Garments And Clothing

A feature of all modern human societies is the wearing of clothing, a category encompassing a wide variety of materials that cover the body.

The primary purpose of clothing is functional, as a protection from the elements. Clothes also enhance safety during hazardous activities such as hiking and cooking, by providing a barrier between the skin and the environment. Clothes also provide a hygienic barrier, keeping toxins away from the body and limiting the transmission of germs.

Clothing performs important social and cultural functions. A uniform, for example, may identify civil authority figures, such as police and army personnel, or it may identify team or group or even political affiliations. In most societies, norms about clothing reflect standards of modesty, religious practices and social status. Clothing may also function as a form of adornment and an expression of personal taste or style.

Throughout history, many materials have been used for clothes. Materials have ranged from leather and furs to weaved and woven materials, to elaborate and exotic natural and synthetic fabrics.

Articles carried rather than worn (such as purses, canes, and umbrellas) are normally considered fashion accessories rather than clothing, but hats and small dress sweaters can be called either clothing or accessories.[citation needed] Jewelry and eyeglasses are usually considered as accessories ,[citation needed] even though in common speech these particular items are described as being worn rather than carried.

Recent scientific research estimates that humans have been wearing clothing for as long as 650,000 years.Others claim that clothing likely originated in the neolithic age.

Functions of clothing:

A baby wearing many items of winter clothing: headband, cap, fur-lined coat, shawl and sweater

One of the primary purposes of clothing is to keep the wearer comfortable. In hot climates clothing provides protection from sunburn or wind damage, while in cold climates its thermal insulation properties are generally more important. Shelter usually reduces the functional need for clothing. For example, coats, hats, gloves, shoes, socks, and other superficial layers would normally be removed when entering or once inside a warm home, particularly if one is residing or sleeping there. Similarly, clothing has seasonal and regional aspects, so that thinner materials and fewer layers of clothing are generally worn in warmer seasons and regions than in colder ones.

Clothing at times is worn as protection from specific environmental hazards, such as insects, noxious chemicals, weapons, and contact with abrasive substances. Clothing can protect against many things that might injure the uncovered human body. Clothes act as protection from the elements, including rain, snow and wind and other weather conditions, even from the sun. Clothes also reduce the level of risk during an activity, such as work or sport. Conversely, clothing may protect the environment from the clothing wearer, as for example wearing of medical scrubs.

Humans have shown extreme inventiveness in devising clothing solutions to environmental hazards. Some examples include: space suits, air conditioned clothing, armor, diving suits, swimsuits, bee-keeper gear, motorcycle leathers, high-visibility clothing, and other pieces of protective clothing. Meanwhile, the distinction between clothing and protective equipment is not always clear-cut, since clothes designed to be fashionable will often have some protective value and clothes which are designed to be functional will often consider fashion in their design.

Origin and history of clothing:

According to archaeologists and anthropologists, the earliest clothing likely consisted of fur, leather, leaves or grass which were draped, wrapped or tied around the body. Knowledge of such clothing remains inferential, since clothing materials deteriorate quickly compared to stone, bone, shell and metal artifacts. Archeologists have identified very early sewing needles of bone and ivory from about 30,000 BC, found near Kostunica, Russia in 1988. Dyed flax fibers that could have been used in clothing have been found in a prehistoric cave in the Republic of Georgia that date back to 36,000 BP.

Scientists are still debating when people started wearing clothes. Ralf Kittler, Manfred Kayser and Mark Stone king, anthropologists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, have conducted a genetic analysis of human body lice that suggests clothing originated quite recently, around 107,000 years ago. Body lice is an indicator of clothes-wearing, since most humans have sparse body hair, and lice thus require human clothing to survive. Their research suggests the invention of clothing may have coincided with the northward migration of modern Homo sapiens away from the warm climate of Africa, thought to have begun between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago. However, a second group of researchers using similar genetic methods estimate that clothing originated around 540,000 years ago. For now, the date of the origin of clothing remains unresolved.

Some human cultures, such as the various people of the Arctic Circle, until recently made their clothing entirely of prepared and decorated furs and skins. Other cultures have supplemented or replaced leather and skins with cloth: woven, knitted, or twined from various animal and vegetable fibers.

Although modern consumers may take the production of clothing for granted, making fabric by hand is a tedious and labor intensive process. That the textile industry was the first to be mechanized — with the powered loom — during the Industrial Revolution attests to this fact.

Different cultures have evolved various ways of creating clothes out of cloth. One approach simply involves draping the cloth. Many people wore, and still wear, garments consisting of rectangles of cloth wrapped to fit — for example, the dhoti for men and the saree for women in the Indian subcontinent, the Scottish kilt or the Javanese sarong. The clothes may simply be tied up, as is the case of the first two garments; or pins or belts hold the garments in place, as in the case of the latter two. The precious cloth remains uncut, and people of various sizes or the same person at different sizes can wear the garment.

Another approach involves cutting and sewing the cloth, but using every bit of the cloth rectangle in constructing the clothing. The tailor may cut triangular pieces from one corner of the cloth, and then add them elsewhere as gussets. Traditional European patterns for men's shirts and women's chemises take this approach.

Modern European fashion treats cloth much more prodigally, typically cutting in such a way as to leave various odd-shaped cloth remnants. Industrial sewing operations sell these as waste; home sewers may turn them into quilts.

In the thousands of years that humans have spent constructing clothing, they have created an astonishing array of styles, many of which we can reconstruct from surviving garments, photos, paintings, mosaics, etc., as well as from written descriptions. Costume history serves as a source of inspiration to current fashion designers, as well as a topic of professional interest to costumers constructing for plays, films, television, and historical reenactment.

