p and filling threads
interlace with each other is known as the weave. When the word "end"
is used in connection with weaving it always signifies the warp
thread, while each filling thread is called a pick. The fineness of
the cloth is always expressed as so many picks and ends to the inch.
The fabrics produced by weaving are named by the manufacturers or
merchants who introduce them. Old fabrics are constantly appearing
under new names, usually with some slight modification to suit the
public taste.

=Weaving Processes.= In order to understand the different kinds of
weaves it is necessary to know, or at least to understand, the process
of forming cloth, called weaving. This is done in a machine called a
loom. The principal parts of a loom are the frame, the warp-beam, the
cloth-roll, the heddles, and their mounting, the reed. The warp-beam
is a wooden cylinder back of the loom on which the warp is wound. The
threads of the warp extend in parallel order from the warp-beam to the
front of the loom, and are attached to the cloth-roll. Each thread or
group of threads of the warp passes through an opening (eye) of a
heddle. The warp threads are separated by the heddles into two or more
groups, each controlled and automatically drawn up and down by the
motion of the heddles. In the case of small patterns the movement of
the heddles is controlled by "cams" which move up the heddles by means
of a frame called a harness; in larger patterns the heddles are
controlled by harness cords attached to a Jacquard machine. Every time
the harness (the heddles) moves up or down, an opening (shed) is made
between the threads of warp, through which the shuttle is thrown.

[Illustration: A SIMPLE HAND-LOOM

Showing frame, warp beam, cloth-roll, heddles, and reed]

The filling thread is wound on a bobbin which is fastened in the
shuttle and which permits the yarn to unwind as it passes to and fro.
As fast as each filling thread is interlaced with warp it is pressed
close to the previous one by means of a reed which advances toward and
recedes from the cloth after each passage of the shuttle. This is done
to make the cloth firm. There are various movements on the loom for
controlling the tension of the warp, for drawing forward or taking up
the cloth as it is produced, and for stopping the loom in the case of
breakage of the warp thread or the running out of the filling thread.

Weaving may be performed by hand in hand-looms or by steam-p