Have you ever seen a loom? It would not be a wonder if you have not. In these days the average person seldom sees one. Everyone knows in a vague sort of way that clothes and carpets are made of wool or silk or cotton, as the case may be, and that they are woven upon an instrument called a loom. This is about as much as we usually know about the clothes we wear or the carpets we walk upon. We buy these things from the store and that is all there is to it. In the olden times, and not so very long ago either, everybody knew something about weaving, at least every girl and woman knew something of the art, and a loom was as familiar an object in the household then as a sewing machine is now.

This picture of home life in Acadia two hundred years ago would have served as a picture of home life almost everywhere in the civilized world. From the beginning of history until modern times most of the weaving was done by the women in the home.

Basket weaving led to cloth weaving, and this led to the loom. In Figure 4 we see the simplest and oldest form of the loom. It consisted of a single stick (yarn beam) of wood about four feet long. This was the first form of the loom—just a straight stick of wood and nothing more. From the stick the threads which run lengthwise in the cloth were suspended. These threads are known as the warp. The threads which run breadthwise in the cloth are known as the weft, or woof. As the woman's deft fingers pass along with the weft she carries the thread over the first warp thread, under the second, over the third, under the fourth, and so on. Here we have not only the simplest form of the loom but the simplest kind of cloth.

In the loom worked by the Pueblo woman (Fig. 5) a new piece appears. This is the frame through which the threads of the warp pass and which the woman is holding in her right hand. The frame is called a heald, or heddle (Fig. 6). The heddle is of the greatest importance in the construction of the loom and it is well worth while to understand what it does. In the loom operated by the Chilcoot woman (Fig. 4) you noticed that the weaver passed the weft thread above and below the alternate threads of the warp. This required a separate movement for every thread of the warp; if there were a hundred threads a hundred movements were required to pass the weft across once. Now the heddle used by the Pueblo woman separated the fifty warp threads that were to pass above the weft thread from the fifty that were to pass below it, making an opening called, a shed. When the shed was made the weft thread could be passed across at one movement. One movement instead of a hundred! How was this accomplished? Fifty alternate warp threads were passed through the holes in the bars of the heddle frame, one thread through each hole; the other fifty alternate threads passed between the bars of the heddle frame. Now suppose the entire warp of a hundred threads is stretched tight and firm between the woman's body and the yarn beam. With her right hand she raises the heddle and thus lifts the fifty threads which pass through the holes in the bars, while the other fifty threads remain unmoved. This movement makes the passage or shed through which she passes the weft with the left hand. After beating the weft thread close to the cloth either with the fingers or with a sword-like stick, she lowers the heddle with its fifty threads, the other fifty still remain fixed and unmoved. Another shed is formed and the weft is passed through again. Thus with the raising and lowering of the heddle the weft is passed backward and forward and the weaving goes on quite rapidly. If you care to do so you can make a Pueblo loom and can weave a belt on it.

In the old African loom represented in Fig. 7 we find several improvements upon the loom of the Pueblo woman. In the first place, it has two heddles instead of one. These are operated by the feet, leaving the hands free to do other work. In the second place, the wooden frame which the weaver holds in his right hand is not to be seen in the Pueblo loom. This frame called the batten, or lathe, contains the reed, which is a series of slats or bars between which the threads of the warp pass after they leave the heddle. When the weaver has thrown the weft through the shed he brings the batten down hard and the reed drives the last weft thread close to the woven part of the cloth. The reed takes the place of the sword-like stick used by the Pueblo woman. Last and most important: in the African's left hand is the shuttle, or little car—weaver's ship, the Germans call it—which carries the weft across (Fig. 8).

The year 1733 is a most important date in the development of the loom for in that year John Kay, a practical loommaker of Lancashire, England, invented the flying shuttle and thus did more for the loom than any man whom we can distinguish by name. To appreciate the great service of Kay we must recall how the shuttle was operated before his time. You remember it was thrown through the shed by one of the weaver's hands and caught and returned by the other hand. Sometimes it was caught and returned by a boy. This was at best a slow process and unless the weaver had an assistant to return the shuttle only narrow pieces could be woven. The common width of cloth, three-fourths of a yard, had its origin in necessity. The weaver's arms were not long enough to weave a wider piece. "The essence of Kay's invention was that the shuttle was thrown from side to side by a mechanical device instead of being passed from hand to hand. One hand only was required for the shuttle while the other was left free to beat up the cloth (with the batten) after each throw, and the shuttle would fly across wide cloth as well as narrow." You will be able to understand Kay's invention by studying Figure 10 which shows how the flying shuttle worked. G is a groove (shuttle-race) on which the shuttle runs as it crosses through the shed leaving its thread behind it. I and I are boxes which the shuttle (Fig. 11) enters at the end of the journey. In each box is a driver K sliding freely on the polished rod F. The weaver with his right hand pulls the handle H and K drives the shuttle to the opposite side. With his left hand he works the reed, with his feet he works the heddle.

The profits of Kay's invention were stolen, his house was destroyed by a mob and he himself was driven to a foreign country where he died in poverty. Yet he deserves high rank among the benefactors of mankind, for the flying shuttle doubled the power of the loom and improved the quality of the cloth woven. Kay's invention was the first step in a great industrial revolution. The increased power of the loom called for more yarn than the old spinning wheel could supply. Hargreaves and Arkwright set their wits to work and made their wonderful spinning machine, and the demands of the loom were supplied. So great was the supply of yarn that the hand loom was behind with its work. Then in order to keep up with the spinning machine the power-loom was invented. Heddle and batten and shuttle were now driven by a force of nature and all the weaver had to do was to keep the shuttle filled with thread and see that his loom worked properly. At first the water-wheel was used to drive the power-loom but later the steam-engine was made to do this work. All this was changing the face of the civilized world. Hitherto weavers and spinners had worked for themselves in their homes or in their own shops; now they were gathered in large factories where they worked as wage earners for an employer. Hitherto industry had been carried on in small villages; the great factories drew the people to large industrial centers and the era of crowded cities began.

Following the invention of the power-loom in the latter half of the eighteenth century came the invention of Joseph Jacquard of Lyons, France. This very ingenious man in 1801 invented a substitute for the heddle. We cannot readily understand the workings of Jacquard's wonderful "attachment," as his substitute for the heddle is called, but we ought to know what the great Frenchman did for the loom. In Figure 12 you see that the cloth which is exposed shows that beautiful designs have been woven into it. This is what Jacquard did for the loom. He made it weave into the cloth whatever design, color or tint one might desire. He made the loom a mechanical artist rivaling in excellence the work of a human artist. The Jacquard loom has brought about a revolution in man's, and especially in woman's dress. With the old loom, colors and designs could be woven into cloth but only very slowly, and goods with fancy patterns were made at a cost that was so great that only the rich could afford to buy. In the olden times, therefore, almost everybody wore plain clothes. With Jacquard's attachment the most beautiful figures can be cheaply woven into the commonest fabrics. As far as weaving is concerned, it costs no more to have beautiful figures in cotton goods than it does to have them in silk. As a result the poor as well as the rich can dress as their taste and fancy may suggest.

The last century brought improvements in the weaving art as every century before it brought improvements, but the changes made since Jacquard's time need not concern us. The story of the loom ends with the Jacquard "attachment." Perhaps no other of man's inventions has a more interesting development than the loom. We can see it grow, piece by piece. First a simple stick from which dangle the threads of the warp; then the heddle, then the shuttle, then the reed, then the shuttle-race and the swiftly flying shuttle, and last the Frenchman's wonderful device for weaving in colors and fancy figures.