uniform width. There are also moireing or watering,
embossing, and various other machines for special purposes.

=Waterproofing.= One of the worst difficulties with which the
manufacturer of piece-dyed and printed silk goods has to contend is
the ease with which they become spotted with water, and for a number
of years many people have tried to prevent this by various processes.
There are no less than two hundred such processes patented. None of
them have met with much success, as they injured the feel or strength
of the goods. After goods are finished they are carefully inspected
for imperfections, measured, and wrapped in paper and packed in cases
for shipment. The complexity and number of processes for treating silk
goods may be realized when we know that a piece-dyed or printed fabric
is handled its entire length between fifty and one hundred times after
it comes from the loom, sometimes even more.

CHAPTER XVIII

PRINCIPAL SILK FABRICS

=Alma.= Cloth, double twilled from left to right diagonally, first
made in black only as a mourning fabric. The name is from the
Egyptian, as applied to a mourner or a singer at a funeral.

=Barege.= Sheer stuff of silk and wool for veiling, named from the
town of Bareges, in France.

=Bengaline.= An imitation of an old silk fabric made for many
centuries in Bengal, India, whence the name. The weave is similar to
that of ordinary rep or poplin, being a simple round-corded effect.
The cord is produced by using a heavy soft-spun woolen weft which is
so closely covered by the silk warp threads that it is not exposed
when examined from the wrong side. The same weave is also found in
all-silk goods, under the designation of all-silk bengaline. When
cheapened by the use of a cotton weft in place of wool the fabric is
known as cotton bengaline, although the cotton is in the filling only.

=Berber.= Satin-faced fabric of light-weight cloth. It came into favor
about the time of the defeat of the Berbers by General Gordon in his
campaign against the Mahdi in North Africa.

=Brocade.= Raised figures on a plain ground.

=Brocatel.= A kind of brocade used for draperies and upholstery;
usually raised wool figures on a silk ground.

=Bombazine.= Silk warp, wool weft, fine twilled cloth; originally made
in black only for mourning. It is used largely for mourning hat bands.
The root of the name is _bombyx_, the Latin for silkworm.

=Chenille.= Cloth of a fuzzy or fluffy face; wo