion of the French law that the law of 1841 has been obeyed very imperfectly; that of 1848 very fairly. In some important districts, indeed, he believes the former to have been inoperative. The law gave the government power to appoint inspectors. Usually they appointed local and unpaid committees, some of whose members were themselves manufacturers. They did, in fact, what the enlightened denouncers of "meddling legislation" and of "philo-operative cant" would gladly have seen done in England.

In Prussia, the employment of children in textile factories is subject to the provisions of a law of the 9th March legislation 1839, and of another of the 16th May 1853. The labour of children under twelve years of age is prohibited, and, when that age has been attained, they must produce, prior to employment, satisfactory evidence of school attendance and acquirement. From twelve to fourteen they must not work more than 6 hours daily, and must attend school for other three hours.

It is honourable to the United Kingdom that all that has yet been attempted in this direction on the Continent is in avowed imitation of British example. Very recently, a distinguished young advocate of Leyden, Mr Samuel Le Poole, has examined our factory districts in the hope of initiating in Holland a like policy. Whatever extension, under wise arrangements, that policy may anywhere receive, will prove in the long run to be as favourable to the true interests of commerce as it is congenial with the golden rule. To Lord Shaftesbury will always belong the honour of having mainly established and vindicated the factory law, and to Mr Leonard Horner that of having indefatigably executed it, in the face alike of good and of evil report.

IV.—STATISTICS OF TEXTILE INDUSTRY.

There are at present no means of indicating with completeness the amount of the textile products of any country. But a fair inferential approximation towards such a result may, as respects several countries, be derived from two independent sources: the one consisting in the statistics of textile labour; the other in those of textile imports and exports. For the United Kingdom, our system of factory inspection affords returns admirable for their fulness and accuracy as far as they go, but relating only to what may be termed the great trunk of textile industry. In the ordinary decennial census, however, we have other materials, less complete, but extending both to the trunk and to the branches. For most of the countries of Continental Europe the census is the main source of information. This section, like other sections of our subject, we can illustrate only by way of example.

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1 Probably few of our readers have any idea of the outrageous folly with which the existing laws were at that time denounced. "We must express," said one writer, "a strong hope that the Association will not relax in their exertions till they have brought the principle of special legislation, like that of the Factory Acts, to the most conclusive test before the eyes of the world, and, in freeing themselves from ignorant and factious interference, drawn off a fog from the mind of the nation, purged its legislation from a barbarism, and released its industry and independence from an oppression and a snare." (The Factory Controversy; a Warning against Meddling Legislation; issued, in 1855, by the "National Association of Factory Occupiers.")

2 Loi du 22 Mars 1841 relative au travail des enfants dans les Manufactures; Block, Dictionnaire de l'Administration Francaise (§ "L'ouvrage"), 1071-2; Reports of Inspectors of Factories, 31st Oct. 1855, p. 83, et seq.

3 Regulatie über die Beschäftigung jugendlicher Arbeiter in Fabriken; Gesetz betreffend einige abänderungen des Regulatius vom 9 Mars 1839, &c. Factory returns for the whole of the United Kingdom of Textile Industry have been submitted to parliament on four several occasions. In 1835, the inspection was in its infancy, and the occupiers of factories took little pains to supply the information which had been called for. The returns of that year, therefore, are of small authority. Those of 1838, of 1850, and of 1856, are full and trustworthy. They afford ample indications of the growth of our textile industry, in so far as it is carried on in factories. Of these, the aggregate number of which, in 1838, had been 4217, and in 1850, 4600, had increased in 1856 to 5117. The power-looms, which in 1836 were but 115,801, had increased in 1850 to 301,445, and in 1856 to 369,205. The total number of persons employed in textile factories amounted in 1838, to 423,400; in 1850 to 596,082; in 1856 to 682,497.

The details of the return of 1856 are as follows:

| Nature of the Fabrics | Number of Factories | Number of Spindles | Number of Power-looms | Amount of Moving Power | Number of Persons Employed | |-----------------------|--------------------|-------------------|----------------------|------------------------|---------------------------| | | | | | Steam | Water | Males | Females | Total | | I. Cotton | 2,210 | 23,010,217 | 299,847 | 88,001 | 9,131 | 157,186 | 222,027 | 379,213 | | II. Wool | 1,505 | 1,786,972 | 14,453 | 17,489 | 8,411 | 45,583 | 33,508 | 79,091 | | III. Worsted | 625 | 1,391,549 | 38,956 | 13,473 | 1,431 | 30,023 | 57,771 | 87,794 | | IV. Flax | 417 | 1,288,043 | 7,689 | 14,387 | 9,935 | 23,446 | 56,816 | 80,262 | | V. Silk | 490 | 1,093,799 | 9,260 | 4,360 | 816 | 16,899 | 39,238 | 56,137 | | Total | 5,117 | 33,503,580 | 369,205 | 137,711 | 23,724 | 273,137 | 406,360 | 682,497 |

