GAUZE HARNESS
In a true gauze harness the doups are connected with the mails or leashes of the harness, the harness twines, or leashes, acting as standards for the doups, so that any splitful of warp may be crossed or twisted differently from the others, and any kind of texture can be wrought along with the gauze without having to consider the one in connection with the other, as in the previous harness. Figs. 135 and 136 show how these harnesses are tied up; the letters refer to the same parts in both figures. The harness is shown with four cords in the row, for the back harness and the doup mail in front, and this could be repeated twice for an eight-row harness. It is better to have the rows of the harness regulated in this way to suit the gauze to be made, and have the doup leashes in one or two rows at the front, but it is not necessary for it to be so, as the doups could come on any of the mails through the harness, if desired, in case of a harness being tied up, and it being wanted to add the doup leashes for gauzing; but this is rather confusing. In any case, this method of working is now superseded.
Fig. 135
Fig. 136
A is the doup or dead leash, B the doup standard, or what answers to the doup standard in heald work. C and D are the leashes carrying the plain or lying threads, and E the leash carrying the crossing thread, the crossing in this case being one thread round two. F is the doup. [Fig. 136] shows the harness drawn for the open shed, and it will be observed that the dead leash A is connected with the back harness E, so that when this leash is raised to form the shed it draws up the dead leash, also relieving the doup. There was one trouble with these dead leashes—namely, that they were liable to twist round the standards when close to them in the cumber board, sometimes being put through the same hole or the next one; but by having them in front and a little distance off this could be avoided. Wires or cords were sometimes stretched across between the lingoes to prevent the twisting. [Fig. 135] shows the harness drawn for the cross shed, the doup standard being drawn up, drawing the doup up with it. The doup was fastened into the mails as shown at No. 1, [Fig. 135]; but a better plan is to have double-eyed mails, and fasten the doup as at No. 2. This form of harness is now superseded by one having all the doups on a shaft in front of the harness, which consists of two parts—namely, the back harness and the douping harness (which is about 3/4 in. to 1-1/2 in. in front of the former); the doups are connected with this latter harness, and all the doups may be on one shaft, whether for one, two, or more rows of standards in the front harness. The doups on the shaft are known as a ‘slip heald’ or ‘slip.’ This is a much simpler and more convenient method of working than the preceding.
[Fig. 137] shows a simple and effective gauze mounting for a 400 jacquard, the cords being carried up to the machine in the usual way. A is the breast beam of the loom, B the reed, C the back rail, and N the yarn beam. D is the slip heald, or doup, which is simply a half-leaf of ordinary clasped heddles, made of cotton or worsted, fine or coarse, as may be desired for the quality of work to be wrought. E is the front or doup mounting, connected with the two front rows of the machine, and passing through a small cumber board in front of that for the body of the harness; it is bolted so that it can be shifted to regulate the distance between the doup harness and that of the figuring. The distance between the two harnesses may range from 3/4 in. to 1-1/2 in., or whatever is found most suitable to ease the strain on the yarn and make a clear shed. G is the cumber board, and F the body of the harness for working the figure.
Fig. 137
The method of slackening the threads that are drawn into the doups is perhaps the principal feature of this mounting. When one or more slackening bars are used it is plain that all the threads that pass over the bar that is oscillated will be slackened at once, though for figured work it may be that only a very few of these threads should be slackened, and if the remainder or any portion of them are raised by the back leashes they should be kept tight at the back so as to enable them to draw up the slack doups. It follows, therefore, that for giving good work and keeping the threads at a regular tension, every thread in the doups should have its own independent slackener. It is not absolutely necessary that this should be so; strong twist cotton or worsted yarn will work very well in a harness with one slackening bar vibrating for each shot, though it must throw an irregular strain on the yarn, and it requires to be tightly paced.
