When the warp is completed to the number of threads required for the web for which it is intended, it is taken off the mills, and wound up into a ball, the cros sings being first properly secured for the use of the weaver : and in this state it is sold to the weaving manufacturer, when the mill owner is not concerned in this branch of business himself.
Of Weaving. A vast variety of fabrics are formed of cotton; every species made of linen or silk has been successfully imi tated with it ; and the velverets and thick cords made of it, have been found to answer for many purposes in place of woollen cloth. The finest muslins of In dia do not exceed those which are made in this country; andthe richness of colour, and variety of figure, of the chintzes of the East, are now surpassed by those of our printed cottons : from the excellence of these goods, and the low prices at which the extensive use of machinery al lows them to be sold, the exportation has become prodigious ; and the comforts of the lower classes at home are considera bly encreased, from the cheap rate at which they can procure most articles of clothing of this kind.
There is no mode of weaving peculiar to cotton, so that on this head we must refer to the article WEAVING for informa tion, as every cotton stuff is woven in a way resembling that of some other fabric, unless we may except that called Mar seilles; though stuffs may be made of linen or silk, or a mixture of linen and woollen, in a similar manner to that in which this is formed.
The loom for weaving Marseilles is somewhat similar to the diaper loom. A good idea of the manner in which it is prepared may be had, by conceiving two webs woven one under the other in the same loom, which are made to inter mingle at all the depressed lines, which form the reticulations on the surface, in imitation of the quilting performed by hand.
When the species of Marseilles, called Marseilles quilting, is made, a third warp, of softer materials than the two others described, lies between them, and merely _serves as a sort of stuffing to the hollow squares formed by them.
Another sort of cotton stuff, solely ap propriated to quilts, should, in strictness, be set down exclusively to the cotton manufacture ; though there is nothing to prevent its being made of other materials. The weft of those quilts is of ' ery coarse and thick yarn, which is drawn out by a small hook into little loops, as it is woven, that are so arranged, as altogether to form a regular pattern ; every third or fourth shoot of the shuttle, the weaver has to stop to form those loops from a draft, which causes the weaving of those quilts to take up more time than that of any other stuff, except tapestry ; which accounts for the greatness of the price at which they are sold, in proportion to the value of the materials of which they are principally composed.
Before concluding the head of weaving, it will be proper to notice a considerable improvement added to one of the princi pal implements for this operation, which first originated in the cotton manufac ture ; which is a very simple apparatus attached to the batton, by which the shuttle is thrown through the warp with out requiring to be touched by the hand; as it may be set in motion both ways by the same hand, the weaver saves the time that is lost in shifting hands in the com mon way of weaving ; and from this cause, added to other circumstances, is enabled to weave a considerable quantity more in a day by the use of this contri vance ; and, which is in reality still more material to him, by enabling him to sit at his work in an erect posture, prevents that frequent stooping forwards, and con sequent pressure on the chest, which was found to be so extremely unwholesome in this business, that a very great propor tion of weavers died annually of com plaints on the lungs, originating from this circumstance alone.
The Fly Shuttle. The apparatus by which this is effected is known by the ap pellation of the fly-shuttle, or flying shuttle, (probably from the swiftness of the motion of the shuttle, when it is used). It consists of a little oblong trough, attached to each side of the bat ton in front, so that the end of each shall lie exactly opposite to the aperture form ed in the warp for passing the shuttle, when the treadles are pressed down ; small cubic piece of wood, usually cover ed with hard leather, slides back and for wards in each trough, and is retained within it by a thick wire, which runs through its upper part, and proceeds from the further end of the trough, which has a button, or knob, on the end next the web, that prevents the little wooden cube from slipping off; from the move able cube in one trough, a cord proceeds loosely over the web to that in the oppo- • site trough, and a turned handle is at tached to the middle of this cord, by which the weaver puts the little cubes in motion ; the shuttle is straight-sided, and is sloped off to a point at both ends, which are tipped with iron ; very light and well-turned little wheels are let into the substance of the shuttle at each end, and project little more than the eighth of an inch beyond its surface ; and on these it runs along the lower rail of the batton, over the lower threads of the warp when it is thrown. When the weaver works with this apparatus, he first presses back one of the sliding cubes to the further end of the trough in which it lies, and lays the shuttle in the trough directly be tween it and the web, first fastening the end of the yarn contained by the shuttle properly to the web ; then pressing down the treadle, he takes up the handle which puts the sliding cubes in motion, and by a gentle jerk of his hand pulls the cube, which is behind the ghuttle, towards tho web ; the quick motion of the sliding cube is directly communicated to the shuttle, and it flies rapidly through the warp into the trough at the other side, pressing back the contrained sliding cube as it passes to its end; from whence a slight motion of the hand in the opposite direction impels it back again to its first position, after the thread shot in has been beaten up close to the web, and the warp been opened again, ready to receive an other course.