TEXTILES.' This word is applied to all fabrics which are woven in a loom, of whatever material they may be made, and whether the woven stuff be plain or figured. The simplest and earliest process of weaving was managed Method thus. The ground of the future stuff was formed by a of weav- number of parallel strings called the warp, having their ing. upper ends attached to a horizontal beam and drawn taut by weights hung from their lower ends. In the early Greek loom each warp thread had a separate weight (see fig. 1). On the number of the warp strings the fineness and width of the stuff depended. The strings of the weft were interlaced at right angles to those of the warp, and the combination of the two formed the woven stuff or web. The weft was so called from its being " wafted " in and out of the warp ; it is also often called the woof, though more correctly the woof is the same as the web or finished stuff. The threads of the weft were wound round a sort of bobbin on a pivot which was made to revolve inside a hollow boat-shaped piece of wood pointed at both ends so as to pass easily between the threads of the warp. This is called the shuttle. The thread passed out through a hole in the side of the shuttle, the inner pivot revolving as the thread was delivered between the strings of the warp. In order to make the weft interlace in the warp some of the upright strings were pulled forward out of the general plane in which the warp hung ; this was done in the simplest way by a reed, which divided the threads into two sets called leaves and thus formed an opening called the shred, through which the shuttle could pass, as shown in fig. 1. Another way, applicable to more complicated ornamental weaving, was to have a series of threads attached to the warp at right angles, so that the weaver could pull any of the warp threads away from the rest, thus allowing the shuttle to pass in front of or behind any special warp strings. By a very simple mechanical contrivance these threads were worked by a foot treadle, thus leaving the weaver's hands free to manage the shuttle.2 In the