The art of weaving threads of various descriptions is one of the
oldest, and is frequently mentioned in the Scriptures and other
ancient records. It consists in so crossing or interlacing the fibres
that they shall form fabrics fitted for the various requirements to
which they are applied.
Weaving, as now performed by machinery, for the production of what
are called “textile fabrics,” is far too complicated to be here
described in detail, the machines which are used being amongst the
most complicated contrivances of men’s hands. Dr. Ure says of the
weaving of “bobbin-net,”--“It may be said to surpass every other
branch of human industry in the complex ingenuity of its machinery;
one of ‘Fisher’s spotting-frames’ being as much beyond the most
curious chronometer as that is beyond a common roasting-jack.” The
principle is, however, nearly the same, whether performed by hand
or by machinery, but some of the more complex fabrics could only be
produced by hand, and by those few who may have devoted great talents
and years of application to the acquirement of the requisite skill,
whereas a machine once made can be imitated by ordinary workmen, and
itself worked by unskilled mechanics.