Weaving Weaving Populist party, receiving 22 electoral works to and fro like a pendulum by votes. He was mayor of Colfax, Iowa, in an attachment of vertical rods at each 1904-06. He died February 6, 1912. side called the swords. Attached to the Weaving (weving), the art of inter- lay is what is called the reed, which is lacing yarn threads or a sort of comb having a tooth raised other filaments by means of a loom, so between every two threads of the warp, as to form a web of cloth or other and so by driving up the lay after a woven fabric. In this process two sets weft thread has been introduced the of threads are employed, which traverse weaver strikes home that thread to its the web at right angles to each other. place in the cloth. A great improveThe first set extends from the end of ment was made upon the hand-loom the web in parallel lines, and is com- when John Kay, about 1740, invented the monly called the warp; while the other fly-shuttle, as it was called. This enset of threads crosses and interlaces with abled the weaver to drive the shuttle the warp from side to side of the web, both ways with the right hand by means and is generally called the weft or woof. of a cord attached to a box or trough In all forms of weaving the warp- placed at each end of the shuttle-race, threads are first set up in the loom, and which impelled the shuttle to and fro at then the weft threads are worked into each jerk of the cord. But the most imthe warp, to and fro, by means of a portant improvement was made on the shuttle. It was by this fundamental hand-loom by Joseph Jacquard, of process of lacing two sets of threads in Lyons, who, in 1801, invented an aplooms of simple mechanism that the paratus by which the most intricate patmummy cloths of Egypt, the fine terns could be woven as readily as plain damask and tapestries of the Greeks and cloth. This is accomplished by an inRomans, the Indian muslins, the shawls genious arrangement of hooks and wires, of Cashmere, and the famed textile fab- by means of which the warp threads are rics of Italy and the Netherlands were lifted in any order and to any extent produced. From the latter countries necessary to make the shedding reweaving by means of a hand-loom was quired by the pattern. The order in introduced into England. This loom, in which these hooks and wires are sucits latest form, consists of a frame of cessively lifted and lowered is deterfour upright posts braced together by mined by means of a series of pastecross-beams, the center beam at the back board cards punctured with holes corbeing the warp beam, the beam in front responding to a certain pattern and the being that upon which the web is wound, cards passing successively over a cylinwhile just below this, in front, is the der or drum. The hooked wires pass breast-beam for the support of the through these holes and lift the warpweaver at his work. At the top of the threads in an order which secures that loom is an apparatus by which the hed- the arranged pattern is woven into the dles are lifted or lowered by means of fabric. When the pattern is cxtensive treadles under the foot of the weaver. the machine may be provided with as These heddles consist of two frames, many as 1000 hooks and wires. Another from which depend cords attached by a development was made in the art of loop or eye to each thread in the warp. weaving by the invention of the powerAs these threads are attached to the loom by the Rev. E. Cartwright in frames, alternately, it follows that when 1784. In the power-loom, which has one heddle is raised every second thread been gradually improved and adapted to in the warp is also raised, while the re- steam-power, the principal motions of maining threads are depressed; and this the old method of weaving, such as is called shedding the warp. When the shedding the warp-threads, throwing the warp threads are thus parted there is shuttle, and beating up the thread, are still left a small opening or shed between the retained. The frame of the power-loom threads, and it is through this opening is of cast-iron, and motion is communithat the weaver drives his shuttle from cated to the loom by means of a shaft, side to side. The shuttle, which is hol- the stroke of the lay being made by low in the middle, contains the weft- cranks attached to the driving shaft, thread wound round a bobbin or pirn, while the shuttle is thrown by means and as the shuttle is shot across the of a lever attachment at the center of web this weft thread unwinds itself. the loom. Although the principle of the When the thread is thus introduced it loom is the same in all kinds of weavis necessary to bring it to its place in ing, yet there are numberless modificathe fabric. This is accomplished by tions for the production of special fabmeans of the lay or batten, which is rics. The lappet loom is one suitable suspended from the top of the loom, and for weaving either plain or gauze cloths, This wonderful machine is capable of turning out beautiful and intricate fabrics with great rapidity and is almost entirely automatic in its action. Webb City Webster and also for putting in representations in August, 1823. In 1826 Weber visited of flowers, birds, or the like. Cross London to superintend the production of weaving is a term applied to that process Oberon at Covent Garden Theater. It in which, as in gauze weaving, the was enthusiastically received. The comwarp threads, instead of lying con- poser, however, was out of health, and stantly parallel, cross over or twist died in London, June 5, 1826. Besides around one another, thus forming a operas, he wrote a large number of other plexus or interlacing independent of that works. produced by the weft. Double weaving Webster (web'ster), a village in consists in weaving two webs simultaneWebster township (town), ously one above the other, and inter- Worcester Co., Massachusetts, on the weaving the two at intervals so as to French River, 16 miles s. by w. of Worform a double cloth. Kidderminster or cester. It has extensive manufactures Scotch carpeting is the chief example of of cotton and woolen goods, boots and this process. Pile weaving is the proc- shoes, optical goods, etc. The lake is a ess by which fabrics like that of velvets, summer resort. Pop. 11,509, velveteens, corduroy, and Turkey car: Webster, city in Hamilton Co., Iowa, pets are produced. In the weaving of on the Boone River, 20 these fabrics, besides the ordinary warp miles E. of Fort Dodge. It has railroad and weft, there is what is called the shops and