FINDING THE THREAD RESTORATION OF A PROFESSIONAL WEAVER'S LOOM Rabbit Goody A special and unusual loom frame from the first half of the nine­ teenth century now in the collection of the Ontario Agricultural Mu­ seum, Milton, Ontario,1 has provided an opportunity to examine some of the specialized equipment used by weavers in the nineteenth century to weave cloth with speed, intricate geometric patterns, and/or accommodate longer lengths of cloth. Surviving examples of cloth have made it apparent that trained weavers, weaving fancy cloth during the nineteenth century were using more complex equipment than that commonly associated with home textile produc­ tion. However, until now surviving examples of the equipment have been scarce. The museum's loom is one of a small number that can be linked to the production of the more complex cloths of this pe­ riod. At least, it has specialized equipment which professional weavers might choose to place on their looms. It is the most com­ plete example currently known. In their book, "Keep Me Warm One Night", Dorothy and Harold Burnham have identified this loom as being a professional weaver's loom because of its specialized features.2 It is being restored for the purpose of reproducing some of the more intricate cloth woven by professional weavers in the Niagara Peninsula. The survival of this loom frame, with its special features, has made it possible to set certain criteria for identifying other looms used by professionals and to corroborate the descrip­ tions of equipment and methods found in publications and manuscripts from the last half of the eighteenth century and early nineteenth century used to weave fancy cloth rapidly by profes­ sionals. Using the Agricultural Museum loom as an example, this article will describe one type of system used by early nineteenth century weavers to more easily achieve complicated geometric designs, greater speed, and accommodate long lengths of warp. This will help us to view similar loom frames and judge whether other extant frames could ARS TEXTRINA 9 (1988), pp. 125-156 have been used by professional weavers or weavers interested in more than domestic production and consumption. Defining a professional weaver. A mistake is often made, when a nineteenth century loom is set up in an historic setting, of assuming that the loom was used for home cloth production of simple goods such as sheets, rugs, towels, and blankets. On the other hand, it is often thought that home cloth pro­ duction was the only way a family was "clothed". Weaving fancier and more specialized goods, however, has been a trade or profession for several thousand years. Even in remote areas of North American settlement, trade weavers and available imported cloth provided much cloth and clothing diversity.3 The view of the home weaver providing all is inaccurate. Different criteria are often given for defining an individual as a professional weaver. (Here I am using "professional" as a twentieth century term, it was not used by weavers themselves.) A profes­ sional weaver may be an individual who actively undertook the study of fancy or complex weaving for the purpose of earning a living, generally through an apprenticeship. An individual weaving for a local or export market, simple goods, but for economic gain outside of the household would be considered a professional. The person who, although weaving simple cloths within the home, was weaving specifically for "putting out" or "hire", where a spinning mill through an agent or a storekeeper may have been providing yam and possibly equipment - thus controlling the production and marketing of the product - may or may not be considered a professional.4 Rather, this person may have been considered just wage earning la­ bor, however, the modifications made to the equipment to aid this type of weaver are different from modifications made or not made by home weavers on their equipment and we are interested in ex­ ploring the equipment, not the economics. In the Province of Ontario, weavers for hire worked as independent weavers providing cloth to their community. The level of complex knowledge might not have been high, but speed and volume would have been impor­ tant. Economic benefit would have been received on a per yard or 126 item basis.5 In contrast, the home weaver was not paid for time or materials. Home weavers used their time and materials for internal economic benefit. Speed, nor volume, nor complexity were desired goals, and often did not lead to modifications on loom frames, to en­ hance those goals. The inaccuracy of demonstrating only simple cloths on most looms in historic settings is generated, in part, by looking at the surviving loom frame itself as the determining factor in what cloths to weave, rather than using supporting research available through census fig­ ures, manufacturing records, newspaper advertisements, and above all, surviving cloth. If surviving cloth is examined, it becomes apparent that some weavers were working with looms equipped to weave intricate geo­ metric designs. However, the very equipment which would distin­ guish such a loom from one used to produce only simple cloth is easily separated from that frame leaving very little or no evidence, hi fact, the very survival of many looms into the twentieth century is due to the loom frame's versatility. Most could be modified for weaving simple cloth without altering the frame when the need for complexity, or speed, or volume was no longer important. Thus, many loom frames which might have been used by professional weavers survive as tools used for weaving less skillful pieces, such as simple rag rugs, well into the twentieth century. The anatomy of a loom. We must understand the basic components of the loom frame in or­ der to understand the importance of the specialized pieces which survive with the loom at the Agricultural Museum, and to understand the versatility of loom frames in viewing other surviving looms today. No two loom frames, made by hand outside of a factory system, are exactly alike. Lack of standardization is so prevalent that it appears that loom construction was carried out by individual general crafts­ men, rather than by specialists, and often modified by weavers themselves. 127 In general, loom frames have certain recognizable parts. Frames from the first half of the nineteenth century usually have four up­ right posts which form the corners of the frame. Post size and height may vary greatly. Generally, however, post sizes are greater than four inches by four inches and are referred to as timbers. Hence, the name timber frame or barn frame loom (note: called so because of size, not because they were used in a barn). From these posts, side pieces and cross pieces connect and give a firm structure allowing the positioning of the working parts which actually manipulate the lengthwise threads (warp) while weaving a piece of cloth. There are infinite variations on this theme. Some looms have additional timbers which rest on the ground and provide a place for the posts (sills) much like house frames. Other looms have only two back posts and braces allowing a cantilever cross member to hold the working parts. Regional style seems to play a more important role in frame construction than function. For ex­ ample, Dutch and Palatinate Germans, settling in the Mohawk Valley of New York, used a timber framing style for their barns which is perfectly mimicked in the loom frames documented from the area. Rounded extended tenons with keys are the hallmark of that con­ struction. English style bams and English style looms tend to have flush tenons which may be half dovetailed and which lock into place and are then wedged. The actual working parts of the loom are the harnesses (shafts), beater (laith), gearing, treadles, and brakes. The harnesses control the raising and lowering of the warp, which is stored on the loom and runs through the heddles and beater. The beater holding the reed or sley maintains the density of those threads by keeping them equidistant. The beater also allows the crosswise thread or filling to be packed into place evenly at a particular density. Gearing refers to all the cording and connections between the harnesses and the trea­ dles which activate the harnesses. Generally, harnesses and gearing do not survive intact with the loom frame but show up as an uniden­ tified dusty bundle of string, cord and sticks which bear little resem­ blance to the ordered mechanism used to weave cloth. This is not surprising because a loom frame being so versatile can carry a vari- 128 ety of harness and gearing at different times and weavers may have changed their harnesses and gearing to accommodate different types of yarn, and different pattern complexities, and wear. The harness and gearing were meant to be removed and stored -separately. There is no permanent attachment between the harnesses and the frame. It is probably this situation which has made it possible to lose physical evidence of the specialized systems used to operate more than four harnesses when weaving complex cloth. There is written evidence describing the special system used by professional weavers to weave complicated cloth on more than four harnesses but the actual equipment, so easily separated from the loom has not survived in its entirety on any one loom frame.6 The Ontario Agricultural Museum loom frame with so much of the original equipment intact, therefore, represents an important physical document. If we can suspect that professional weavers made different demands from their equipment than home weavers, those might be summed up as the need for speed, the ability to accommodate volume efficiently, and sometimes the ability to make intricate designs.