Ill

THE LOOM

HE loom is the apparatus upon which a woven fabric isproduced. Its essential features are, the warp and clothbeams, placed and supported at each end of the framework; the comb or reed through which the warp threadspass from the warp beam to the cloth beam; and the kealds or theapparatus for lifting the warp threads to permit of the passage ofthe shuttle containing the weft thread.

A diagram ex-planatory of theelements of weav-ing is here given(fig. i),showing thealternate warpthreads beinglifted by the healdto form the shedfor the shuttle topass through, after Fig. i. — Diagram of the Principles of Weaving,

which the reed is

beaten up against the weft to produce a firm structure; theprocess is repeated by the next heald, producing what is known asplain cloth.

The illustration given in fig. 2 is an early Egyptian loom, takenfrom the original model in the Lyons Museum, and is probably thetype of loom that was in general use before the introduction ofpatterned fabrics. Fig. 3 is taken from a painting in the tomb ofBeni Hassan, B.C. 2500, and it shows the weavers working at theupright loom, as was customary in Egypt.

Fig. 4, from a 12th-century manuscript, is doubtless typical

11

DIAGRAM SHEWING THELIFTING Of A PORTION OFTHE WARP THREADS ©FTHEHEALD, B.

THE SHUTTLE'IS ALSOSHEWN ENTERING THESHED.

THE. REEOj.

|B ABthchealds.

THE WARP.

CLOTH-

THE SHUTTLE WITH THEW tFT THKCAO.

lUliiiliii