The art of weaving, by hand and by power, with an introductory account of its rise and progress in ancient and modern times . manufacture in Great Britain, having already done the death of Methuselah, the art of weaving appears tohave made considerable advances in many parts of the East, andparticularly in China, India, and Persia. The first loom of whichthere is any authentic record still in existence, is that invented byArkite Ghiden Ghelen, when a lad of about seventy years of age ;and after having been at great trouble and expense, we have suc-ceeded in procuring a drawing of it,
The art of weaving, by hand and by power, with an introductory account of its rise and progress in ancient and modern times . manufacture in Great Britain, having already done the death of Methuselah, the art of weaving appears tohave made considerable advances in many parts of the East, andparticularly in China, India, and Persia. The first loom of whichthere is any authentic record still in existence, is that invented byArkite Ghiden Ghelen, when a lad of about seventy years of age ;and after having been at great trouble and expense, we have suc-ceeded in procuring a drawing of it, copied from an ancient parch-ment scroll, found among the curiosities of Sesac, founder of theEgyptian dynasty, (who reigned thirty-four years.) But from thedilapidated state of the document, and the draughtsman (AlexisKersivenus of Alexandria) not being a weaver hunself, we fear it isnot in every particular hke the original. This scroll appears (fromindorsements on its back) to have been once in the possession ofthe emperor of China, Tehng Ching Ouang, from whom it de-scended to Chao Kong-hi-hi, his successor. Fis- is a representation of the loom, &c., which is of vertical construction,and seems to have been chiefly applied to the manufacture of plaids INTRODUCTION. 19 and chequers ; the patterns of which were most probably suggestedby the interlacing of bark or stripes of broad leaved plants. Indeedthe modern plaids so obviously represent this origin of their patternsthat no one except the most sceptical can for a moment doubt thecorrectness of this opinion. The process of weaving in this loom must have been verytedious, and of course the fabrics produced would be expensive inthe same proportion. The inventor does not appear to have beenacquainted with any instrument analogous to the shuttle, for wefind from the perusal of ancient records (imperfect as they certainlyare) that some weavers drew the weft through the web with theirfingers, and others used an implement somewh
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840, booksubjectweaving, bookyear1844