Fur:

The use of animal fur in clothing dates to prehistoric times. It is currently associated in developed countries with expensive, designer clothing, although fur is still used by indigenous people in arctic zones and higher elevations for its warmth and protection. Once uncontroversial, it has recently been the focus of campaigns on the grounds that campaigners consider it cruel and unnecessary. PETA, along with other animal rights and animal liberation groups have called attention to fur farming and other practices they consider cruel.

Sport and activity:

Most sports and physical activities are practiced wearing special clothing, for practical, comfort or safety reasons. Common sportswear garments include short pants, T-shirts, tennis shirts, tracksuits, and trainers. Specialized garments include wet suits (for swimming, diving or surfing), salopettes (for skiing) and leotards (for gymnastics). Also, spandex materials are often used as base layers to soak up sweat. Spandex is also preferable for active sports that require form fitting garments, such as wrestling, track & field, dance, gymnastics and swimming.

Clothing maintenance:

Clothing suffers assault both from within and without. The human body sheds skin cells and body oils, and exudes sweat, urine, and feces. From the outside, sun damage, moisture, abrasion and dirt assault garments. Fleas and lice may hide in seams. Worn clothing, if not cleaned and refurbished, will itch, look scruffy, and lose functionality (as when buttons fall off and zippers fail).

In some cases, people wear an item of clothing until it falls apart. Cleaning leather presents difficulties, and bark cloth (tapa) cannot be washed without dissolving it. Owners may patch tears and rips, and brush off surface dirt, but old leather and bark clothing will always look old.

But most clothing consists of cloth, and most cloth can be laundered and mended (patching, darning, but compare felt).

Laundry, ironing, storage:

Humans have developed many specialized methods for laundering, ranging from early methods of pounding clothes against rocks in running streams, to the latest in electronic washing machines and dry cleaning (dissolving dirt in solvents other than water). Hot water washing (boiling), chemical cleaning and ironing are all traditional methods of sterilizing fabrics for hygiene purposes.

Many kinds of clothing are designed to be ironed before they are worn to remove wrinkles. Most modern formal and semi-formal clothing is in this category (for example, dress shirts and suits). Ironed clothes are believed to look clean, fresh, and neat. Much contemporary casual clothing is made of knit materials that do not readily wrinkle, and do not require ironing. Some clothing is permanent press, having been treated with a coating (such as polytetrafluoroethylene) that suppresses wrinkles and creates a smooth appearance without ironing.

Once clothes have been laundered and possibly ironed, they are usually hung on clothes hangers or folded, to keep them fresh until they are worn. Clothes are folded to allow them to be stored compactly, to prevent creasing, to preserve creases or to present them in a more pleasing manner, for instance when they are put on sale in stores.

Many kinds of clothes are folded before they are put in suitcases as preparation for travel. Other clothes, such as suits, may be hung up in special garment bags, or rolled rather than folded. Many people use their clothing as packing material around fragile items that might otherwise break in transit.

Mending:

In past times, mending was an art. A meticulous tailor or seamstress could mend rips with thread raveled from hems and seam edges so skillfully that the darn was practically invisible. When the raw material — cloth — was worth more than labor, it made sense to expend labor in saving it. Today clothing is considered a consumable item. Mass-manufactured clothing is less expensive than the labor required to repair it. Many people will buy a new piece of clothing rather than expend time mending. The thrifty still replace zippers and buttons and sew up ripped hems.

Preparing Warp and Weft for Weaving

Preparing Warp and Weft for Weaving:

The power loom is only one of a series of machines which revolutionized weaving. Although early inventors of the power loom did much to perfect its various movements, the commercial results were disappointing, chiefly because means had not been devised for preparing warp and weft in a suitable manner for such a machine. William Radcliffe, of Stockport, perceived these shortcomings, and concluded that, by division of labour, weaving could be brought into line with, the then recently invented, spinning machinery. He, therefore, set himself the task of solving the problems involved, and by inventing the beam warper, the dressing sizing machine, the shuttle tongue, and the pin cop, he enabled the power loom to become a factor in the textile industry. The term preparation embraces winding, warping, sizing, Yorkshire dressing, drawing-in, twisting and occasionally other operations.

Weft Winding:

Weft yarns invariably receive simpler treatment than warp yarns; in many cases none at all. Cops and ring spools pass direct to the loom unless their dimensions are unsuited to the shuttles, in which case they, together with wefts bleached or dyed in hanks or used in a saturated condition, require winding upon pirns, or into cops of suitable sizes. Pirn winders differ greatly in construction, but the majority are furnished with conical shapers, consisting either of slip cups, or of cone rollers mounted upon studs. A pirn, whose head is coned to fit inside a shaper, is slipped over a spindle, and both are passed, either vertically or horizontally, through a shaper; the basal end of the spindle being flattened to enter a rectangular hole in a wharve which is driven from a central tin drum. A thread is attached to a rotating pirn, and a vibrating guider leads it to and fro inside the shaper. Both spindle and pirn recede from the shaper until the pirn is full, when they become stationary. Hanks are carried by ryces, and cops and ring spools by skewers. Cop winders are chiefly used for coarse yarns, which they coil upon bare spindles. By this means a greater length of weft can be placed in a shuttle than when pirns are used.

Warping:

The number of longitudinal threads in a web vary according to their closeness and its breadth. It is the function of a warper to provide a sufficient number of parallel threads for a web, all of equal length, and to retain their parallelism. Warpers are of three types, viz. mill, beam and sectional.

