Weaving Linen (1940-1949)

fibers are spun to make thread thread or yarn is woven to make fabric the spinner sends to the Weaver yarn in Hanks these Hanks are Unwound by machine and the yarn rewind onto bobbins smaller ones for the weft and larger ones for the warp yarn for the weft is wound onto the small bobbins called PS which are kept in baskets holding a gross unwind from large Hanks moving slowly onto the small PS spinning round quickly when a per is full it is replaced by an empty one this reminds one of the sewing machine at home each full per is placed in the basket and an empty one put in the machine these PS will be taken to the weaving shed and put into the shuttles of the Loom threads for the warp have been wound from Hanks onto the larger bobbins here's an upright frame containing about 400 bobbins the thread from each is taken into a winding machine this machine draws the threads from the bobbins through a re which evenly spaces them and guides them onto a rotating drum known as the warpers beam we'll just look again at this evenly spaced the threads for the warp are wound onto the warper beam before the threads are transferred to the loom they are sized and then wound onto a similar drum called a loom beam from the loom beam separate threads are passed through the eyelet wires of the headles a small hooked tool being used this tool is held in her right hand the left hand is at the back guiding the threads the hook draws the through the eyelet hole in the wire and the threaded wires are pushed along the headles to the right headles are threaded and PS all W now we're ready for weaving this is a loom a weaving machine where warp and weft threads are interlaced to make fabric here are the warp threads slowly being drawn through the loom parts of the Loom go up and down and backwards and forwards up and down the headles in action separating the warp threads backwards and forwards the re in action closing up the WFT threads and now the shuttle containing the WFT in the per here's a new per being placed in the shuttle it's a busy machine and often a noisy one the shuttle flying backwards and forwards interlacing warp and weft using thread to make fabric perhaps if we have a diagram we'll understand a little more clearly what's going on that makes it a little easier but let us go right back to the beginning that's better still now we know where we are here's the warp threads that run the length of the cloth and here's the weft threads that run across the cloth but the point is how does the weft go over and under the war it's the headles that will show how this is done we'll bring them back and we'll see what job they do up and down separating the threads now for the shuttle Which flies across it's followed by the Reed which puts the weft in its place the fabric moves on now we'll watch all those parts at work and notice especially how the moving headles cause the WFT to interlace the warp Warp weft pedals shuttle and re each plays its part in the weaving here some newly woven linen the actual weaving is done but the fabric is not finished yet this is called Loom State material the men are closely inspecting it for flaw after inspection it is stored to await final treatment it has to pass through a number of finishing processes the first of which that are shown are pre-shrinking and scalding the linen is guided over rollers into a vet containing a solution of costic soda it passes slowly through this solution and between the rollers which acting like a ringing machine squeeze out the costic soda the linen is folded onto a trolley which is used to take it onto its next stage scalding to clean the cloth and remove the costic soda the material is washed and scaled passing a number of times through the hot liquids in the washing bars it's cleaner and white now the costic soda which would eat away the fibers has been removed it's ready for bleaching and dying more rollers and more Vats this time containing bleaching liquids again between rollers that squeeze out the Surplus liquid and fold it onto a trolley it's even whiter now the linen is washed again it soon passes into a series of vets containing dyes the dye becomes part of each individual fiber in the fabric it should not be removed by washing or Faded by light sometimes it may be taken through the same vet several times in order to produce the desired shade when this has been obtained the fabric is ready for drying calendering and folding for drying the cloth passes over a battery of steam heated rollers these drive out the moisture the linen leaves the rollers once again to be folded it's ready for ironing or calendering the linen passes between glossy steel rollers under pressure it now has a very attractive gloss and is folded very carefully some linen is folded right along its length a machine draws in a single width of the material and sends it out through rollers doubled in it goes single width and out it comes doubled it's folded yet again but this is the last time linen almost ready for dispatch yard lengths of it are being counted the store to which linen from the loom vets and rollers comes and where the orders for it are dispatched material of lovely colors and firm texture with its own special Sheen in a word fine linen

Channel: British Pathé

Views: 133,787

Keywords: British Pathe, women, linen, industrial, footage, processes, flowers, Films, crafts, Reuters, documentary, newsreel, Instructional, 2891.02, workwear, work, DOCS, industry, animations, weaving, machinery, British, BritishPathe

Id: 3gDWuWT23x4

Length: 10min 28sec (628 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 13 2014