various manufactures. Pop. pile-warp, the threads of which are left 5208. in loops above the surface till cut, and Webster, DANIEL, famous orator and the cutting of which constitutes the statesman, born January pile. 18, 1782, at Salisbury, New Hampshire. a city of Jasper Co., He studied for four years at Dartmouth of Joplin. It is the center of a lead and zinc region, and has large mining interests. Has also a foundry, iron works, etc. Pop. 11,817. Webb City, Missouri, 5 miles N. Webb, CHARLES W. College, and having adopted the legal that profession was admitted as a practitioner in the Court of Common Pleas for Suffolk county. In 1813 he was elected to Congress by the Federal party HENRY, humorist, in New Hampshire, and from born at Rouse's Point, New period to the close of his life took a York, in 1834; died in 1905. Under the pen name of John Paul' he wrote for several newspapers, his humorous sketches being chiefly contributed to the New York Tribune. He wrote several burlesque dramas. Weber (va'ber), KARL MARIA FRIED Daniel Webster. RICH ERNST, BARON VON, a German musical composer, was born at Eutin in Holstein in 1786. His father was a musician and had him carefully educated. In 1800 he wrote the opera of the Waldmädchen (Wood-maiden'), and had it performed at Chemnitz and Freiberg in Saxony. In 1803 he visited Vienna, where he became acquainted with Haydn and the Abbé Vogler, from whom he received great help in his studies. The latter procured him a musical directorship in Breslau, on which he entered in 1804. Two years prominent part in public affairs, being later he exchanged this post for a similar especially distinguished as an orator. one at Carlsruhe, and he was subse- No public speaker could surpass him in quently (1813-16) director of the opera producing an impression on an audience, at Prague. At the close of 1816 he set- and he is regarded as one of the greatest tled at Dresden, where he was founder of the world's orators. He became a and director of the German opera. In senator in 1827, and in 1836 (and again 1820 he went to Berlin to bring out Der in 1848) was an unsuccessful candidate Freischütz, the most celebrated of his for the presidency. In 1841, under the compositions. It was performed in Lon- presidency of General Harrison, he was don and Paris two years later. In 1822 appointed secretary of state, and he had Euryanthe was produced on commission an important part in the arrangemert for Vienna, and was brought out there of the Ashburton Treaty of 1842. He Webster Groves Wedgwood-ware was opposed to the admission of Texas the American Dictionary of the English as a slave state and to the Mexican war, Language. In preparing this work he but supported Clay's compromise of visited England, and finished the diction1850. In 1850, on the death of Presi- ary during an eight months' residence dent Taylor, he became secretary of in Cambridge. The first edition of his state under President Fillmore. This dictionary was published in 1828 (2 office he continued to occupy till his vols. 4to); it was followed by a second death, which took place at his estate of in 1840; since which time several enMarshfield, Massachusetts, October 24, larged and improved editions have ap1852. Among his many notable orations peared. He died in May, 1843. the most famous was that called out Wedge (wedi), a piece of wood or by the nullification movement of South Carolina in 1830. His great argument in defense of the Union and the Constitution on that occasion has rarely or never been surpassed in the history of oratory. Its closing sentence, Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable,' has become an American watchword. Webster Groves, a city of St. Louis Co., Missouri, 10 miles w. s. w. of the central point of St. Louis, to which it is closely related. Pop. 7080. metal, thick at one end, and sloping to a thin edge at the other, used in splitting wood, rocks, etc. In geometrical terms it is a body contained under two triangular and three rectangular surfaces. It is one of the mechanical powers, and besides being used for splitting purposes is employed for producing great pressure, and for raising immense weights. All that is known with certainty respecting the theory of the wedge is that its mechanical power is increased by diminishing the angle of penetration. All cutting and penetrat Webster, JOHN, a dramatic poet of ing instruments may be considered as the seventeenth century, wedges. was clerk of the parish of St. Andrew, Wedgwood (wedj'wud), JOSIAH, a Holborn, and a member of the Company peare. celebrated potter, born at of Merchant Tailors. His works are: Burslem, Staffordshire, England, in The White Devil (1612); The Devil's 1730. He received little education, and Law-case (1623); The Duchess of went to work in his brother's factory at Malfy (1623); Appius and Virginia the age of eleven. An incurable lame(1654); The Thracian Wonder (1661); ness, the result of smallpox, which suband A Cure for a Cuckold, a comedy sequently compelled him to have his (1661). He also assisted Dekker in right leg amputated, forced him to give writing the History of Sir Thomas up the potter's wheel. He removed for Wyatt, and the comedies Westward Ho! a time to Stoke, where he entered into and Northward Ho! By some critics he partnership with persons in his own is accounted second only to Shakes- trade, and where his talent for ornamental pottery was first displayed. Returning in 1759 to Burslem, he set up a small manufactory of his own, in which he made a variety of fancy articles. His business improving, he turned his attention to white stoneware, and to the cream-colored ware for which he became famous; and he succeeded in producing a ware so hard and durable as to render works of art produced in it almost indestructible. His reproduction of the Portland Vase is famous. He also executed paintings on pottery without the artificial gloss so detrimental to the effect of superior work. (See Wedgwoodware.) His improvements in pottery created the great trade of the Staffordshire Potteries. He died in 1795. See Pottery. Webster, born studies. In 1789 he settled at Hartford Wedgwood-ware, a superior kind of semivitrified to practice law, but removed in 1793 to New York, where for some time he de- pottery, without much superficial glaze, voted himself to journalism. In 1806 and capable of taking on the most brilbe published an 8vo English Dictionary, liant and delicate colors produced by which led the way for his great work, fused metallic oxides and ochers; S |