Mill warping is the oldest type now in extensive use. A mill warper has a creel in which from so to upwards of 300 bobbins or cheeses, are supported horizontally upon pegs, and the mill has a vertical axis which carries three wheels, upon whose rims vertical staves are fixed about 1 ft. apart to form a reel, from 5 to upwards of 20 yds. in circumference. The threads from the creel are threaded in succession through leasing needles, then passed in groups of four to twenty threads between runners, and, finally, fastened by a peg to the mill staves. The needles are mounted alternately in two frames which may be moved up inclined planes; one to elevate odd threads, the other even ones, and both separations thus formed are retained upon separate pegs; this is the lease which enables a weaver to readily fix the position of a broken thread. As the mill rotates the threads form a tape about I in. wide, and the leasing apparatus slides down a post to coil the threads spirally upon the reel. When the full length of warp has been made the mill is stopped, a half beer lease is picked by hand from the divisions formed by the runners, and also retained upon pegs. The mill next reverses its direction of rotation, and as the leasing apparatus ascends the threads are folded back upon themselves. Hence, if a reel is 20 yds. in circumference, and zoo threads are in use to make a warp 600 yds. long, and containing 2000 threads, the reel will make 30 revolutions (600 4-20 =30) also 10 reversals, for at each reversal 200 additional threads will be added (2000 +200 = 10). When a warp is complete, strings are passed through the leases, and it is coiled into a ball, loosely linked into a chain, or dropped into a sheet. If a mill has its axis horizontal the leasing apparatus must slide horizontally.

Winding on Frame. - After a ball warp has been bleached, dyed or sized, the half beers are laid amongst the teeth of a coarse comb to open out the threads to the necessary breadth, in which condition they are coiled upon a loom beam.

Beam warping is the system most extensively used in the cotton trade. The creels for these machines have an average capacity of about 600 bobbins, and are often V-shaped in plan. In each leg of the V the bobbins are arranged in tiers of 16 to 20, and row behind row. The threads are drawn separately between the dents of an adjustable reed, then under and over a series of rollers; from here they are dropped amongst the teeth of an adjustable comb and led down to a warpers beam, which rests upon the surface of a drum. As the drum rotates the threads are drawn from the bobbins and wrapped in even coils upon the beam. On most of these machines mechanism is attached for arresting motion on the fracture of a thread, and also for accurately measuring and recording the lengths of warp made. When full, a warpers beam holds threads of much greater length than are needed for any warp, but they are insufficient in number. Thus: If 500 threads are in use, and warps of the above-named particulars are required, four similar beams must be filled (2000 + 500 = 4) and the threads from all are subsequently united. The chief parts of a beam warper may be used as a substitute for a mill warper, provided that mechanism be employed to contract the threads to the form of a loose rope and coil them into a cylindrical ball, which will be subsequently treated as a mill warp. Or, one of these warpers may be furnished with parts which, when the threads are roped, links them loosely into a chain.

Sectional warping is chiefly employed for coloured threads and its outstanding features consist in contracting the threads to form a ribbon of from 3 in. to 12 in. wide. This ribbon is coiled upon a block placed between flanges, and when completed is set aside until a sufficient number of similar sections have been made; after which they are slipped upon a shaft and by endlong pressure con - verted into a compact mass. All the threads are then collected and transferred in the form of a sheet to a loom beam; each section contributing its own width to that of the warp. Sectional warps are also made upon horizontal mills by superposing the coils of a ,ibbon of yarn upon a portion of the staves. When the first section is formed a second is wound against it, and the operation continued until all the sections have been made; after which the yarn is run upon a loom beam.

Yorkshire dressing is used to make striped warps from balled warps which have been dyed in different colours. The operation is as follows: The requisite number of threads of any colour is split from a uniformly dyed ball and set aside until warps of the remaining colours have been similarly treated. The split sections from the several balls collectively contain as many threads as are needed for a warp, but those threads have still to be placed in their proper sequence. This is done by drawing them in groups of two or four between the dents of a reed to a predetermined colour scheme, then all are attached to a loom beam which is supported in a frame. The beam is rotated by stepped cones and gearing, and winds the threads upon itself. But in order to hold the threads taut they are passed between weighted rollers and deflected by bars arranged ladder - wise; in passing from one part of the machine to another they are gradually opened out to the width of the beam.

Sizing:

In cases where single yarns are made from short fibrous materials, smooth surfaces are obtained by laying the outstanding ends of fibres upon the thread, and fastening the fibres together to impart sufficient strength to resist the strains of weaving. This is accomplished either by coating a thread or by saturating it with an adhesive paste. In hand-loom days the paste was applied by brushes to successive stretches of warp while in a loom. But with the advent of mechanical weaving it was found necessary to size a warp before placing it in a loom. Two systems were evolved, the one invented by William Radcliffe sizes, dries and beams a warp in one operation, the yarn is made to pass in the form of a sheet between a pair of rollers, the lower one being partly immersed in warm size. In rotating this roller carries upon its surface a film of size which it deposits upon the threads, while, by pr,essure, the upper roller distributes the size evenly. Brushes acting automatically smooth down the loose fibres and complete the distribution of size. As the yarn advances it is separated by reeds and lease rods, so that in passing over steam chests and fans the moisture contained in the threads may be quickly evaporated. This machine is a duplex one, for the warpers beams are divided into two sets and placed at opposite ends of the machine. Both halves receive similar treatment as they move to the centre, where the loom beam is placed.

The Ball Warp Sizer. - While efforts were being made to perfect Radcliffe's dressing machine a system of sizing ball warps was being gradually evolved and this system is still largely employed. The machine consists of a long trough, inside which a series of rollers are fitted, either in one horizontal plane or alternately in two horizontal planes; but over the front end of the trough a pair of squeezing rollers are mounted. The trough contains size, which is maintained at a boiling temperature and in sufficient quantity to submerge the rollers. Two warps, in the form of loose tapes, may be simultaneously led over, under and between the rollers. As the warps advance the threads become saturated with size, and the squeezing rollers press out all but a predetermined percentage, the latter being regulated by varying the pressure of the upper roller upon the lower one. If more size be required than can be put into the threads during one passage through the machine, they may be similarly treated a second time. This process does not lay all the loose fibres, but the threads remain elastic. After sizing, the warps are passed backward and forward, and over and under, a set of steam-heated cylinders by which the moisture contained in the threads is evaporated; they are next either reballed, or wound upon a loom beam.

