TYING UP THE HARNESS
Having the neck attached to the tail cords and the levelling frame and cumber board fixed in position, the next operation is to get the prepared lingoes placed in the loom, whether on the levelling frame or slabstock. Suppose the levelling frame to be used. According to the number of rows in the harness or cumber board, pieces of reed wire are procured, one for each row, and as many lingoes are strung on each of these as will be required for each row of the harness, by running the wires through the mails. These wires are then placed in the frame and secured by skewers being put through the frame above and below them. The frame is then levelled and firmly bolted to the loom. The sleepers or mid-pieces of the lingoes are next drawn up through the cumber board, one through each hole required to be used, any surplus holes being previously marked out to suit the tie of the harness, which will be afterwards explained. When all are drawn through, the tying of the neck twines to the sleepers may be proceeded with.
This must be done in accordance with the tie of the harness. Thus, if there are four cords tied on the first hook of the machine, these must be taken down to the lingoes in the proper place in the cumber board, which may be seen by examining the particulars of the mountings, to be given further on. One method of fastening the neck to the sleepers is shown in No. 1, [Fig. 46], at D, d, d1. The twine is put through the loop of the sleeper at d1 (or better to have a snitch on the sleeper, unless the knots are to be varnished afterwards), then a loop is thrown on at d, and the end tied at D, and clipped close. This method suits very well when the harness is liable to be altered, for if the knots are brushed over with paste they hold sufficiently firm, and can be loosed again at any time, if necessary. If varnished, it also answers equally well for any coarse harness; but if it is fine and much crossed, especially if the twines are strong or coarse, the knots are liable to catch on each other and raise more warp than should be when the loom is working.
A second plan is shown in No. 2, [Fig. 46]. In this case there are no sleepers on the lingoes; they are put on the levelling frame or slabstock without them, the mails and lingoes being connected by the hangers; the levelling frame is set in the loom as before, and the neck twines must be long enough to go down through the cumber board, through the top hole of the mail, and up again through the cumber board to where they are tied. The mounter, when about to tie them, takes one of the twines and casts a single knot on it, leaving the loop open, then puts the end of it through a hole in the cumber board and through a mail, and with a small wire hook draws it up again through the same hole in the cumber board, and through the open knot or loop he made on it, at the same time; then, turning round the awl or piercer in the other end of the handle of the hook, he puts it through the knot and runs it up about 6 in. above the cumber board, draws it tight, and casts another knot above it with the end of the twine, as shown at D, No. 2, [Fig. 46]. This makes a neat harness, and when a mounter gets accustomed to it he can proceed very expeditiously. This method is used in England; the former is Scotch. The instrument used for drawing the twines through the cumber board consists of a wooden handle, in one end of which is a hook or barbed wire, same as is used for drawing the warp through mails, and in the other end is a round awl or piece of steel wire, tapered to a blunt point, which is used for running up the loop or knots so as to have them all about the same distance above the cumber board.
Beeting is another Scotch method of mounting. The harness may be beeted either above or below the cumber board; beeting above it was the old method, and single slabstock was used, as shown in Fig. 51 at A. When preparing it for the loom, the lingoes and mails are connected by the hangers in the usual way, and hung on the slabstock with the mails in the groove in it, as shown at B, [Fig. 51]. A piece of flat wire (reed wire) is run through the eyes of the mails, as many as are required for the whole harness, and is then tied down by cords fastened round it and the slabstock, at short distances apart. The slabstock is now put into a frame, or rack, with a rail as high above it as is required for the length of the sleepers. A spool of twine is fixed on a wire pin at the side of the frame, and with a needle, or otherwise, the end of the twine is run through a number of the mails and fastened. With a hook the sleepers can be reeled up to pins in the rail above the slabstock, on the same principle that they are done in Fig. 47. When the sleepers are all finished they can be slipped off the pins and cut.
The slabstock is next fixed in the loom and levelled with the upper edge of the rebate or groove touching the under edge of a straight-edge placed on the race of the lay when it is full back (for power looms).
The sleepers are then drawn up through the cumber board without their ends being knotted; they should be long enough to reach about 8 in. above it, and say 7 in. below, making 15 in. for their entire length.
Now, to beet the harness: Say there are two beeters, standing on the ground, with a supply of neck twines convenient to them; they pick up the sleepers from the first set of holes in the cumber board—that is, those that are to be connected with the first hook in the machine—and, having tied neck twines to them, hand them to the harness tyer, who is up at the machine. He takes the lot of twines and draws them all to an even tension, then, having drawn down the tail cords firmly and evenly, knots the neck twines to them.
