[Illustration:  FIG 26 COP WINDING MACHINE By permission of Messrs. Urquhart, Lindsay & Co., Ltd.]

CHAPTER XIII.  WARPING, BEAMING AND DRESSING

There are a few distinct methods of preparing warp threads on the weaver’s beam.  Stated briefly, the chief methods are—­

1.  The warp is made in the form of a chain on a warping mill, and when the completed chain is removed from the mill it is transferred on to the weaver’s beam.

2.  The warp is made in the form of a chain on a linking machine, and then beamed on to a weaver’s beam.

3.  The warp yarns are wound or beamed direct from the large cylindrical “rolls” or “spools” on to a weaver’s beam.

4.  The warp yarns are starched, dried and beamed simultaneously on to a weaver’s beam.

The last method is the most extensively adapted; but we shall describe the four processes briefly, and in the order mentioned.

For mill warping, as in No. 1 method, from 50 to 72 full spinning bobbins are placed in the bank or creel as illustrated to the right of each large circular warping mill in Fig. 27.  The ends of the threads from these bobbins are drawn through the eyes of two leaves of the “heck,” and all the ends tied together.  The heck, or apparatus for forming what is known as the weaver’s lease, drawer’s lease, or thread-by-thread lease, is shown clearly between the bobbin bank and the female warper in the foreground of the illustration.  The heck is suspended by means of cords, or chains, and so ranged that when the warping mill is rotated in one direction the heck is lowered gradually between suitable slides, while when the mill is rotated in the opposite direction the heck is raised gradually between the same slides.  These movements are necessary in order that the threads from the bobbins may be arranged spirally round the mill and as illustrated clearly on all the mills in the figure.  The particular method of arranging the ropes, or the gearing if chains are used, determines the distance between each pair of spirals; a common distance is about 1-1/2 in.  There are about 42 spirals or rounds on the nearest mill in Fig. 27, and this number multiplied by the circumference of the mill represents the length of the warp.

[Illustration:  FIG. 27 A ROW OF MODERN WARPING MILLS]

At the commencement, the heck is at the top, and when the weaver’s lease has been formed on the three pins near the top of the mill with the 50 to 72 threads (often 56), the mill is rotated by means of the handle and its connections shown near the bottom of the mill.  As the mill rotates, the heck with the threads descends gradually and thus the group of threads is disposed spirally on the vertical spokes of the mill until the desired length of the warp is reached.  A beamer’s lease or “pin lease” is now made on the two lower pegs; there may be two, three, four or more threads in each group of the pin