Slasher Sizing:

For sizing cotton yarns Radcliffe's dressing machine has to a large extent been displaced by the slasher, but in some branches of the textile industry it is still retained under various modifications. In a slasher the threads from a number of warping beams are first combined into one sheet, then plunged into a trough filled ' with size which is kept at a boiling temperature by perforated steam pipes; and next squeezed between two pairs of rollers mounted in the trough. The under surfaces of the sizing rollers are in the size, but the upper squeezing rollers are covered with flannel, and rest by gravitation upon the lower ones. On leaving the size trough the sheet of yarn almost encircles two steam-heated cylinders whose diameters are respectively about 6 ft. and 4 ft.; these quickly expel moisture from the yarn, but so much heat is generated that fans have to be employed to throw cool air` amongst the threads. The yarn is next measured, passed above and below rods which separate threads that have been fastened together by size, smeared with piece marks, and coiled upon a loom beam by means of a slipping friction gear. The last-named is employed so that the surface speed of winding shall not be affected by the increasing diameter of the loom beam. By means of mechanism which greatly reduces the velocities of the moving parts, much necessary labour may be performed without actually stopping the machine; this relieves the yarn of strain, and gives better sizing, yet slashed warps are less elastic than dressed, or balled sized ones, and they lack the smoothness of dressed warps.

Hank sizing is chiefly, but not exclusively, employed for bleached and coloured yarns. Machines for doing this work consist of a tank which contains size, flanged revolving rollers and two hooks. One hook is made to rotate a definite number of times in one direction, then an equal number the reverse way; the other has a weight suspended from its outer end and can be made to slide in and out. Size in the tank is kept at the required temperature by steam pipes, and " doles " of hanks are suspended from the rollers with about one-third their length immersed in size. As the hanks rotate all parts of the yarn enter the size, and when sufficiently treated they are removed from the rollers to the hooks where they are twisted to wring out excess, and force in required size. If sufficient size has not been added by one treatment, when untwisted, the wrung-out hanks are passed to a similar machine containing paste of greater density than the first there to be again treated; if necessary this may be followed by a third passage. On the completion of sizing the hanks are removed either to a drying stove or a drying machine. If to the former, they are suspended from fixed, horizontal poles in a specially heated and ventilated chamber. If to the latter, loose poles containing hanks are dropped into recesses in endless chains, and slowly carried through a large, heated and ventilated box, being partially rotated the while. On reaching the front of the box they are removed, brushed and made up into bundles. After which the yarn is wound, warped and transferred to a loom beam.

Drawing-in, or entering, is the operation of passing warp threads through the eyes of a shedding harness, in a sequence determined by the nature of the pattern to be produced, and the order of lifting the several parts. It is effected by passing a hook through each harness eye in succession, and each time a thread is placed in the hook by an attendant, it is drawn into an eye by the withdrawal of the hook.

Twisting or looming consists in twisting, between the finger and thumb, the ends of a new warp separately upon those of an old one, the remains of which are still in the eyes of the shedding harness. The twisted portions adhere sufficiently to permit of all being drawn through the eyes simultaneously.

The Power Loom. - Little is known of the attempts made before the beginning of the 17th century to control all parts of a loom from one centre, but it is certain the practical outcome was inconsiderable. In the year 1661, a loom was set up in Danzig, for which a claim was made that it could weave four or six webs at a time without human aid, and be worked night and day; this was probably a ribbon loom. In order to prevent such a machine from injuring the poor people, the authorities in Poland suppressed it, and privately strangled or drowned the inventor. M. de Gennes, a French naval officer, in 1678 invented a machine whose chief features consisted in controlling the healds by cams, the batten by cams and springs and the shuttle by a carrier. From 1678 to 1745 little of importance appears to have been done for the mechanical weaving of broadcloth. But in the last-named year M. Vaucanson constructed a very ingenious, self - acting loom, on which the forerunner of the Jacquard machine was mounted; he also adopted de Gennes's shuttle carrier. All early attempts to employ mechanical motive power for weaving failed, largely because inventors did not realize that success could only be reached through revolution. Mechanical preparing and spinning machinery had first to be invented, steam was needed for motive power, and the industry required reorganization, which included the abolition of home labour and the introduction of the factory system.

