FIG. 291.—CROMPTON FANCY LOOM.
It is not to be understood that the positive motion loom has superseded the flying shuttle. The latter is still the leading type, of which the Crompton fancy loom, shown in [Fig. 291], is a representative illustration.
The tendency in late years in the art of weaving has been toward labor-saving devices, a reduction in the cost to the consumer of all kinds of textile fabrics, and the extension of the loom to the weaving of new kinds of materials. Prominent among these are the inventions in the loom for weaving plain fabrics made between the years 1881 and 1895, shown in patents to Northrop, No. 454,810, June 23, 1891; No. 529,943, November 27, 1894, and Draper, No. 536,948, April 2, 1895. This loom, as usual, employs a single shuttle, but as the weft becomes exhausted another bobbin is automatically supplied to the shuttle without stopping the operation of the machine. During the year 1895 the first loom for weaving an open mesh cane fabric having diagonal strands was invented. Patents to Morris, No. 549,930, and to Crompton, No. 550,068, November 19, 1895, were obtained for this. Prior to this time two distinct machines were necessary to produce this fabric, and the operation was slow and expensive. Between 1893 and 1895 two machines were invented, upon either of which the well-known Turkish carpets can be woven. Patents to Youngjohns, No. 510,755, December 12, 1893, and to Reinhart von Seydlitz, No. 533,330, January 29, 1895, disclose this. The drawing of warp threads into the eyes of the heddles and through the reed of a loom requires great skill, and prior to 1880 was performed by hand at great expense. In 1882, however, a machine for doing this was invented, thereby dispensing with the old hand method and cheapening the operation. Patents to Sherman and Ingersoll, No. 255,038, March 14, 1882, and Ingersoll, No. 461,613, October 20, 1891, were granted for this machine.
To-day the shuttle flies at the rate of 180 to 250 strokes a minute, and yet the complex organization of the machine works with an energy, a uniformity, an accuracy and a continuity that leaves far behind the strength of the arm, the memory of mind, and the accuracy of the human eye, and yet, if the tiny thread breaks, the whole organization instantly stops and patiently waits the remedial care of its watchful master.
Knitting Machines.—Knitting differs from weaving, braiding, or plaiting in the following respects: In weaving there are longitudinal threads called warp threads, which are crossed on a separate weft or filling thread. In braiding or plaiting all the threads may be considered warp threads, since they are arranged to run longitudinally, and instead of locking around a separate transverse thread at right angles, they extend diagonally and are interwoven with each other. In netting and knitting, however, there is but a single thread, which, in netting, is knotted into itself at definite intervals to leave a mesh of definite size, while in knitting the single thread is merely looped into itself without any definite mesh. Knitted goods have the peculiarity of great elasticity in consequence of this formation of the fabric, and for that reason find a special application in all garments which are required to snugly conform to irregular outlines, such as stockings for the feet, gloves for the hands, and underwear for the body.
Weaving, braiding, and netting are very old arts, but the art of knitting is comparatively modern. It is believed to have originated about the year 1500 in Scotland. In 1589 William Lee, of England, is credited with making the first knitting machine. It is said that the girl with whom he was in love, and to whom he was paying his attention, was so busy with her work of hand knitting that she could not give him the requisite attention, and he invented the knitting machine that they might have more time to devote to their love affairs. Another version is that he married the girl and invented the machine to relieve her weary fingers from the work of the knitting needle, and still another is that the machine was the leading object of his affections, to the neglect of his sweetheart, who “gave him the mitten” before he had knitted one on his machines.
