Cloth-looking.
The pieces are brought into the warehouse off the mill, by the weavers, and are hooked in folds of 1 yard. This operation is performed on the hooking or plaiting machine, a contrivance which requires little or no special description, as a few minutes’ examination of it will suffice to acquaint even a tyro with its construction and working. In some concerns the looking is done on this machine. Probably the cost is lessened and the cutlooker sees the whole of the piece (not missing one side of the “flue,” as not infrequently happens in the counter-looking), but the fact that the smaller faults are not all seen renders the advantages questionable, unless the cloth is afterwards counter-looked.
The cloth-looker’s duty is to examine each piece of cloth, reporting any fault to the person responsible, and throwing out as seconds the pieces which are not up to quality. The faults attributable to the weaving are:—