BEAMING is a handicraft process in the cloth-manufacture preliminary to weaving, and was formerly done by the weaver himself; but it has long since become a special employment, followed by workmen trained to the business as beamers, and, like hand weaving, is tending to extinction by machinery—warping and beaming, in weaving by power, being conjoined into one operation. See WEAVING. B. is simply the art of winding the web on the weaver's beam in a manner suitable for weaving—the two essen tial requirements being firmness in the winding on of the web sufficient to withstand the reaction of weaving, and evenness in the spreading of the yarn at the required width. This is effected by what is called a beaming machine, which; is simply a kind of roller mill, extending front end to end of the beamer's shop. The weaver's beam, on which the web is to be wound, is set horizontally on two upright standards at the one end of the shop, and at the other end there is a friction-roller, set likewise level in a heavy frame, fixed to the floor, on which the web is wound like a rope, with the thrum end out.
The number of pins or strands in the web being known, the beamer has merely to take a ravel (a comb-like utensil) with the corresponding number of teeth in the breadth required for the web, and filling each tooth successively with its respective pin, the spreading is completed; and the web being attached to the beam, the winding on of the web is a common crane operation, in which the tension on the yarn is regulated by the friction on the friction roller. The beamer may thus beam for 400 weavers. The price of beaming a web varies from 3d. to perhaps 8d. or 10d.