West Riding – Western Rhineprovince, 1790-1840: Diverse Paths to ...

West Riding – West of the Rhineland, 1780-1840 8
Alfred Reckendrees, University of Cologne reckendrees@wiso.uni-koeln.de
easily overdraw and break the slubbing and it was this reason that made the adaptation of
cotton spinning machinery in the woollen cloth industry so much more difficult than in the
worsted industries.
Weaving and preparing the yarn and the loom 21
Simplifying the explanation of the process, weaving means crossing or interlacing two
types of threads. They are usually arranged in right angles to each other. One type of yarn
is called warp (or chain); these yarns are running parallel lengthwise in the cloth from one
end to the other. It is fixed between two bars of the loom. The other type of yarn, the weft,
is one continuous thread running across the warp being woven alternately above and below
the threads of the warp that had to be steadier than the weft. 22 Therefore, warp and weft
were not only spun in a different way but the warp had also to be sized or strengthened to
prevent it from breakage during weaving.
First of all the threads of the warp were arranged (they were grouped and laid parallel) onto
a warp bar to allow an easier hoisting onto the warp bean. The assembled threads had then
to be scoured (comparable to scouring of wool) from oil and grease. Having dried again
they were sized. The weavers used different techniques, however, the warp for fine cloth
had to be sized with glue; afterwards it must be dried again. Then the threads were arranged
on the warp bean that was later installed into the loom. Each of the threads amounting
up to 3,000 or 4,000 had to be fixed at the warp beam and, when the warp beam was
installed into the loom, they had also to be fixed with equal tension at the cloth beam of the
loom.
The weft was only wound on a quill that could turn freely in the shuttle that moved the
weft through the different threads of the warp.
Scouring, fulling and finishing the cloth23
Finishing, the third stage of production, was probably the most diverse stage because each
kind of cloth was treated differently and it was also the comprehensive process taking quite
a lot of time. The woven cloth was first scoured again from oil, grease, and glue left from
the spinning of weft and from the sizing of the warp. In a second step the cloth was then
fulled which means the ‘closing together of the threads of woven woollen fabrics by pressing
and kneding with the help of soap or acid liquor’ 24 in order to felt the fibres and to
shrink the cloth. Since the late middle ages both processes were carried out in the so-called
fulling mill. Its machinery consisted of water wheels that powered wooden hammers or
21
Art. Weaving [Rees Cyclopaedia] (1819); Art. Woollen manufacture [Rees Cyclopaedia] (1819);
Barlow, History (1878); Jenkins, Welsh Woollen (1969), 64-81; Mann, Cloth (1971), 290-293.
22
Therefore some kinds of mixed cloth and particularly tapestry used a cotton warp.
23
Feine Tuchmanufaktur (1796); Art. Fulling [Rees Cyclopaedia] (1819); Art. Woollen manufacture [Rees
Cyclopaedia] (1819); Bühl, Textilveredelungsindustrie (1950); Jenkins, Welsh Woollen (1969), 81-88;
Mann, Cloth (1971), 293-307.
24
E. Kilburn Scott: Early Cloth Fulling and its Machinery, in: Transactions of the Newcome Society XII
(1931/2), 1, quoted by Jenkins, Welsh Woollen (1969), 81.