Concerning the application of the arts of design to weaving, Professor Willis, in a report ou the Paris Exhibition of 1855, gives an interesting account of the duties of a French functionary called the Professeur de la Th6orie des Fabrications' :—" This is a class of instruction which appears to be peculiar to Lyons, and to the want of which our defi ciency in that respect may greatly be attributed. Their business is not to teach artistic drawing as a branch of fine art, but to teach the connection of design with the machinery which must be employed to realise it ; to explain the entire construction and management of the looms, the mode of mounting and adjusting them, the different tissues or textures of which they are capable; the application of these to the respective parts of a given design, either as grounds or as means of bringing out details with the greatest effect, and at the same time with the necessary economy—seeing that contrast and variety of textures in the different details of a wovenpicture occupy the place of the painter's handling in works of fine art. A. design may manifestly be exceedingly beautiful in itself as a work of art, but wholly inapplicable to weaving. No artist, therefore, can be qualified to make a weaver's design which shall combine in itself the beauty of art, applicable to produce effective results when translated from oil-paint or water-colours into silk or worsted, unless he be familiar with the mechanism of the looms in their infinite variety, with their practical adjustment, and with the characteristic surface-effects of the different tissues. Every designer, in short, should be able to put his own designs into the loom. Accord ingly, artists, after having studied in the School of Design.at Lyons, put themselves in the next place under the instruction of one of these so-called Professors of the Theory of Fabrics, for six months or more, to learn the application of the design to the machine. This is the system which has enabled the manufacturers of that city to produce the magnificent and beautiful specimens which were displayed in the galleries of the French Exhibition." Bonelli's Electric Loom.—There is one modern invention in weaving of so remarkable a character as to deserve special notice. The theory is sound, although there may not at present be obtained a mastery over the mechanical details for carrying it out. M. Bonelli's Electric Loom has been described by Dr. Faraday at the Royal Institution, and by Mr. Le Ncve Foster at the Society of Arta. The following is a slight out line of its origin and nature. In 1844 the Society of Arts prize was given to Mr. Riding for certain improvements in the Jacquard Appa ratus; he employed an index-machine, something like Duncan's barrel described in an earlier paragraph, with shifting pegs for changing the patterns, the pegs acting in connection with wires in the apparatus. In later years other improvements were introduced, many of which have been noticed in JACQ1JAIID ArrAzierus. This subject attracted the attention of M. Bonelli, an Italian Civil Engineer, and Director General of the Sardinian telegraphs. He employed a long period of time in developing the theory and details of an electric apparatus which might dispense with the cards necessary in the Jacquard looms for weaving figured goods ; and brought his machine to England in 1859. Bonelli's apparatus will suit any existing looms. It oonsists principally of an endless band of paper covered with tinfoil. The design or pattern is painted on the tinfoil with a brush and black varnish. The band passes under a series of thin metal teeth, all in connection with a galvanic battery. Whenever the foil touches a tooth a current passes through it, and thence through coils of wire surrounding small bars of soft iron, making them temporary magnets; but whenever the varnish touches a tooth, no such current is produced. Numerous small rods are placed opposite the ends of the small bar magnets; they pass horizontally to and fro, through a plate in front of a moveable frame.
When any of the bare are actively magnetic, they retain or attract the rods when in contact with them. When the frame is swung or moved so as to bring the rods in contact with the bars, some are drawn a little distance through the holes in the plate, while the others are not so affected : according as tho particular bars are at that moment in a magnetic state or not. The rods are like pistons, for each exactly fits one hole without tightness; and thus it happens that, when the frame recedes, some of the holes are open, while others are filled with the rods. The plate acts the part of a Jacquard card ; each movement of the frame opens a distinct aeries of holes, and thus changes the pattern. A treadle moves the frame, at each throw of the shuttle. When the design is to be in several colours, it is in like manner painted on the tinfoil ; but each separate colour, by removing a very thin strip of foil at the margin, is insulated from its neighbouring colour. All the pieces of foil thus insulated, each rspreeeuting one colour or shade, are connected by small strips of tinfoil, which pierce through the paper and are fastened at the back, whence they are con ducted to another strip of tinfoil which runs along the edge of the band : there being as many such strips of tinfoil as there aro colours. Thus each special colour of the design, in all its parts, is connected by a conductor with its own separate strip of tinfoil. By bringing the wire from the galvanic battery successively into contact with the several strips, a current of electricity may be made to pass In succession through the several parts of the design representing tho several colours. Thus, assuming four colours; there would be four strips of tinfoil running the length of the band, insulated one from another, each in connection with its own peculiar colour only. At any given moment, thin plates of metal resting on the design would touch it in a line which, as it passes over the width of the design, would run through all or any one of the colours ; but the current would pass only through those plates which rest on the one colour represented by the strip connected at that moment with the pole of the battery. The shifting of the. band does not in this case take place with every throw of the shuttle, but after an interval depending on the number of colours.
Such is Bonelli's electric loom. The inventor states, that two cells of a small Bunsen's battery will suffice, consuming one pennyworth of chemicals per day. The cost of the whole apparatus is about 20/. An elaborate damask design will sometimes require, on the Jacquard system 4000 cards and 400 wires, which would cost 24/., and five weeks of a man's labour to set up. On the Bonelli system, we are told, the expense would be 01., and the time one week. A Jacquard design has been known to take 20,000 cards, costing 1501., and an amouut of labour equal to one whole year of one man's time ; the figures on the Bonelli system would be 201. and one month. Several advantages are claimed for the system :-1. The great facility with which, in a very short time, and withprecision, reductions of the design may be obtained on the fabric bY means of the varying velocity with which the design may be passed under the teeth. 2. That without damaging the mounting of the loom or the design, fabrics thinner or thicker may be produced by changing the number of the weft, and making a cor responding change in the movement of the design. 3. The loom and its mounting remaining unchanged, the design may be changed in a few minutes by the substitution of another metallized paper having a different pattern. 4. The power of getting rid of any part of the design, if required, and of modifying it. The validity of these claims remains for the future to show.
WEB. [WeAvisra.] •