BROCADE, in the manufacture of cloth, signifies that species, in which a certain portion of woof is interwoven, in order to produce fanciful variety upon particular parts of the superficies of the cloth. In this respect it may, without any violation of propriety, be taken as a generic term, under which all the varieties of spot, or japan weaving, may he included. As an article of commerce, it can never be of material importance, in a country where the wages of labour are necessarily so high as they are in Britain ; for hitherto, at least, no attempt to introduce the aid of machinery has been in any degree practically successful, and the tedious and fatiguing process of mere manual labour ‘% ill ever preclude com petition with those showy, although flimsy and inferior substitutes, which can be afforded at less than one-third of the price. This manufacture, and the whole range of spotting, differs from the damask, and otli r ornamental kinds, in this respect, that the woof is only interwoven, where the figure is to be formed, an entirely distinct woof being employed to form the ground-work of the fabric. The requisite machinery for this purpose will be found by referring to Plate CIV. Pig. 1 ; and the re maining figures will serve to illustrate how far the dif ference between brocade, japan, and common spot weav ing, consists in the construction and mounting of the loom ; and how far, subsequently, in the manner in which the loom, when mounted, is employed by the operator. In what is properly termed the brocade, or finger flower, the whole of every flower is interwoven merely by the hand, and this constitutes the enormous expellee ; re sembling, in some degree, that species of weaving which has been brought to such a wonderful degree of perfection on the continent, as in many instances to rival even the most masterly efforts of painting, and which is distinguished by the name of Tapestry.
The general appearance of a brocade loom, Plate CIV. Pig. 1, which is a horizontal plan, will serve to convey some idea. In this figure, the warp is only represented where the figures are to be shown ; the remaining warp being, in every respect, similar to that of plain or alter nately woven cloth. When the warp is opened for the common texture, the wool is interwoven exactly as in a plain fabric ; and where a figure is to be formed, a sepa rate body of woof, much coarser, is passed, by the ope ration of the hand, through those portions of warp which are successively opened, according to the form of the design or pattern. These two operations are perform ed alternately, and thus the fabric is formed, the gene ral texture being effected by a shuttle, and the ornamen tal by manual labour. In the general mode of perform ing this, the weaver is assisted by a boy or girl, who sits along with him, and assists him in passing the orna mental wool through the warp which is raised. If, in
Fig. 1, A, B, and C, are supposed to consist of three portions of warp, set apart for the ornamental figure, and if it be also understood, that any number a these may be included in one web, according to its breadth, its fineness, and the number and magnitude of the flow ers required, the general principle will be at once com prehended. Let the heddles which open the warp be represented at DD, and suppose every other part to be exactly similar to any other common loom, the lay be ing entirely omitted. Any portion of the warp may then be opened, by raising the particular heddles ; and when this is done, the ornamental woof which forms every flower may be passed through by the weaver and his assistants. Let plain woof be then passed through to form the general fabric, and the desired effect must be produced. This is of itself sufficiently obvious ; but the means by which it is reduced to practice, and the draw ings which practical artificers use as guides, are of im portance to those who are professionally obliged to use them ; and these will be found in the horizontal plan ; for which see Fig. 2. Plans of this kind will not only con vey a very inadequate idea of what is intended by them, hut would really mislead any man, only conversant with the rules of mechanical drawing. They are, however, those to which professional weavers always have re course ; and it is, therefore, necessary, in order to pre vent confusion of idea, and even positive error, to explain their principle. They may be considered as horizontal plans of a weaving loom, but they consist of two entire ly separate and unconnected parts, which are placed to gether merely for the sake of conveniency. If we can suppose that an architect, for the use of practical build ers, would plan two separate floors of a house, and re present them as parts of two adjoining houses, the idea will he at once correctly formed. Thus, the right hand part of the figure, from A to B, represents the heddles, and the left hand part, from B to C, the heddles which, in actual practice, are really perpendicularly under the former. The first of these, namely the portion from A to B, represents what is termed the draught of a web, or that order of succession in which the warp is inserted in the different leaves of which the heddles consist. The second portion from B to C serves to guide the person who arranges the machinery of a loom, how to form the connections between the heddles and the levers, or tred dles, by which they are to be moved. In the article CLOTH MANUFACTURE, the general principle of connec tion, and the ranges and powers of the respective levers, will be found sufficiently explained ; their particular ap plication, therefore, is only necessary in this place.