In 1838, the number of cotton factories was 1819; in 1850, 3932. The increase, therefore, was about 6 per cent. in 12 years; whereas from 1850 to 1856, the increase was 14-2 per cent. in 6 years. In 1838, the number of woollen factories was 1322; in 1850, 1497; showing an increase of 13 per cent. in 12 years. From 1850 to 1856, the number was almost stationary. In 1838, the worsted factories were 416; in 1850, 501; showing an increase of 20 per cent. From 1850 to 1856, the increase was but 4-7 per cent. In 1838, the number of flax factories was 392; in 1850, it was still but 393. From 1850 to 1856, there was an increase of 6 per cent. Finally, the silk factories which, in 1838 were 268, were in 1850 only 277; but in 1856, had risen to 460, being an increase of 66 per cent. in 6 years. The aggregate increase in the number of textile factories of all kinds during the 18 years from 1838 to 1856 was 21 per cent. The aggregate increase of nominal horse-power during the same period was 58 per cent. (namely, 161,435 in 1856, against 102,069 in 1838). That of power-looms during the 20 years from 1836 to 1856 was 219 per cent. That of persons employed, during the 18 years 1838 to 1856, 61 per cent.

The greatest increase of the factory work-people has been in the worsted manufacture, which, during the same eighteen years, amounted to 177 per cent. To that branch of textiles belongs also the greatest increase of nominal horse-power, namely 108 per cent. The silk manufacture claims the largest increase of power-looms. There, for certain fabrics, the hand-loom has still its superiority. The number of power-looms applied to silk-weaving in 1836 was but 209; in 1856 they amounted to 7689; showing an increase of 3579 per cent. The power-looms employed on worsted were, in 1836, 2969; in 1856, 38,956; showing an increase of 1212 per cent. The power-looms employed on cotton were, at the former date, 108,751; at the latter, 298,847; being an increase of 175 per cent. The power-looms employed on woollen fabrics were, in 1836, 2150; in 1856, 14,453; being an increase of 572 per cent. The power-looms employed on flax were, in 1836, 1714; in 1856, 9260; showing an increase of 440 per cent.

To obtain a collective view of the amount of British labour which is employed on textile industry, as well in those branches to which the Factory Acts do not apply, as in those which are subject to their regulation, recourse must be had to the decennial census. The returns of 1851, as compared with those of 1841, give the best view on this point that is attainable, until the new census shall have been taken:

### Aggregate Numbers of the Work-people Employed on Textiles, in the United Kingdom, 1841 and 1851.

| Census of 1841 | Fabric | Census of 1851 | Fabric | |---------------|--------|---------------|--------| | Total No. of Persons | Total No. of Persons | Total No. of Persons | Total No. of Persons | | I. Cotton—(1) Calico | 501,465 | 83,773 | III. Silk—(1) Silks | 114,570 | | (2) Lace | 63,660 | (2) Ribbands | 10,074 | | (3) Muslin | 14,098 | IV. Flax, &c.—Linens of all kinds | 98,860 | | II. Wool—(1) Woollens | 137,814 | 50,955 | V. Stockings of all materials | 65,499 | | (2) Worsted | 104,061 | | | | | Carried forward... | 800,246 | Total | 1,110,101 |

Hitherto, every decennial census has been taken after a new method. Hence it has been necessary to restrict these comparative figures to persons engaged in the actual preparation, manufacture, or finishing of textile fabrics. If to these be added the dealers and other persons incidentally busied with those fabrics, the total number of persons employed upon wool (after it was taken from the sheep) will be found to have amounted, in 1851, to 295,276; that of persons employed upon silk, to 140,936; that of persons employed upon cotton, flax, and hemp, collectively, to 782,213; yielding an aggregate of persons variously employed on textile products, in 1851, amounting to 1,278,425.

Finally, the exports of textile fabrics from the United Kingdom, in the years 1853 to 1859, respectively, were as follows:

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1 Each of the items which make up this total includes a rateable proportion of the 162,742 weavers, spinners, and factory-workers—fabric not specified—returned in 1841, in addition to the classified workers. There do not exist materials for the minute comparison of the growth of textile industry in France, over a term of years, like that which has been given for the United Kingdom, but there are ample materials for similar statements as applicable to a specific year. The Factory Returns of 1855 and the census of 1851 afford sufficient evidence for our purpose.

