WEAVING, a process in which a series of longitudinal strands of fibre of one kind or another are united into a web or fabric by in terlacing with cross threads. The two sets of threads employed traverse the web at right angles to ach other. The first set extends from end to end of the web in parallel lines, and is commonly called the warp; while the other set of threads crosses and interlaces with the warp from side to side of the web, and is generally called the weft or woof. la aU forms of weaving the warp threads are first set up in a device known as a loom, and thee the weft threads are worked into the warp, to and fro, by means of a shuffle.
The art of weaving is of such extreme an tiquhy that its beginnings cannot be traced: and, indeed, the idea seems to have had a well nigh universal origin in the human mind, as the essential methods are found in wen-devel oped form among savage tribes which have never been in touch with civilization. The primitive loom may have been no more than a simple beats suspended from the branch of a tree and sustaining the warp fibres or threads, the weft being worked in by hand with a sort of needle. But from the earnest days down to the present it has been by this fundamental process of interlacing two sets of thread in lovphs of.simple mechanism that all known tex tile fabrics have been produced— the mummy cloths of Egypt, the fine damasks and tapes tries of the Greeks and Remelts, the Indian mastitis, the shawls of Cashmere, and the world-famed weaves of Italy and the Nether lands.
Four classes of woven cloths are recog nized by weavers: (1) Single, or simple cloths. in which there is but one warp and one weft in terlaced at right angles to one another; (2) Compound cloths, in which there are two or more warps or wefts interlaced at right angles; (3) Cloths in which the warp threads either singly or in groups are interwoven with each other duringtheiveaving, with a knitting stitch; (4) The pile fabrics of all degrees. The first class inclucka all ordinary cloths of single thick ness. The second class includes what are known as 'backed" cloths, two-ply, three-ply and four-ply fabrics, tapestries and The third class includes all fabrics of the gauze type, or which are partly in the or knitting stitch. The fourth group in cludes such fabvics as Turkish towels, Brussels carpets, velvet carpets, plashes and velvets of all descriptions.
The instrument or mechanism by which the operations of weaving are accomplished is known as the loom (q.v.). Looms are classi
fied as Hand Looms and Power Looms, accord ing to the motive power employed. In the hand loom the operator throws the shuttle with his hand, and works the treadles with his feet The tver loom is automatic, all necessary motions being carried out by ingenious and often intri cate toechauthansi so that once started it contin ues weaving until all the warp has been made into cloth. An attendant stands by in case of accident, and usually one operator can attend to several running looms.
Hand Until comparatively modern Imes all weaving was effected by means of the hand loom. This loom, in its usual form. con sists of a frame of four upright posts braced together by cross-beams, a centre horizontal beam at the back being the warp beam, the beam in front being that upon which the web is wound, whilejust below this, in front, is the breast beam for the support of the weaver at his work. At the top of the loom is an apparatus by which the heddles are lifted or lowered by means of treadles under the foot of the weaver. These !teddies consist of vertical frames, set with cords, each with an eyelet at the centre. Is "setting' the loom the mass of threads con stituting the warp is wound epos the warp beam as upon a spool. They are then led one by ooe to the heddles. If there are but two beadles oa the loam, as in plain weaving, the •scads are passed alternately through the eye lets; that is, the first, third, fifth—and all the other odd-numbered threads through one hed die. sad the even-numbered threads through the other. A Imes may have many heddles, as in pattern weaving and in that case the threading of the warp through the heddles requires much be gained only by experience. After g the !teddies the threads are brought forward through the reed, a sort of comb-like structure with long teeth, ling upon its hack, the teeth extending vertically upward. Two ad joining warp threads pass in the space between each two teeth of the 'comb.* The ends of the warp are finally fastened to the cloth-beam in front Care is needed in order that all the threads shall have equal tension, so that the cloth when woven shall be smooth, and not pucker. Attached to the lower edge of the reed is the 'ley' or isler which serves to weight the reed and thus give force to its blow in the wearing process, and also provides a shelf along which the shuttle travels. See Fig. 1.