FIG. 27 A ROW OF MODERN WARPING MILLS
At the commencement, the heck is at the top, and when the weaver's lease has been formed on the three pins near the top of the mill with the 50 to 72 threads (often 56), the mill is rotated by means of the handle and its connections shown near the bottom of the mill. As the mill rotates, the heck with the threads descends gradually and thus the group of threads is disposed spirally on the vertical spokes of the mill until the desired length of the warp is reached. A beamer's lease or "pin lease" is now made on the two lower pegs; there may be two, three, four or more threads in each group of the pin lease; a common number is 7 to 9. When this pin lease has been formed, one section of the warp has been made, the proportion finished being (50 to 72)/x where x is the total number of threads required for the cloth. The same kind of lease must again be made on the same two pins at the bottom for the beginning of the next section of 50 to 72 threads, and the mill rotated in the opposite direction in order to draw up the heck, and to cause the second group of 50 to 72 threads to be arranged spirally and in close touch with the threads of the first group. When the heck reaches the top of the mill, the single-thread lease is again made, all the threads passed round the end pin, and then all is ready for repeating the same two operations until the requisite number of threads has been introduced on to the mill. If it is impossible to accommodate all the threads for the cloth on the mill, the warp is made in two or more parts or chains. It will be noticed that the heck for the nearest mill is opposite about the 12th round of threads from the bobbin, whereas the heck for the second mill is about the same distance from the top. A completed warp or chain is being bundled up opposite the third mill. When the warp is completed it is pulled off the mill and simultaneously linked into a chain.
A very similar kind of warp can be made more quickly, and often better, on what is termed the linking machine mentioned in No. 2 method. Such a machine is illustrated in Fig. 28, and the full equipment demands the following four distinct kinds of apparatus--a bank capable of holding approximately 300 spools, a frame for forming the weaver's lease and the beamer's lease, machine for drawing the threads from the spools in the bank and for measuring the length and marking the warp at predetermined intervals, and finally the actual machine which links the group of threads in the form of a chain.
In Fig. 28 part of the large bank, with a few rows of spools, is shown in the extreme background. The two sets of threads, from the two wings of the bank, are seen distinctly, and the machine or frame immediately in front of the bank is where the two kinds of lease are made when desired, i.e. at the beginning and at the end of the warp. Between this leasing frame and the linking machine proper, shown in the foreground, is the drawing, measuring and marking machine. Only part of this machine is seen--the driving pulleys and part of the frame adjoining them. All these frames and machines are necessary, but the movements embodied in them, or the functions which they perform, are really subsidiary to those of the linker shown in the foreground of Fig. 28.