In [Fig. 137] the slackening arrangement consists of a small back harness, as shown at I, through which all the whip threads are drawn; these threads then pass over one lease rod and under the next one, as shown, and then on to the harness to be drawn in according to the draught of the gauze. The harness consists of small mails attached to lingoes with twines in the same way as the lower portion of the ordinary harness is prepared, but the mails are rounded off above the eye or centre hole without having the top hole for threading the upper portion of the harness to. The cumber board of this harness must be nicely set, so that the lingoes will hang on the yarn without drawing the mails quite close on the cumber board, which soon would cut the twines. To regulate this the cumber board and back rail must be set in relation to each other and the mails of the harness so as to produce the desired effect. A medium position for working may be taken as follows:—Cumber board 12 in. behind harness and 6 in. in front of back rail. Back rail 2 in. above the level of the mails in the main harness, and cumber board of small back harness 3 in. below the level of the mails, or 5 in. lower than the top of the back rail. The back lease rod might then come in about 8 in. behind the harness. The weight of the lingoes on the back harness must be regulated to suit the strength of warp to be wrought; about 30 to 40 per lb. for, say, from 40/2 to 80/2 cotton would suit. The mails for the body of the harness may be 25’s or 30’s, or the same as for ordinary work, and those for the doup standards heavier, say 18’s or 20’s. In addition to this harness for slackening, or rather for keeping a yielding tension on the whip, there is a slackening bar supported by a lever K L M at both sides of the loom. This lever has its fulcrum at L, and is attached to the swords of the lay at M, and therefore vibrates at every beat up. The slackener acts as a positive motion, and keeps the threads from tightening up or being drawn forward by the twisting; it acts on the body of the threads, and the harness acts on them individually.
This, when properly set, is an easy motion, and produces a good firm gauze. It is a Bradford patent. Now, in reference to the working of the gauze: The harness is levelled much in the same way as for ordinary work, the mails being 1-1/2 in. or 1-3/4 in. below the level of the breast beam. The doup mails should be a little lower than those for the harness, say 3/16 in. or 1/4 in.
The shed should be closed, and begin to open again when the reed is at the fell of the cloth. Too large a shed should not be made with the doups, on account of the strain on the yarn: a small clear shed gives much more satisfactory work. The front cumber board, containing the doup leashes, may be shifted a little forward or back if thought desirable, so as to get the cross shed to spring as easily as possible, the amount of elasticity in the warp varying this considerably. The slip heald is raised for every shot by cording it to the brander or griffe of the jacquard, which for gauze work is generally a single-acting one. Springs are used for holding down the slip—a light wire spring, or, better, a piece of round indiarubber about 3/16 in. in diameter, doubled if necessary. Bridles should be attached from the shaft of the slip heald at each end and fastened to the cumber board so as to bear the draw of the springs when the harness is down; the cords connected with the jacquard for raising this shaft may then be left slack, and the size of shed may be regulated or made less than the draw of the machine, if required.
It is very important to have the doups nicely adjusted; on this depends their lasting capacity, and sometimes a very short time is sufficient to cut them to pieces if badly set. But if correctly done they will generally last for a length of time, particularly if occasionally turned on the shaft, which is more essential in working with a linen than with a cotton warp.
One of the doup standard mails with a doup through it is shown at No. 1 ([Fig. 138]), where it may be seen that the doup is simply drawn through the eye of the mail, and not connected with it in any way. It is only held in this position by the warp thread passing through it, and whenever the thread breaks the doup falls out of the mail. This is a trouble to the weaver, at least till she gets accustomed to it, and mails, as shown at No. 2, have been made to hold up the doup. The remedy here is often worse than the evil. The mails wear the doups, particularly if the springs draw them tight down on the eyes of the mails; and besides, they have the disadvantage that the slip heald has to be built in them after the harness is mounted, whereas with the open mails the slips can be procured anywhere quite independent of the harness. The slip heald must be set so that when the harness is down the yarn will not be drawn through the eyes of the mails by the doup sinking too low. This may be guarded against by adjusting the bridles at each side, between the slip shaft and the cumber board. The loops of the doups should pass about 1/4 in. through the eyes of the mails when at the lowest or bottom position, and the front mails being about 1/4 in. lower than the others allows the loops of the doups to be just bearing lightly on the warp, all being held up straight. The slackening bar must be arranged to work in time with the doup standards, and should not slacken the yarn too much nor too little, just keeping it at a uniform tension. The great point with tender or weak yarn is to reduce all friction to a minimum, no matter by what it is caused, and if this is done the yarn and doups, if they are of a fair quality to begin with, should both work well; but a very slight difference in setting the doup may make a great deal of difference in the working of it. A doup that may be cut to pieces in working 20 yards of cloth might work 400 or 500 yards with so little alteration as not to be noticeable to those not accustomed to the work. The slackening bar must not rise so high as to raise the yarn that is above it, nor must it sink so low as to press the whip down on the back harness board, and it must be so regulated that within these limits it will give the proper amount of slackening, and prevent the whip warp from getting tight and drawing up the small back harness.