One method of knotting the neck to the tail is to have the tail cords tied together so as to form loops; then, having straightened both the neck and tail cords, lay the neck against the loop of the tail, and take both firmly between the finger and thumb of the left hand, being careful not to let them slip, and casting a knot, as at C or D, [Fig. 51], round the tail, with the ends of the neck draw it fast. In order to have all the tail cords plumb and the knots of a uniform height, the harness tyer sometimes has a cord tied across the top of the loom frame, at each end of the machine, at the height the knots are to be. On these he lays a straight-edge, marked as a guide for where the tail cords are to hang, so that he can regulate those of one row and have them plumb, and the knots even; when one row is finished, he moves the straight-edge to the next, and goes on with it. A newer method of beating is to prepare the lingoes with sleepers and hangers, the sleepers to be about 5-1/2 in. long. The slabstock A1, [Fig. 51], is used, or the other if preferred.
The mails are put upon flat wires as before, but instead of all going on one wire, half the number is put on each of two wires, and one of them is placed at each side of the slabstock, where it can be fastened with small staples. To facilitate getting the mails on the wires, when reeling the sleepers on the pin, as in [Fig. 47], a lease can be made on the loops by giving them a twist when putting them over the pin.
A piece of twine can be fastened in this case, and the loops afterwards cut. The mails can then be taken off in order, and run on the wire for the slabstock. When the mails are fixed on the slabstock it may be laid on the ground, or set in a frame, and the neck twines tied to the sleepers; and when all are tied, they can be drawn through the cumber board or harness reed. Afterwards, all are taken and fixed in the loom. The cumber board must be set so high above the knots on the sleepers that they will not come into contact with it when the shed is opened (that would be 4 in. or 4-1/2 in. above it). The neck twines are then tied to the tail cords as before.
This makes a very good harness, and has the advantage of having no knots on the neck twines above the cumber board, which is very important in an intricate harness with the cords close together, as the knots when varnished are liable to catch on each other, or on twines slanting across them, and lift them as they are being drawn up. When a harness is mounted in this way it is not easy to make any alteration on it, or to re-level any portion of it if necessary. If the sleepers are tied in loops, same as used in No 1, [Fig. 46], they can be connected to the neck twines by having the latter double and putting both ends of the neck through a snitch on the sleeper, or the neck twines may be double and the two ends of the sleeper when untied may be put through a snitch on the looped end of the neck twine and tied; in this way they could be altered or adjusted afterwards if necessary, but if they had to be varnished the knots would be rather rough.
The following method of mounting is adopted in the damask hand-loom districts of the North of Ireland, and is used for particular power-loom work as well. It is a slower process than the preceding, but cannot be surpassed for getting a level harness, and the mails can be regulated as desired—that is, to have the back rows getting gradually a little higher than the front ones, which can only be accomplished in the preceding methods by tying them a little tighter, or by having the frame sloped a little.
The lingoes may be prepared as before, with the sleepers 5 in. long when tied and clipped. The neck twines are put down through the cumber board and knotted loosely in bunches underneath.
The levelling frame is set in the loom, the top edge of it being at the level that the eyes of the mails in the front row are to be hung.
No wires are required. The lingoes are taken in bunches and put astride on the frame as required, and boys fasten them up to the neck twines by throwing on a snitch and running them up to somewhere about the height they will be wanted when level; in doing so the knots on the sleepers must be kept up as close to the snitch as is convenient for tying them, as, if left too low, they would interfere with the warp in shedding. When all the lingoes are hung inside the levelling frame—or they may be hung first, and the levelling frame put up afterwards and levelled—the mounter may begin to level the mails.
He uses a fine piece of waxed cord with a small weight at each end, which he lays across the levelling frame as a guide, and levels each row from back to front in succession. The front mail may hang with the top of its eye level with the cord, and the others rise a little higher, till the back one is perhaps, with the bottom hole, level with the levelling cord, or 1/8 in. higher than the front one. The levelling can easily be accomplished by sliding the snitch up or down the neck twines; and when the correct height for the mail is got, the neck twine is tied as at H, No. 3, [Fig. 46], when it is to be varnished, or as at H1 when it need not be varnished; in the latter case cable cord is used for the neck, and it is split at the end, when drawn through the snitch, and then knotted.