Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-04-29

THE modern loom is a wonderful
automaton that has no brains" said
Doctor Willing. Let sufficient power
be supplied, It can go on weaving in.
cessantly, no matter what happens to
the warp and weft or filing. Oh! yes;
I know all the terms, the argot of the
district. What 1 aim to point out Is
that the weaver is no longer the trained
expert who dexterously tossed boat.
shaped shuttles, threaded with weft,
from hand to hand between two lines of
warp called the warp-shed. Nor does
he control this passage for the shuttles
with the aid of strings and levers oper-
ated by his feet with the skill of a
church organist. That was the condi.
ton in my dads time.
Our twentieth century weaver has
become a switch-tender. He or she
are engineers no longer. The real
weaver is the mechanical loom. 1t lifts
and drops the healds to form the warp.
shed; it does the shuttle-throwing and
it beats UP the weft thread or filling into
position. Indeed. in its roaring awe
inspiring presence 1t is difficult to real
ize how very differen. were the condi.
tions in which our great.grandfathers
and even our grandfathers lived and
worked"
They had passed Somerset street and
were under the Reading grade crossing.
Monte paused to drop dime into the
hand of a cripple who was seated on
the sidewalk, his back against the stone
wall. The shout of the man brought
them both back to HIM.
Il am no beggar," said he. Here are
your newspapers and change, sir. Good
evening, doctor; I did not see you at
first"
Monte looked SO crestfalIen when they
had resumed their walk that Doctor
Willing explained: That cripple was
once mill operative. He was laid on
during the panic of 1907 and got a tenn
porary job in a railroad freight yard,
where he lost his legs. He took to sell
ing newspapers for a living. He is
proud and he won't accept charity. But
as I was saying, the demands upon the
weaver of today are different from those
of ancient times"
go ahead; / am keenly interested"
assented Monte, as they turned west on
Lehigh avenue.
"He or she must needs have a quick
eye, vitality. alertness, ambition, system
and the right temperament TO keep pace
with the needs of the great mechanical
loom." said the doctor. Each loom in
the eyes of an employer is so many
yards in SO many hours. To get the
maximum production from the loom
there must be as few and short stop
pages OF the looms as possible. Pre-.
miums are paid on earnings above GER
tain amount 10 spur weavers 10 supreme
efforts. know of a girl weaver who
wove los yards in "a hours, while an.
other weaver on the identical machine
wove only 80 yards in the same time"
Where does The Kiss OF Death
come in2" asked Monte persistently.
Patience" laughed the doctor. II
have first outlined all the primary condi-
tions surrounding the work OF weaver
to show you that he or she is about
in the position of a horse tied in the
rear OF a racing automobile. Employ |
ment is contingent upon his or her abil.
ity to get maximum production out Of
the loom. This ability includes prompt. |
ness in starting and stopping the loom. |
seeing that broken warp ends are
quickly repaired and inserting full bob
bins or spools with new weft thread |
the moment the last prick-a prick is a
single strand OF wsft reaching once
across a piece OF cloths thrown across |
from an empty bobbin. A few weayers
can change bobbins without stopping
the loom. Lastly, weavers must attend,
that the metal shuttles which travel
across the width OF the loom with the
speed o. cypress trains are promptly