Fig. 138
Worsted makes the best weaving doups for strong work, but for lighter work cotton is mostly used, being finer and cheaper. Sometimes polished linen yarn is used and makes a very smooth doup, but does not give the wear.
Small metallic rings are sometimes used on the loops of the doups, and the warp drawn through these rings; this suits for yarn with much fibre on it, as it keeps the fibre from getting twisted into the doups, but the rings cut the doups faster than ordinary yarn working in them would.
Instead of a slip heald in front, doups with a lingo on each have been used, with the mails for the standards as shown at No. 2, Fig. 138, so that the doups cannot fall out of them, and the yarn when drawn up by the back harness in shedding raises the doups and lingoes up with it. The weight of the lingoes must be such as will suit the strength of the warp to be used—not too heavy for it to lift nor too light, so that in the cross shed the doups would be drawn through the mails. These doups being separate, are easily built in the harness and very easily repaired by the weaver when they break, but they break too frequently. It is, of course, only for a strong warp that this method of working is suitable, and even for it, although it works very well, the principle is not good.
The gauze harness which will probably be most frequently met with, at least in the cotton trade, is shown in [Fig. 138]. It is an older harness than that described, having been patented in Macclesfield in 1876 in a somewhat different form. The difference between this and the preceding chiefly consists in the method adopted for slackening the yarn, and the jacquard may also be specially built to suit for this. In setting this loom the harness and mails are tied up and levelled as before, but when working the back rail is kept down, as it usually is for gauze work, say about 1/2 in. lower than the eyes of the mails. Each whip thread has its own slackener, the slackening apparatus consisting of a harness wrought either by the same jacquard that works the figure, or by an extra one, when much pattern is required.
The connections of the needles with the hooks are shown at A, the two bottom needles being connected with the two front and two back hooks, the former for working the gauze and the latter for working the slackeners. This harness is intended for a 1-round 3-gauze, and is mounted on a 10-row machine with an 8-row cylinder on it. It is not necessary that the back harness for slackening should be raised so high as the figuring harness is, and for this reason, as well as that it makes the harness more direct and avoids friction, it is tied to two sets of levers as shown at G and G1; they are made of brass and are fastened on two rods, one about 4 in. above the other, so as not to come into contact with each other when rising or falling. The points of the levers are fastened to the two back rows of hooks as shown, and the harness is tied to wire hooks on these levers; F is the neck of the harness, D the cumber board, and N the lingoes, which are much heavier than those used for the figuring harness, from 6 to 10 per pound being the weights frequently used, according to the class or weight of the work.
The mails used on the back harness are similar to those used for the doups—that is, such as are shown at No. 1 ([Fig. 138]); but if these cut with the warp sawing through them, glass mails should be used. L L1 are two rods or bars which support the warp that is drawn down between them by the slackening harness. The closer these bars are set together the greater will be the amount of slackening given to the warp when the harness is drawn; therefore these bars should be made to slide either way so that the desired slackness is obtained by setting them. About 3 in. to 4 in. apart is a good working width; the tops of the bars should be about 1 in. lower than the mails in the figuring harness, and the tops of the eyes of the mails in the back harness should be 1 in. or 1-1/4 in. lower than the rods.
Another method of arranging the needles in a jacquard for a gauze mounting is shown in [Fig. 139], which is, perhaps, more convenient for the designer, as will afterwards be seen. In this harness there are 10 rows of hooks, the same as before—6 for the figuring harness and 2 for the doup standards. The doup standards are here on the hooks connected with the fourth and eighth needles, and come after the threads that the whip in them twists round, and fall in this position on the design paper, instead of both being at the end of a design—that is, on the seventh and eighth checks. For any order of twisting, the arrangement of the hooks and needles might be made to suit on the same principle.
