2. "Warping."—In this stage, a given number of bobbins, generally 300-500, are placed in a creel, and the threads are wound thence in parallel order upon a large beam, to a length of 3000-5000 yds. This is the plan pursued where the sizing machine is used. Where the old system of ball sizing is retained, the method is different.
3. " Sizing."—This consists in immersing the yarn in a fluid composition, containing water, flour, starch, and other materials; the object is to solidify and strengthen the threads, to enable them to withstand the friction and strain incident to the subsequent process of weaving. There are three methods of doing this, which will be descrilsed in their place.
4. " Drawing- or twisting-in the warp."—This is simply furnishimg the warp with the necessary healds, or harness, to make it ready for the loom.
5. " Weaving."—This is the art of interlacing threads, in such a manner as to make a web or texture. It is subdivided into branches ; plain, twill, figure, and leno weaving. All these arise from the order in which the threads of the warp are opened to receive the weft, or filling, which composes the-cross threads of the texture.
In primitive times, the art of weaving was of the simplest character. The weaver spun a single thread, and wound it into a ball ; then stuck two or three sticks into the gz:ound, and passed the thread around them a sufficient number of times to give the breadth and length required for the warp ; next he interlaced a second thread by the sinaple process of darning, pressing the latter as closely together as he desired by the aid of his fingers. For a long time, very little progress appears to have been made. Some of the ancient nations, such as Egypt, Persia, Assyria, and Greece, attained great skill in the textile art, though the instruments they possessed showed little advance upon the above. India for many centuries possessed an almost world-wide reputation for the variety, beauty, and fineness of its textures ; all these were manufactured by the simplest tools, the thread being spun by the distaff and spindle, or the single thread wheel, and the shuttle being passed through the open warp from hand to hand.
It is, however, to Lancashire that the world owes the impetus given to invention in the textile arts. Nearly all the great improvements have originated and been perfected within the boundaries of the county, and within a few miles of each other. The first great step was made by the elder Kay, of Bury, by the invention of the picking-stick, and the attachment of boxes to each end of the slay or lathe of the loom, for the reception of the shuttle, in place of the hand of the operative.
This so greatly inoreased the productive power of the weaver, that cotton weft yarns—the warps were of linen—became exceedingly scarce, and advanced so much in price, that tbe spinners enjoyed a period of great prosperity. The weavers were often compelled to wander from cottage to cottage for several days in order to collect a sufficiency of weft to supply them for the remainder of the week.
This state of matters stimulated invention very greatly, and, in many secluded corners, " conjurers," as the people then c,alled inventors, were working to devise remedies for the scarcity of yarn which so many felt. Jas. Hargreaves, of Oswaldtwistle, near Blackburn, was the first to accomplish on his "jenny," the feat of spinning more than one thread at a time. The treatment he met with need be only cursorily alluded to here. The rapid manner in which the new invention spread in East Lancashire was not regarded with complacency. Mobs broke the jennies wherever they could find them, and compelled Hargreaves to fly for safety, Which he found in Nottingham. Arkwright, thus warned, when he had made his water-frame a practical success, migrated in the same direction. Crompton closely followed these men with his combination of the jenny and the water-frame, which received the name of the "mule." The details of the two inventions last named. were wrought out almost upon the same spot, Bolton, and not long apart.
The invention of the jenny, the water-frame, and the mule, soon yielded an abundance of yarns, and the question arose as to how to work them up. Mechanical production suggested a mechanical power of consumption : hence the power-loom. A clergyman named Cartwright appears to have been the first to broach this idea, and to attempt its realization. After spending several years, and a considerable fortune, in the attempt, he only succeeded in achieving a very linaited degree of moose. But the idea was not destined to be lost : others were assiduously labouring to attain the same end. Horrocks, of Stockport, and Miller, of Glasgow, soon succeeded better ; Bulloughe, of Blackburn, and a host of minor inventors, have contributed to bring the loom to ite present degree of perfection. To no one, however, can be given exclusive merit ; each man's im provement forms a complement to preceding inventions, and the earliest require the West to perfect them. The system as now existing has been developed from the experience and labours of many. It is not yet perfect ; frequent contributions are being made, and more are needed.