During the last quarter of the 18th century it was generally believed that, on the expiry of Arkwright's patents, so many spinning mills would be erected as to render it impossible to consume at home the yarns thus produced, and to export them would destroy the weaving industry. Many manufacturers also maintained it to be impossible to devise machinery which would bring the production of cloth up to that of yarn. It was as a protest against the last-named assertions that Dr Edmund Cartwright, a clergyman of the church of England, turned his attention to mechanical weaving. More fortunate than his predecessors, he attacked the problem after much initial work had been done, especially that relating to mechanical spinning and the factory system, for without these no power loom could succeed. In 1785 Dr Cartwright patented his first power loom, but it proved to be valueless. In the following year, however, he patented another loom which has served as the model for later in - ventors to work upon. He was conscious that for a mechanically driven loom to become a commercial success, either one person would have to attend several machines, or each machine must have a greater productive capacity than one manually controlled. The thought and ingenuity bestowed by Dr Cartwright upon the realization of his ideal were remarkable. He added parts which no loom, whether worked manually or mechanically, had previously been provided with, namely, a positive let-off motion, warp and weft stop motions, and sizing the warp while the loom was in action. With this machine he commenced, at Doncaster, to manufacture fabrics, and by so doing discovered many of its shortcomings, and these he attempted to remedy: by introducing a crank and eccentrical wheels to actuate the batten differentially; by improving the picking mechanism; by a device for stopping the loom when a shuttle failed to enter a shuttle box; by preventing a shuttle from rebounding when in a box; and by stretching the cloth with temples that acted automatically. In 1792 Dr Cartwright obtained his last patent for weaving machinery; this provided the loom with multiple shuttle boxes for weaving checks and cross stripes. But all his efforts were unavailing; it became apparent that no mechanism, however perfect, could succeed so long as warps continued to be sized while a loom was stationary. His plans for sizing them while a loom was in operation, and also before being placed in a loom, both failed. Still, provided continuity of action could be attained, the position of the power loom was assured, and means for the attainment of this end were supplied in 1803, by William Radcliffe, and his assistant Thomas Johnson, by their inventions of the beam warper, and the dressing sizing machine.

For upwards of thirty years the power loom was worked under numerous difficulties; the mechanism was imperfect, as were also organization, and the preparatory processes. Textile workers were unused to automatic machinery, and many who had been accustomed to labour in their own homes refused employment in mills, owing to dislike of the factory system and the long hours of toil which it entailed, that spinners and manufacturers were compelled to procure assistants from workhouses; this rendered mill life more distasteful than it otherwise would have been to hand spinners and weavers. Their resentment led them to destroy machinery, to burn down mills, to ill-use mill workers and to blame the power loom for the distress occasioned by war and political disturbances. Yet improvements in every branch of the textile industry followed each other in quick successions, and the loom slowly assumed its present shape. By using iron instead of wood in its construction, and centring the batten, or slay, below instead of above the warp line, the power loom became more compact than the hand-loom.

Motion is communicated to all the working parts from a main shaft A (fig. 28), upon which two cranks are bent to cause the slay B to oscillate; by toothed wheels this shaft, drives a second shaft, C, at half its own speed. For plain weaving four tappets are fixed upon the second shaft, two, D, for moving the shuttle to and fro, and two others, E, for moving the healds, L, up and down through the medium of treadles M, M. For other schemes of weaving shedding tappets are more numerous, and are either loosely mounted upon the second shaft, or fixed upon a separate one. In either event FIG. 28. - Vertical Section of a Power Loom.

they are driven by additional gearing, for the revolutions of the tappets to those of the crank shaft must be as one is to the number of picks in the repeat of the pattern to be woven. Also, when two or more shuttles are driven successively from the same side of a loom, if the picking tappets rotate with the second shaft, those tappets must be free to slide axially in order to keep one out of action so long as the other is required to act. The warp beam F is often put under the control of chains instead of ropes, as used in hand looms, and the chains are attached to adjustably weighted levers, G, whereby the effectiveness of the weights may be varied at pleasure. In the manufacture of heavy fabrics, however, it may be necessary to deliver the warp by positive gearing, which is either connected, or otherwise, to the taking-up motion. The cloth is drawn forward regularly as it is manufactured by passing it over the rough surface of a roller, I, and imparting to the roller an intermittent motion each time a pick of weft is beaten home. This motion is derived from the oscillating slay, and is communicated through a train of wheels. The loom is stopped when the weft fails by a fork-and-grid stop motion, which depends for its action on the lightly balanced prongs of a fork, N. These prongs come in contact with the weft, between the selvage of the web and the shuttle box each time the shuttle is shot to the side at which the apparatus is fixed. If the prongs meet no thread they are not depressed, and being unmoved a connexion is formed with a vibrating lever, J; the latter draws the fork forward, and with it a second lever 0, by which the loom is stopped. On the other hand, if the prongs are tilted, the loom continues in action. If more than one shuttle is used it may be necessary to feel for each, instead of alternate threads of weft. In such cases a fork is placed beneath the centre of the cloth and lifted above a moving shuttle; if in falling it meets with weft it is arrested, and the loom continues in motion, but if the weft is absent the prongs fall far enough beneath the shuttle race for a stop to act upon a lever and bring the loom to a stand. To prevent a complete wreck of the warp it is essential to arrest the loom when a shuttle fails to reach its appointed box. For this purpose there are two devices, which are known respectively as fast and loose reed stop motions. The first was invented in 1796 by Robert Miller, and its action depends upon the shuttle, as it enters a box, raising two blades, K, which if left down would strike against stops, and so disengage the driving gear. The second was invented in 1834 by W. H. Hornby and William Kenworthy; i; it is an appliance for liberating the lower part of a reed when a shuttle remains in the warp, thus relieving it, for the time being, of its function of beating up the weft. On the release of a reed from the motion of the slay, a dagger stops the loom. Temples must keep a fabric distended to the breadth of the warp in the reed, and be selfadjusting. This is usually accomplished by small rollers whose surfaces are covered with fine, closely set points. The rollers are placed near the selvages of a web which is prevented from contracting widthwise by being drawn tightly over the points.