It will be seen that in the leno jacquard, shown in [Fig. 138], a number of levers and attachments are required to work the slackening harness. In order to simplify this, Messrs. Devoge & Co. have brought out a leno jacquard with which none of these levers, &c., are required, the slackening harness being tied to the two back rows of hooks in the machine. These two rows of hooks are lifted by a separate griffe, the lift of which is much less than that for working the body hooks of the machine, and which can be varied to suit the amount of slackening required. This machine is shown in [Fig. 140], a view of the motion for raising the griffes of both back and body harness being given in [Fig. 140a]. c d ([Fig. 140a]) is the link connection between the bar of the griffe a a and the top lever L ([Fig. 140]), somewhat similar to what is used for an ordinary jacquard. To raise the small griffe at the back, it will be seen that there is a cross lever e from the links d, c to its fulcrum h on a bracket g attached to the top of the machine. The small or back griffe b is connected to this lever by the link f. The amount of lift given to the small griffe in proportion to that given to the large one will be as the length of the lever from the stud in h to that in f is to its length from the stud in h to that in d. The farther the fulcrum is pushed back in the slot in which it is fastened, the more the back griffe will be raised, the link f being always vertical. The back griffe is arranged to commence lifting slightly in advance of the front one, in order to lessen the strain on the doups. The needles are connected with the back and front hooks in this machine similarly to those in [Fig. 138].
Fig. 139
The draft of a gauze in the harness is just the same as regards the doups as for shaft work; the crossing may be made from left to right, or the reverse, but the pattern must be made to suit. Some mount the harnesses and paint the patterns from right to left. About Bradford this appears to be the usual method, and it does not matter provided the mounting, drawing and designing be kept in accord; but here we shall keep to the same principle as is recognised all through—viz. mounting and designing from left to right, which is the correct method so far as drawing is concerned, and equally convenient in other respects.
Fig. 140
Fig. 140a
To design a pattern for gauze: if it is to be a simple geometrical pattern it may be put direct on the design paper; but if to be a figured pattern, a sketch should be prepared for it in the same manner as for ordinary figured patterns, whether for dress goods, curtains, or any other material. Any desired figuring can be made, providing sufficient space be left between the figures to admit of the open work being made. The figuring should be treated as the ornamentation of a plain or short twill ground figure, which is woven on a gauze ground; the figure may be entirely plain or twill upon a gauze ground, in which case it must be sufficiently plain and solid to be effective, or it may be treated as damask figuring on ornamental patches of plain or twill on a gauze ground; or, again, the gauze may form the figure and the ground be plain or twill. Any variety may be made that ingenuity can suggest, and figuring with extra warp or weft may also be adopted if desired. When about to put the pattern on design paper, it may be observed that out of the 8 rows of needles in the machine only 6 are used for figuring, the other 2 being employed for gauzing; therefore, some means must be devised for getting the pattern on the paper so as to suit this. The simplest plan is that adopted in America—viz. instead of using two rows of hooks along the jacquard for the doup standards, to leave as many hooks at the first of the machine as will correspond with the number of doup standards required for one repeat of the pattern. Suppose for the same ties as those given—100 hooks for the doups and 300 for the figure—then the cords from the first or last 100 hooks would be taken down through the two front rows of the cumber board, and those from the 300 hooks would make up the body of the harness. When mounting in this way, the jacquard would be better turned with the cards hanging over the side of the loom, as for the ‘London tie.’ This method of mounting enables the pattern to be designed for 300 hooks and painted on the design paper independently of the gauze, which can be filled in afterwards.
