DESIGN, in the manufactories, express ses the figures with which the workman enriches his stuff, or silk, and which he copies after some painter, or eminent draughtsman, as in diaper, damask, and other flowered silk and tapestry, and the like.
In undertaking of such kinds of figur ed stuffs, it is necessary, before the .firse stroke of the shuttle, that the whole de sign be represented on the threads of the warp : we do not mean in colours, but with an infinite number of little pack threads, which being disposed so as to raise the threads of the warp, let the workman see, from time to time, what kind of silk is to be put in the eye of the shuttle, for woof. This method of pre paring the work is called readingtlie de sign, and reading the figure, which is periormed in the following manner : a paper is provided considerably broader than the stuff, and of a length propor tionate to what is intended to be repre sented thereon.—This they divide lengthwise, by as many black lines as there are intended threads in the warp ; and cross these lines by others drawn breadthwise, which, with the former, make little equal squares : on the paper thus squared, the draughtsman designs his figures, and heightens them with co lours, as he sees fit. When the design is finished, a workman reads it, while ano ther lays it on the simblot.
To read the design, is to tell the per.
son who manages the loom the number of squares or threads comprised in the space he is reading, intimating, at the same time, whether it is ground or figure. To put what is read on the simblot, is to fasten little strings to the several pack threads, which are to raise the threads named; and thus they continue to do till the whole design is read.
Every piece being composed of :level's.' repetitions of the same design, when the whole design is drawn, the drawer, to re begin the design afresh, has nothing to do but to raise the little strings,with slip knots, to the top of the simblot, which he had let down to the bottom : this he is to repeat as often as is necessary, till the whole be manufactured.
The ribbon weavers have likewise a design, but far more simple than that now described. It !is:. drawn on paper. with lines and squares, representing the threads of the warp and woof. But in.; stead of lines, whereof the figures of the former consist, these are constituted of points only, or dots, placed in certain of the little squares formed by the intersec tion of the lines. These points mark the threads of the warp that are to be raised, and the spaces left blank denote the threads that are to keep their si tuation : the rest is managed as in the former.