Fig. 32.—Illustration of a Scandinavian warp weighted loom in the Copenhagen Museum. The illustration is taken from Montelius’ Civilisation of Sweden in Heathen Times, translated by the Rev. F. H. Woods, London, Macmillan & Co., 1888, p. 160.
[In the illustration of this loom published by the Trustees of the British Museum, in their Guide to the Antiquities of the Early Iron Age, London, 1905, p. 139, the shape of the warp weights has been altered to suit the shape of such weights in the British Museum collections.]
Fig. 33.—Icelandic Loom after Olafsson.
a a Beam on which the warp is fixed. b b Weights to make the warp taut. c c Brackets which support the beam and on which it can be revolved by means of the spoke e when the warp has to be lengthened, on account of the weft f working downwards and so shortening the finished portion of the woven cloth. g A sharp bone or tough piece of wood to beat the weft into proper position. h The wound up weft which is pushed through the warp with the fingers. i i The unbeamed warp. k k The heddles or shed openers. l l The supports on which the heddles rest when the “pick” is made [i.e., the pushing the weft through]. m The beater-in. n and o Laze rods. q The template for regulating the width of the cloth. r r and s s Beam on to which the loom is fixed.
Some of the descriptions are not as clear as could be wished. It is probable that g is a preliminary to m. N. Annandale mentions that he obtained in the Faroes a beater-in made of a whale’s jaw or rib; while in Iceland he saw some of the perforated stones to which the warp threads were attached (The Faroes and Iceland, Oxford, 1905, pp. 195-6).
The Scandinavian form of the “Greek” loom from the Faroes [Fig. 32], is made known to us through the article itself in the Copenhagen Museum, illustrated by Montelius, Civilisation of Sweden in Heathen Times, Lond. 1888, p. 160, and through the very clear illustration and description given us by Olafsson in his Oeconomische Reise durch Island, 1787, translated from the Danish edition of 1780. The loom figured by Olafsson, [Fig. 33], shows an advance on that of Montelius, in being provided with heddles.[H] Upright looms with a lower beam instead of with warp weights and furnished [!-- Figure 33 in original --] with heddles, are not uncommon. There are the well known Indian and Persian rug looms, and Du Chaillu figures one in his Journey to Ashango Land, London, 1867, plate facing p. 291. Randall-Maciver and Wilkin illustrate a vertical loom in use among the Kabyles, Libyan Notes, London, 1901, Pl. IX., and although the details of the illustration are not clear the text indicates the existence of one heddle: “The warp is decussated by means of a horizontal rod and leashes.” Dr. Washington Mathews figures several Navajo looms with heddles, Third Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, p. 291; Ancient Peruvians also used them, as shown by Dr. Max Schmidt, Baessler Archiv, I. pt. 1, and so on practically ad. lib. But to work an upright warp-weighted loom with heddles is attended with great practical inconvenience, and this difficulty has, no doubt, been one of the chief causes of the complete discardance of this class of loom.
In spite of the evidence in favour of the existence of warp weighted looms, the Director of the Hermannstadt Museum, Dr. v. Kimakovicz-Winnicki, sees fit to deny their existence. He found that in some parts of Transylvania the peasants use wooden pyramids (see [Fig. 18]) similar to the Roman warp weights for winding the thread from the spindle on to the shuttle. For this purpose sockets are bored into the thin or top end of two pyramids, which are placed just so far apart that a spindle can rest horizontally with one end in the socket of one pyramid, and the other end of the spindle in the socket of the other pyramid, and the thread in being wound off on to the shuttle causes the spindle to revolve in the sockets. From this he argues that what we have hitherto taken to be warp weights are not warp weights at all (Spinn- u. Webewerkzeuge, Wuerzburg, 1911), and having denied these articles to be warp weights he gets over the difficulty presented by the illustration of Penelope at her loom, by attempting to prove that what we take to be a loom is no loom at all but a flechtrahm, i.e. plaiting frame! He then attempts to pull to pieces the idea that the Scandinavian loom in the Copenhagen Museum is a loom and condemns it as unworkable. There can be no doubt about his meaning as he defines his terms. The principle of weaving (Weben) he describes “as the absorption of two groups of parallel material elements (warp and weft) at right angles to each other, and the principle of plaiting (Flechten) as the absorption by itself in one plane of one group only of material element, (warp)” and he gives diagrammatic illustrations showing clearly what he means (op. cit. p. 31).[I] Judging from his remarks one must conclude he has not seen a primitive loom of any sort, and were it not for the official position he holds, his remarks would not need answering.