Fig. 141
[Fig. 141] is an example of designing in this manner, using 6 rows of hooks, to suit the gauze. The pattern is put on the rows of designs numbered 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. No. 3 is for the selvage, and the working of the doups is on Nos. 1 and 2. This is for a 1 round 2 gauze, 6 checks, or 2 splitfuls of gauze to the design; there would be 10 doups required for the 5 designs in the repeat of the pattern, and for these 10 checks are used of designs Nos. 1 and 2. The rising of the back leash of the harness to form the crossing is shown by the dots marked on the design, and as gauze is formed by raising this leash and the doup alternately, it is only necessary to take each line of the design paper for the doups, and, following up the markings for the back leashes, fill in for the doups to rise when the back leash is sunk for the gauze, taking care to keep clear of the figuring. In making gauze the doup should always rise immediately after the figuring ends, to form the first crossing, and it should also be up immediately before the next portion of the figuring begins, so that in an irregular figured pattern the gauze might frequently require to be broken to effect this, as may be seen in [Fig. 141]. Take the first upright line of the pattern, design No. 4: the back leash is raised for three, then the doup for three, and the figure follows. Passing on to the tenth line it will be seen that the doup rises for three after the figure, and is also up for three before the next figure begins; but, passing on to designs 7 and 8, it will be seen that the risings of the doup and back leash would not fall in regularly in threes against the figure, as it would be better if they did, and therefore the gauze is broken so as to fall in; but in small patterns of this description, when it is of importance to keep the outline of the figure as regular as possible, this can and should be remedied; instead of the outline of the figure running diagonally on the design paper in steps of one check, it should go in steps of as many checks as there are threads to the twist of the gauze in the warp and shots in each twist in the weft. This is shown in [Fig. 142], where all the twisting falls in regularly with the figure. This may to a great extent be carried out with irregular figures by the designer exercising a little judgment, and when filling in the gauze make up the plain edging of the figuring to fall in with it—that is, only to break the gauze where there is room to do it effectively, and where there is not, a few dots can be added to the plain. If Figs. 141 and 142 be compared, it may be seen how this could be done: examining designs 4 and 8 above the figures, the latter below as well; but [Fig. 142] shows the proper method of treating these small geometrical figures. Another point to be observed is whether all the doup leashes are to be raised together to form the gauze, or whether it is to be formed by raising every alternate doup leash and every alternate back leash, as is done in these figures. The latter method is preferable for working, as it makes an even tension on every shed, whereas if one shed is a full cross shed formed by the doups, and the reverse of this an open shed with no crossing, the cross shed will be the tighter, and produce a certain amount of plucking, with a tendency to shire in some patterns; but in case of working dices or any pattern where the top and bottom of the figure extend some distance straight across the design paper, it would be impossible for the first shed of the gauze to be formed by the doup if only every alternate doup leash was raised. Some judgment must therefore be exercised in these matters, and the best effect obtained that will suit circumstances.
Fig. 142
Now to put the patterns on design paper to suit the harness when the two front rows of the jacquard are used to work the doups, as in [Fig. 138], also when any other rows are used, as in [Fig. 139]: the simplest way to do this—at least, for those not well accustomed to the work—is to design them on 6-row paper, as [Fig. 142], and afterwards transfer them to 8-row paper, leaving the lines for the doups empty, the doup lines being afterwards filled in, as in Figs. 143 and 144. Fig. 144 has the advantage that each splitful of gauze stands alone, whereas when filling in the markings for the doups in [Fig. 144], two splitfuls stand together; but a little practice makes one method as simple as the other. The dots represent the markings for the doups, and the shaded squares those for raising the back leashes to form the open shed of the gauze. The transferring of the designs from one sheet of design paper to another is, of course, a matter of trouble and expense, and may be avoided if an experienced card-cutter is to cut the cards. The design need not be transferred, but have the marks for raising the doups put on the same lines of the design paper as those for raising the back leashes for the open shed. This is shown in [Fig. 145], the shaded squares being the same as in Figs. 143 and 144; but the dots, instead of being put on lines left for them, as in these figures, are put on the same lines as the shaded squares, and the card-cutter sees to their being cut on the correct lines, as in Figs. 143 and 144. In designing, different colours would be used. The shaded square should be the same colour as the figure, as they are to be cut for the lines they are on, but the dots should be of a different colour, to be cut for a different line of the card from that on which they are placed on the design—the dot on the first check of a design being the seventh hole in a row of the card, and that on the third check of a design being the last hole of a row on the card.
Fig. 143
Fig. 144
Fig. 145
[Fig. 146] shows a portion of an ornamental pattern as it would be designed for a gauze ground of two threads of warp twisting round two = 4 in the split and 4 picks into each crossing of the gauze. This would require a 10-row machine, eight rows for the figuring harness and two rows for the doup standards. When two threads are twisting round two, it is not necessary to have a doup for each, though it may be desirable; but it suits very well to have both threads drawn through the same doup. It will be necessary to have a stronger doup in this case, but if the warp is very light it would have so much more to do in drawing up the heavy doup than if each thread was drawn through a very light doup that the latter had better be adopted; otherwise a stronger doup, with both threads through one, is simpler. On the pattern, the doups are raised by the dots, which must be cut on the proper line of the card, as before; both lines are dotted as if each thread had its own doup, but only the front dots of each pair are necessary. The shaded squares are for raising the crossing threads with the leashes for the open shed of the gauze. In this pattern it is necessary that the outline of the figure should go in steps of four warp ways, as there are four threads to the twist; but it is not necessary that it should go in steps of four weft ways. A better outline can be given to the figure by not adhering to this, though the perforations in the gauze will be to some extent sacrificed by being irregular; but this would be so in any case in order to raise the doup standard after the figure when the doups and leashes are gauzing alternately; they might be regularly started at one side of the figure, but this would probably make them more irregular at the other side. By following round the edges of this figure it will be seen that by a little care no blemish of any consequence need be left, though it will not be so perfect as when calculated to fall in as [Fig. 145].
