[Fig. 1114.] is a representation of a section of cloth of an open fabric, where the round dots which represent the warp are placed at a considerable distance from each other.
[Fig. 1115.] may be supposed a plain fabric of that description which approaches the most nearly to any idea we can form of the most dense or close contact of which yarn can be made susceptible. Here the warp is supposed to be so tightly stretched in the loom as to retain entirely the parallel state, without any curvature, and the whole flexure is therefore given to the woof. This mode of weaving can never really exist; but if the warp be sufficiently strong to bear any tight stretching, and the woof be spun very soft and flexible, something very near it may be produced. This way of making cloth is well fitted for those goods which require to give considerable warmth; but they are sometimes the means of very gross fraud and imposition; for if the warp is made of very slender threads, and the woof of slackly twisted cotton or woollen yarn, where the fibrils of the stuff, being but slightly brought into contact, are rough and oozy, a great appearance of thickness and strength may be given to the eye, when the cloth is absolutely so flimsy, that it may be torn asunder as easily as a sheet of writing-paper. Many frauds of this kind are practised.
In [fig. 1116.] is given a representation of the position of a fabric of cloth in section, as it is in the loom before the warp has been closed upon the woof, which still appears as a straight line. This figure may usefully illustrate the direction and ratio of contraction which must unavoidably take place in every kind of cloth, according to the density of the texture, the dimensions of the threads, and the description of the cloth. Let A, B, represent one thread of woof completely stretched by the velocity of the shuttle in passing between the threads of warp which are represented by the round dots 1, 2, &c., and those distinguished by 8, 9, &c. When these threads are closed by the operation of the heddles to form the inner texture, the first tendency will be to move in the direction 1 b, 2 b, &c., for those above, and in that of 8 a, 9 a, &c., for those below; but the contraction for A, B, by its deviation from a straight to a curved line, in consequence of the compression of the warp threads 1 b, 2 b, &c., and 1 a, 2 a, &c., in closing, will produce, by the action of the two powers at right angles to each other, the oblique or diagonal direction denoted by the lines 1, 8-2, 9, to the left, for the threads above, and that expressed by the lines 2, 8-3, 9, &c., to the right, for the threads below. Now, as the whole deviation is produced by the flexure of the thread A, B, if A is supposed to be placed at the middle of the cloth, equidistant from the two extremities, or selvages as they are called by weavers, the thread at 1 may be supposed to move really in the direction 1 b, and all the others to approach to it in the directions represented, whilst those to the right would approach in the same ratio, but the line of approximation would be inverted. [Fig. 1117.] represents that common fabric used for lawns, muslins, and the middle kind of goods, the excellence of which neither consists in the greatest strength, nor in the greatest transparency. It is entirely a medium between [fig. 1114.] and [fig. 1115.]