PARALLELISM IN WEAVING.

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other, and placed in the same plane. In order that thecloth to be wove may not be too loose in one place and tootight in another, an instrument is used called a comb, orreed, which is made of very thin and straight pieces, keptat equal distances from and parallel to, one another by anappropriate edging. One of the threads of the warp ispassed through each ot the intervals between the teeth ofthe comb, which keeps them at equal distances from oneanother. By this double system of parallel right lines, oneof which serves to regulate the other, when the comb ismade very correctly, the weaver is enabled to make hisweb of great length, as well as breadth, and perfectlyequal in all its parts.

The fineness and beauty of the celebrated cachemireshawls, made by the Indians, are well known, and are trulywonderful. But, as they have not the same accurate in-struments as the Europeans , for preserving the parallelismand equal distances of the threads, it is not possible forthem to weave shawls, which for the uniform nature of thetexture can be compared to those made in Europe ; althoughthe weavers of Europe have not yet been engaged above aquarter of a century in this, to them, new branch of in-dustry.

It is of some consequence to make the reader awarethat the superiority obtained by the Europeans, in an artlong practised and carried to great perfection in India , hasbeen produced by an approach to the precision of idealgeometry in the parallelism of right lines, which, in thiscase, are represented by very fine threads.

There will be frequent opportunities for remarking asimilar fact; and it will be seen that the progress of in-dustry in most arts, requires the precision and rigour ofgeometrical conception and construction to be introducedinto the workshop. This it is, and it cannot be too oftenrepeated, which maxes it more than ever necessary forworkmen to be perfectly acquainted with geometry andits application to trie arts.