Fig. 146
Any variety of simple gauze texture may be used, as well as the plain and honeycomb gauze, but unless there is plenty of space and the figures are plain and large, no very intricate crossings should be attempted, unless for stripes, as they would probably mar the outline of the figure; but if not, they may be used where suitable.
Another important point in designing for gauze is that if the texture of the solid cloth is loose and that of the gauze pretty firmly twisted, the take-up of the warp may be very different when weaving. To avoid this the gauze and figure should be well intermixed, and not be in too great quantities in any one part—in fact, the gauze and plain should be constantly interchanging, and when the pattern is such that this cannot be, the textures must be regulated so that there will be about an equal quantity of warp taken up for each. A little practice will soon show this.
Nothing has been said about the description of jacquard used for working gauze, but the same principle holds good as for working with shafts. A gauze shed is taken to be a plain jacquard lift—that is, the shed formed by the single-lift jacquard raises the yarn and lets it down again before beginning to raise the following shed. This enables the doup and doup yarn to fall into their places before being drawn away to form a following shed. At the same time, we are not limited to a single-lift jacquard. If you have a double-lift jacquard, and want to work a small piece of gauze, do so; but do it correctly, or, in other words, take means to make a good job of it. Before explaining how to do this, it will be well to show where the difficulty exists. In a double-acting machine one griffe is rising when the other is falling, and in plain gauze the doup standard and leash carrying the crossing thread are raised alternately, one shot being thrown into the shed formed by each. Therefore, the same thread is up for every shot, and the thread round which it twists is always down. Now, when one griffe has raised the doup standard and the next one raises the leashes carrying the same threads, both will pass in the centre of the shed, and, as shown in [Fig. 147], the crossing thread will be dragging up the lying thread from the position shown by the under dotted line, thereby causing considerable friction on the yarn, which must be detrimental to a fine or weak warp, and is inclined to drag the doup through the eyes of their standards; but as the harness in coming to the centre slackens the warp threads, and also as the slackener begins to act when the harness begins to rise, the threads will be further slackened in those sheds where the doups follow the back leashes, and this reduces the friction. It may, however, be entirely avoided by raising the lying threads to the mid position to meet the descending griffe, and then let down with it. A simple method of doing this is to have the leashes carrying the lying threads through a separate slip of cumber board at the back, and knots on them above it, so that when it is raised all the lying threads will be drawn up with it.
The cumber board can be raised by a cam, or in any other suitable way. (See Journal Weaving for Scotch Carpets.)
Fig. 147
These leashes might also be raised by means of a shaft through loops in them, or with bars under the jacquard hooks, in the same way as is done in twilling harnesses (which see), but with a special motion to raise and lower them. In [Fig. 147], the dotted line A, B shows the middle position or centre of the traverse of the yarn in shedding.
Although this is the proper means to adopt to work gauze satisfactorily with a double-acting jacquard, or with any double-acting shedding motion, it may be that small portions of gauze, such as a few stripes up a web, are wanted without the trouble of making any special arrangements for it. Good strong twist cotton yarn will work very well, if nicely tempered, in a double-acting machine. The slackeners can be arranged by leaving a few hooks apart to work them with, and cords tied to these hooks and let down at the back, in the same manner as in the gauze harness ([Fig. 138]), which will do very well. When three or more shots are thrown into each shed of the gauze—that is, between the crossings—there will be much less friction than when the crossing takes place at each shot, as it is only at the crossing the friction takes place.
One source of annoyance in working gauze is the wear on the doups, which requires them to be changed frequently and adds cost to the production. It has often been attempted to work the gauze by other means, and for some classes of work this has proved successful. One of the best arrangements, and one that is largely used, is the gauze reed, which is almost entirely adopted about Glasgow for weaving leno curtains in the power loom; it is also employed for other classes of work, but is limited in its use. It will not supply the place of a gauze harness.