Looms are varied in details to suit different kinds of work, but as a rule fabrics figured with small patterns are provided with healds for shedding as at L, while those with large patterns are provided with the Jacquard and its harness. Healds may be operated either by tappets or dobbies, but the range of usefulness in tappets is generally reached with twelve shafts of healds and with patterns having sixteen picks to a repeat; where they are unsuitable for heald shedding a dobby is used. A dobby may resemble, in con - struction and action, a small Jacquard; if so the selection of healds that rise and fall for any pick is made by cards. In other types of dobbies the selection is frequently made by lags, into which pegs are inserted to pattern in the same manner that cards are perforated. By acting upon levers the pegs bring corresponding hooks into contact with oscillating grille bars, and these lift the required heald shafts. Such machines are made single and double acting, and some have rollers in place of pegs to form a pattern. When multiple shuttles are required for power looms one of two types is selected, namely, drop or rotating boxes; the former are applicable to either light or heavy looms, but the latter are chiefly confined to light looms. As previously stated, Robert Kay invented drop boxes in 1760, but they were not successfully applied to the power loom until 1845, when Squire Diggle patented a simple device for operating them automatically. Since his time many other methods have been introduced, the most successful of these being operated indirectly from the shedding motion. Revolving boxes were patented in 1843 by Luke Smith. They consist in mounting a series of shuttles in chambers formed in the periphery of a cylinder, and in moving the cylinder far enough, in each direction, to bring the required shuttle in line with the picker.

Automatic Weft Supply:

Many devices have been added to power looms with a view to reduce stoppages, amongst which those for the automatic supply of weft are probably the most important. These efforts originated with Charles Parker, who, in 1840, obtained the first patent, but no marked success was achieved until 1894, when J. H. Northrop patented a cop changer. By his plan a cylindrical hopper, placed over one shuttle box, is charged with cops or pirns. At the instant fresh weft becomes necessary the lowest cop in the hopper is pressed into a shuttle from above, the spent one is pressed out from beneath, and the new weft is led into the shuttle eye, while the loom is moving at its normal speed. The mechanism is controlled by the weft fork, or by a feeler which acts when only a predetermined quantity of weft remains inside a shuttle. Many inventions are designed to eject an empty shuttle and intro - duce a full one; others change a cop, but differ in construction and action from the Northrop, yet, at the time of writing, they have not been so successful as the last-named. By relieving a weaver of the labour of withdrawing, filling, threading and inserting shuttles it was seen that a large increase might be made in the number of looms allotted to one weaver, provided suitable mechanism could be devised for stopping a loom on the failure of a warp thread.

Warp Stopping Motions date from 1786, when Dr Cartwright suspended an independent detector from each warp thread until a fracture occurred, at which time a detector fell into the path of a vibrator and the loom was arrested. The demand for warp stop motions was, however, small until automatic weft supply mechanisms were adopted. The majority of those devices now in use are con - structed upon Dr Cartwright's lines, but some are so attached to wire healds that, at one position in every shed, an unbroken thread supports both heald and detector until a thread fails, when a de - tector is engaged by a vibrator, and the driving mechanism is dis - located. In other warp stop motions pairs of threads are crossed between the lease rods, and a wire passed between them is held forward by the crossed threads until one breaks; the wire then springs back, makes contact with a metal bar, and electro-mechanical connexions stop the loom.

Smallware Looms:

A loom, which was for a long period operated manually, but to which mechanical power could be applied, was brought into use more than a century before Dr Cartwright's in - vention. It was known as the Dutch engine loom, and was designed to weave from eight to upwards of forty tapes or ribbons simultane - ously. This machine may be regarded as a series of looms mounted in one frame, each having a complete set of parts, and as the first practical effort to connect and control all the motions of weaving from one centre. The place and date of its invention are uncertain; but it is known that in some districts its use was entirely prohibited, in others it was strictly limited, and that it was worked in Holland about 1620. In England the first patent was obtained by John Kay and John Snell, in 1745, for additions which enabled it to be worked by hand, by water, or other force, and in 1760 John Snell appears to have added the draw harness for weaving flowered ribbons. In 1765 a factory in Manchester was filled with ribbon looms which were either invented by M. Vaucanson, or Kay and Snell, but one weaver could only attend to one machine. When worked by hand it was known as the bar loom, because the weaver oscillated by hand a horizontal bar that set in motion all parts of the machine. The shuttles and reeds are actuated from the batten, the former originally by pegs, but later by a rack and pinion arrangement, which in action shoot the shuttles simultaneously across a web, to the right and left alternately, each into the place vacated by its next neighbour. One small warp beam is required for each web, but tappets, dobbies, or Jacquards are available for dividing the threads. Where differ - ently coloured wefts are needed in one web the shuttles are mounted in tiers and all raised or lowered at once to bring the proper colour in line with the shed.

In Swivel Weaving similar shuttles are added to the battens of broad looms in order to diaper small figure effects, in different colours or materials, over the surface of broad webs.

Pile Weaving. - Looms for weaving piled fabrics differ in certain important respects from those employed for ordinary weaving; they are also made to differ from each other to suit the type of fabric to be manufactured, as, for example, double and single, plain and figured, textures.

In Double Pile Looms the special features are those that control the pile threads, and those that sever the vertical lines of pile. Two ground warps are requisite, and unless they are kept a uniform distance apart the piled effects will be irregular. For plain goods the pile threads are wound upon two or more beams, and, as they move from web to web, cloth-covered rollers deliver them in fixed lengths. Meanwhile, a shuttle passes twice in succession through each ground warp, and the pile threads in moving above or beneath the wefts are bound securely. Both fabrics are furnished with taking-up rollers which draw the pieces apart and so stretch the uniting pile in front of a knife, which severs it, thus forming two pieces at once. A knife may consist of a short blade that merely moves to and fro across the webs, or of a disk mounted upon a spindle, which, in moving from side to side, revolves; in either case it is automatically sharpened. But if a knife is longer than the breadth of a fabric it receives only a slight lateral movement, and must be periodically removed for sharpening. In plain and printed goods healds control all the warps; but in figured goods, other than those made from printed warps, a Jacquard is needed to lift, and a creel to hold, the pile threads.

