TEXTILE FABRICS. Under the ar ticles of FLAX, COTTON, and LINEN, the manufacture of those fabrics is describ ed. Under the present title, only a few additional observations are required the reader finding further information under the head WEAVING.
The first business of the weaver is to adapt those parts of his loom which move the warp, to the formation of the various 'kinds of ornamental figures which the cloth is intended to exhibit. This subject is called the draught, drawing or reading in, and the cording of looms. In every species of weaving, whether direct or cross, the whole difference of pattern or .effect is produced, either by the succes sion in which the threads of warp are in troduced into the heddles, or by the suc cession in which those heddles are moved in the working. The heddles being stretched between two shafts of wood, all the heddles connected by the same shafts are called a leaf; and as the operation of introducing the warp into any number of leaves is called drawing a warp, the plan of succession is called the draught. When this operation has been performed correctly, the next part of the weaver's business is to connect the different leaves with the levers or trecldles by which they are to be moved, so that one or more may be raised or sunk by every treddle successively, as may be required to produce the peculiar pattern. These connections being made by coupling the different parts of the apparatus by cords, this operation is called the cording. In order to direct the operator in this part of his business, especially if previously unacquainted with the particular pattern upon which he is employed, plans aro drawn upon paper. These plans are hor izontal sections of a loom, the heddles be ing represented by lines across the paper, and the treddles under them, and crossing them at right angles. In actual weaving, the treddles are placed at right angles to the heddlcs, the sinking cords descend ing perpendicularly as nearly as possible to the centre of the latter. Placing them at the left hand, therefore, is only for ready inspection and for practical conve nience. The right hand thread passes through the eye of a peddle upon the back leaf and is disconnectcd with all the other leaves ,• the next thread passes through a heddle on the second leaf; the third, through the third leaf; the fourth, through the fourth leaf; and the fifth, through the fifth or front leaf. One set
of the draught being now completed, the weaver recommences with the back leaf, and proceeds in the same succes sion again to the front. Two sets of the draught, similar to the one which had been furnished, it is understood by weavers (who seldom draw more than one set), must be repeated until the warp is concluded. When they proceed to apply the cords, the right hand part of the plan serves as a guide. In all the plans furnished to the weavers, excepting one, which shall be noticed, a connection must be formed, by cording, between every leaf of heddles and every treddle ; for all the leaves must either rise or sink. The raising motion is effected by coup ling the leaf to one end of its correspond ent top lever; the other end of this lever is tied to the long march below, and this to the treddle. The sinking connection is carried directly from under the leaf to the trcddle. To direct a weaver which of these connections is to be formed with each trcddle, a black spot is placed when a leaf is to be raised, where the leaf and treddle intersect each other upon the plan, and the sinking connections are left blank. Those who have been accus tomed to manufacture and weave orna mented cloths, never consume time by representing either heddles or treddles as solid or distinct bodies. They content themselves with ruling a number of lines across a piece of paper, sufficient to make the intervals between these lines repre sent the number of leaves required. Upon these intervals they merely mark the succession of the draught, without producing every line to resemble a thread of warp. At the left hand they draw as many lines across the former as will afford an interval for each treddle; and in the squares produced by the intersections of these lines, they place the dots, spots, or ciphers which denote the raising cords. It is also common to continue the cross lines which denote the treddle a consid erable length beyond the intersections, and to mark by dots, placed diagonally in the intervals, the order or succession in which the treddles are to be pressed down in weaving.