### Textile Industry of France in 1855

| Fabric | No. of Factories | No. of Spindles | No. of Looms | Moving Power | Number of Persons Employed | |--------|-----------------|----------------|--------------|--------------|---------------------------| | | | | | Steam | Water | Other mechanical Power | Men | Women | Children under 16 years of age | Total | | I. Cotton | 2,394 | 3,457,552 | 116,154 | 650 | 416 | 443 | 109,304 | 90,647 | 44,623 | 244,579 | | II. Wool | 2,890 | 1,386,783 | 83,446 | 540 | 248 | 406 | 95,534 | 53,128 | 31,437 | 180,089 | | III. Silk | 1,459 | 7,440 | 88,804 | 435 | 145 | 881 | 109,662 | 46,127 | 9,226 | 165,115 | | IV. Flax and hemp | 5,576 | 210,282 | 20,901 | 64 | 90 | 124 | 33,067 | 15,868 | 7,232 | 56,167 | | V. Mixed fabrics | 667 | 143,048 | 37,842 | 64 | 60 | 209 | 37,842 | 5,208 | 17,450 | 60,500 | | **Total** | **12,986** | **5,206,105** | **302,207** | **2053** | **950** | **2057** | **385,409** | **210,978** | **110,073** | **706,450** |

It is obvious, on the face of this table, that the term "factory" designates in France something very different from its ordinary acceptation here. The number of persons directly employed on textiles is in France one-fifth greater than the number so employed in the United Kingdom. But the number of factories is almost three times as large. It has been shown, in the preceding section of this article, that every place in which 20 work-people are employed comes within the jurisdiction of the French factory law. Thus it is that in England every "factory" employs, on the average, about 130 persons; in France, only 54. But the most striking difference is in the employment of females. It is probable that of the children, as of the adults, the majority are males. But if we take only one-half of them to be males, the total number of females employed in textile factories will be but 266,014 against 385,409 males; whereas in the United Kingdom the females are 409,360, against 273,137 males.

The French census of 1851, like that of the United Kingdom, adds to the factory-workers employed on textiles all those who are so employed in their own homes, all dealers in them, and all who are employed in the auxiliary occupations; but it does not discriminate the fabrics. It gives the aggregate number as 969,863 persons, of whom 61,420 are masters, 431,380 journeymen and apprentices, and 477,063 women. Of this number the department of the Lower Seine alone comprises 261,052 persons, and that of the Nord, 113,791 persons.

The exports of textile fabrics of home manufacture from France, during the year 1857, were respectively as follows:—Woollens, L.7,199,392; silks, L.17,415,860; cottons, L.2,811,630; linens, L.731,429; total of textile fabrics, L.28,158,811. The exports of like fabrics during the preceding year, 1856, amounted in the aggregate to L.29,379,574, showing a decrease in 1857 of nearly a million and a quarter. Those of 1858 are not before us in a complete form, but it appears that in the article of woollens the exports had fallen from L.7,199,000 to L.6,320,000. Nothing is more salient in the history of the textile arts than is the evidence of their eminent congeniality with the powers, tastes, and predispositions of the French people, unless it be the evidence that their old "protective" system—now, it may be hoped, in a very decrepit condition—has most ingeniously diminished the natural results of that congeniality. Those branches which have been most protected have been least developed. The distinguished reporter of the 13th Jury at the Great Exhibition, M. Arles Dufour, took occasion to invoke "the attention and the meditation of those who are called to the government of France" to the fact, that her prosperous silk manufacture has "happily been forgotten when, with the view of protecting national industry, governments have established their prohibitions or prohibitive duties, and have given their bounties. This section of textile industry has never been shackled or lulled to sleep by any of those favours so onerous to the country at large, and so fatal to the receivers." It may now be added, that this neglected branch of the weaving arts shows an export of seventeen millions sterling, against the eleven millions of all the protected branches together. Certainly, it was time to direct attention to such facts as these, and it may well be imagined that they have not been without their influence on recent policy.

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1 Exclusive of such textile fabrics as may be included under the customs heading, "Apparel, Haberdashery, and Millinery." These figures are taken from the Seventh Statistical Abstract for the United Kingdom, published by the Board of Trade, and issued to the public in June 1860. They differ very materially from other statements purporting to represent the same facts, and also of recent but unofficial publication.

2 Tableau Général du Commerce de la France, . . . pendant l'Année 1857, pp. 283-301.

3 Ibid., pendant l'Année 1856, p. 269.