Single Pile Looms:

The chief feature which renders most single pile looms dissimilar from others is the mechanism by which wires are woven upon, and withdrawn automatically from, a ground texture. Wires are of two kinds, namely, without and with knives; the former, being flattened and somewhat pointed, are woven above the weft of a ground texture, but beneath the pile, hence, by with - drawing them, looped pile is formed. A wire terminating in a knife with a sloping blade, on being withdrawn, cuts the pile and produces a brush-like surface. The mechanism for operating the wires is placed at one end of a loom and consists of an arm which moves in and out; at each inward movement a wire is inserted, and at each outward movement one is withdrawn. In weaving tapestry carpets, and certain other fabrics, a wire and a shuttle move simultaneously, but a shuttle passes through the ground warp, while a wire passes beneath the pile. After several wires have been woven upon the ground texture the one first inserted is withdrawn by the vibrating arm, and at the next inward movement the same wire enters the warp near the reed, where it is beaten up with the weft, and, from this point, the operation is continuous. Tapestry carpets require three warps, one for the ground texture, a second, or stuffing warp, to give bulk and elasticity to the tread, and a third to form the pile. The last named is printed upon a large drum, thread by thread to the colour scheme of the design, then, when the colours have been fixed, and the threads accurately placed, they are wound upon a beam, and all the warps are operated by healds. For figured velvets, and Brussels and Wilton carpets, the pile warp beam is replaced by a creel, in order that each thread of pile may be wound upon a bobbin and separately tensioned. This is essential, because, in the weaving of a design, it is probable that no two threads of pile will be required in equal lengths. Creels are made in sections called frames, each of which usually carries as many bobbins as there are loops of pile across a web, and the number of sections equal the number of colours. In weaving these fabrics healds are used to govern the ground warp, but a Jacquard is needed for the pile. It must form two sheds, the lower one to receive a shuttle, the upper one to make a selection of threads beneath which the wire is to pass.

Terry Looms:

Looms for weaving piled textures, of the Turkish towel type, have the reed placed under the control of parts that prevent it from advancing its full distance for two picks out of every as those of the present day, with dragons, phoenixes, mystical bird forms, flowers and fruits.' At that time even Egypt, Assyria or Babylonia, Greece and Rome, seem to have been only learning of the fact that there was such a material as silk.' Their shuttle-weaving had been and was then concerned with spun wool and flax and possibly some cotton, whilst the ornamentation of their textiles, although sparkling on occasion with golden threads, was done apparently not by shuttle-weaving but by either embroidery or a sort of compromise between darning and weaving from which tapestry weaving descended (see Tapestry). The range of their colours was limited, reds, purples and yellows being the chief; and their shuttle-weaving was principally concerned with plain stuffs, and in a much smaller degree with striped, spotted and chequered fabrics. Remains of these, whether made by Egyptians thousands of years B.C., by Scandinavians of the early Bronze Age, by lake dwellers, by Aztecs or Peruvians long before the Spanish Conquest, display little if any technical difference when compared with those woven by nomads in Asia, hill tribes in India and natives in Central Africa and islands of the Pacific. Such ornamental effect as is seen in them depends upon the repetition of stripes or very simple crossing forms, still this principle of repetition is a prominent factor in more intricate designs which are shuttlewoven in broad looms and lengths of stuff.

The world's apparent indebtedness to the Chinese for knowledge of figured shuttle-weaving leads to some consideration of their early overland commerce westwards. About 200 B.C. during the Han Dynasty Chinese trade had extended beyond inner Asia to the confines of the Graeco-Parthian empire, then at its zenith, and the protection of the route by which the Seres (Chinese) sent their merchandise was fully recognized as a matter of importance. Seventy years later the emperor of China sent a certain Chang Kien on a mission to the Indo-Scythians; and according to his records the people as far west as Bactria (adjacent to the Graeco-Parthian territory) were knowing traders, and amongst other things under - stood the preparation of silk. Chinese weavings had for some time been coming into Persia, and doubtless instigated the more skilled weavers there to adapt their shuttle looms in course of time to the. weaving of stuffs with greater variety of effects than had been hitherto obtained by them; and into Persian designs were intro - duced details taken not only from Chinese textiles, but also from sculptured, embroidered and other ornament of Graeco-Parthian and earlier Babylonian styles. In A.D. 97 Chinese enterprise in still furthering their trade relations with the Far West is at least sug - gested by the fact that envoys from the emperor of China to Rome actually reached the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, but turned back frightened by the Parthian accounts of the terrors of the sea voyage.

Early in the 3rd century A.D. Heliogabalus is reputed to have been amongst the first of the Roman emperors to wear garments entirely of silk (holosericum), which, if figured (as is not unlikely), were probably of Syrian or Persian manufacture. Sidonius Apollinaris (5th century) writes of Persian patterned stuffs, - " Bring forth brilliant cushions and stuffs on which, produced by a miracle of art, we behold the fierce Parthian with his head turned back on a prancing steed; now escaping, now returning to hurl his spear, by turns fleeing from and putting to flight wild animals whom he pursues " - a description quite appropriate to such silk weaving as that in fig. 33. A number of kindred pieces have been recovered of late years from Egyptian burial-places of the Roman period. The Persians of the Sassanian dynasty (3rd to 7th century) traded in silks with Romans and Byzantines; King Chosroes (about 570) encouraged the trade, and ornamental weaving seems to have been an industry of some standing at Bagdad and other towns north, east and south, e.g. Hamadan, Kazvin Kashan, Yezd Persepolis, &c. To the north - west of Persia and north of Syria lay the Byzantine region of Anatolia (now Asia Minor), some towns in which became noted for their fine weavings: the mass of the population there was well off in the 6th century, the country highly cultivated and prosperous, and justice fairly administered,' thus affording favourable conditions for an industry like ornamental weaving, which had been and was prospering in neighbouring Syrian districts.

Preparation To Yarn Manufacture

Yarn:

Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, suitable for use in the production of textiles, sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery and ropemaking. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manufactured sewing threads may be finished with wax or other lubricants to withstand the stresses involved in sewing.Embroidery threads are yarns specifically designed for hand or machine embroidery.

Structure:

Spun yarn is made by twisting or otherwise bonding staple fibers together to make a cohesive thread.Twisting fibers into yarn in the process called spinning can be dated back to the Upper Paleolithic, and yarn spinning was one of the very first processes to be industrialized. Spun yarns may contain a single type of fiber, or be a blend of various types. Combining synthetic fibers (which have high strength, artificial lustre, and fire retardant qualities) with natural fibers (which have good water absorbance and skin comforting qualities) is very common. The most widely used blends are cotton-polyester and wool-acrylic fiber blends. Blends of different natural fibers are common too, especially with more expensive fibers such as angora and cashmere. Yarns are made up of a number of plies, each ply being a single spun yarn. These single plies of yarn are twisted in the opposite direction (plied) together to make a thicker yarn. Depending on the direction of this final twist, the yarn will be known as s-twist or z-twist. For a single ply, the direction of the final twist is the same as its original twist. Filament yarn consists of filament fibers twisted together. Thicker monofilaments are typically used for industrial purposes rather than fabric production or decoration. Silk is a natural filament, and synthetic filament yarns are used to produce silk-like effects. Texturized yarns are made by a process of air texturizing (sometimes referred to as taslanizing), which combines multiple filament yarns into a yarn with some of the characteristics of spun yarns.

Measurement:

Craft yarns:

Cat with a ball of mixed-color yarn. Spool of all purpose sewing thread, closeup shows texture of 2-ply Z-twist mercerized cotton with polyester core. Yarn drying after being dyed in the early American tradition, at Conner Prairie living history museum. Yarn quantities are usually measured by weight in ounces or grams. In the United States, Canada and Europe, balls of yarn for handcrafts are sold by weight. Common sizes include 25g, 50g, and 100g skeins. Some companies also primarily measure in ounces with common sizes being three-ounce, four-ounce, six-ounce, and eight-ounce skeins. These measurements are taken at a standard temperature and humidity, because yarn can absorb moisture from the air. The actual length of the yarn contained in a ball or skein can vary due to the inherent heaviness of the fiber and the thickness of the strand; for instance, a 50 g skein of lace weight mohair may contain several hundred meters, while a 50 g skein of bulky wool may contain only 60 meters. There are several thicknesses of yarn, also referred to as weight. This is not to be confused with the measurement of weight listed above. The Craft Yarn Council of America is making an effort to promote a standardized industry system for measuring this, numbering the weights from 1 (finest) to 6 (heaviest). Some of the names for the various weights of yarn from finest to thickest are called lace, fingering, sock, sport, double-knit (or DK), worsted, aran, bulky, and super-bulky. This naming convention is more descriptive than precise; fiber artists disagree about where on the continuum each lies, and the precise relationships between the sizes. A more precise measurement of yarn weight, often used by weavers, is wraps per inch (wpi). The yarn is wrapped snugly around a ruler and the number of wraps that fit in an inch are counted. Labels on yarn for handcrafts often include information on gauge, known in the UK as tension, which is a measurement of how many stitches and rows are produced per inch or per centimeter on a specified size of knitting needle or crochet hook. The proposed standardization uses a four-by-four inch/ten-by-ten centimeter knitted or crocheted square, with the resultant number of stitches across and rows high made by the suggested tools on the label to determine the gauge. In Europe textile engineers often use the unit tex, which is the weight in grams of a kilometer of yarn, or decitex, which is a finer measurement corresponding to the weight in grams of 10 kilometers of yarn. Many other units have been used over time by different industries.

Thread:

Most types of embroidery thread come in a single size or weight; an exception is pearl or perle cotton, which comes in three weights, No. 3 (heaviest), No. 5, and No. 8 (finest).

Color:

Yarn may be used undyed, or may be colored with natural or artificial dyes. Most yarns have a single uniform hue, but there is also a wide selection of variegated yarns: • heathered or tweed: yarn with flecks of different colored fiber • ombre: variegated yarn with light and dark shades of a single hue • multi-colored: variegated yarn with two or more distinct hues (a "parrot colorway" might have green, yellow and red) • self-striping: yarn dyed with lengths of color that will automatically create stripes in a knitted or crocheted object • marled: yarn made from strands of different-colored yarn twisted together, sometimes in closely-related hues

OBJECT OF GINNING:

The primary object of the ginning consists in separating the fibres from the seed, and a Perfect ginning operation would be Performed if the separation of fibres from seed was effected without the slightest injury to either seeds or to the fiber.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF GIN:

Previous to the introduction of Modern Machinery, ginning was performed by hand or by machines of a primitive character such as the "Foot Roller" and its improvement the "Churka". As the cotton industry developed, greater production than these were capable of was necessary, and machines driven by power were introduced. Numerous forms of gins have been tried, but at the present time only three are used to any large extent. They are 

1. KNIFE ROLLER GIN 

2. SAW GIN 

3. THREE TYPES OF MACARTHY GIN I. 

Single acting macarthy gin. ii. Double acting macarthy gin iii. Double roller macarthy gin. 

KNIFE ROLLER GIN: 

Object: To separate the fibres from seed The constructional detail of the machine is clearly shown in fig. The seed cotton is placed in bulk on the table. By means of the reciprocating motion of the table by the crank arrangement, the seed cotton comes into contact with knife roller (formed of a number of knife discs).