Misplaced Pages

#699300

48-605: The earliest predecessor to Holyoke's canals dates to 1827, when the Hadley Falls Company was established to manufacture cotton cloth. Its water-powered looms were fed from a wing dam along the Connecticut River 's Great Rapids. Today's canals began in 1848, after river measurements indicated an available water power of 6,000 cubic feet per second (170 m/s), the equivalent of 30,000 horsepower (22,000 kW), or enough to power 450 mills. That year

96-695: A combination hydro and steam electric power plant on the First Level Canal. Today the canal system is owned by the City of Holyoke and operated by its municipal Gas and Electric Department which bought out the assets of Holyoke Water Power in December 2001. As early as 1995, plans were proposed to create a "canal walk" as part of a "necklace park plan." Styled after the Emerald Necklace , this proposal called for linking Olmsted-designed parks to

144-503: A darning egg and a separate comb-like piece with teeth to hook the warp over; these are used for repairing knitted garments and are like a linear knitting spool . Darning looms were sold during World War Two clothing rationing in the United Kingdom and Canada, and some are homemade. Circular looms are used to create seamless tubes of fabric for products such as hosiery, sacks, clothing, fabric hoses (such as fire hoses) and

192-477: A loom that folds into a narrow space when not in use. Loom frames can be roughly divided, by the orientation of the warp threads, into horizontal looms and vertical looms. There are many finer divisions. Most handloom frame designs can be constructed fairly simply. The back-strap loom (also known as belt loom) is a simple loom with ancient roots, still used in many cultures around the world (such as Andean textiles ). It consists of two sticks or bars between which

240-441: A lot of floor space, and full-time professional weavers are unlikely to use them as they are unergonomic. Their cheapness and portability is less valuable to urban professional weavers. In a treadle loom, the shedding is controlled by the feet, which tread on the treadles . The earliest evidence of a horizontal loom is found on a pottery dish in ancient Egypt , dated to 4400 BC. It was a frame loom, equipped with treadles to lift

288-484: A lot of yarn, so the weaver does not need to refill them too often; and to be an ergonomic size and shape for the particular weaver, loom, and yarn. They may also be designed for low friction. At their simplest, these are just sticks wrapped with yarn. They may be specially shaped, as with the bobbins and bones used in tapestry-making (bobbins are used on vertical warps, and bones on horizontal ones). Deck arch bridge Too Many Requests If you report this error to

336-418: A shed. To create the counter-shed, a heddle-bar is usually used. A heddle-bar is simply a stick placed across the warp and tied to individual warp threads. When it is lifted, it pulls the warp threads it is tied to out of position, creating a shed. A warp-weighted loom (see diagram) typically uses a heddle-bar. It has two upright posts (C); they support a horizontal beam (D), which is cylindrical so that

384-591: A single-shaft loom. The different shafts (also called harnesses) must be controlled by some mechanism. While non-rigid heddles generally mean that two shafts are needed even for a plain tabby weave , twill weaves require three or more (depending on the type of twill), and more complex figured weaves require still more harnesses. Treadle looms can control multiple harnessess with multiple treadles. The weaver selects which harnesses are engaged with their feet. One treadle may be connected to more than one harness, and any number of treadles can be engaged at once, meaning that

432-482: A tabletop. others are backstraps looms with a rigid heddle , and very portable. There exist very small hand-held looms known as darning looms. They are made to fit under the fabric being mended, and are often held in place by an elastic band on one side of the cloth and a groove around the loom's darning-egg portion on the other. They may have heddles made of flip-flopping rotating hooks (see Loom#Rotating-hook heddles ) . Other devices sold as darning looms are just

480-489: A water wheel. At its origin the canal is 140 feet (43 m) wide with 22 feet (6.7 m) of water depth. It extends eastward about a thousand feet and then sweeps south for more than one mile (1.6 km) to supply the upper tier of mills. The Second Level Canal runs parallel to the First but about 400 feet (120 m) east. It begins at its south end, and runs north for over a mile. For its first 2,000 feet (600 m), it

528-488: Is 140 feet (43 m) wide, then gradually narrows to 100 feet (30 m). Its average water depth is 15 feet (5 m). The Third Level Canal begins at the south end of the Second Level, but some 12 feet (4 m) lower, and extends 3,550 feet (1,082 m). It is about 100 feet (30 m) wide and 10 feet (3 m) deep, with an average height above the river varying between 23–28 feet (7–9 m). Throughout

SECTION 10

#1732783391700

576-424: Is 4.5 miles (7.2 km) in length on three levels. The canals are now used for electrical power generation as the water descends level by level to the river. The First Level Canal contains 12 large gates regulating water coming into the system, each 15 feet (5 m) long by 9 feet (3 m) wide, and weighing more than four tons, and two smaller gates at 11 feet (3 m) by 4.5 feet (1.4 m), all powered by

624-399: Is a device that replaces the drawboy, the weaver's helper who used to control the warp threads by pulling on draw threads. "Dobby" is a corruption of "draw boy". Mechanical dobbies pull on the draw threads using pegs in bars to lift a set of levers. The placement of the pegs determines which levers are lifted. The sequence of bars (they are strung together) effectively remembers the sequence for

672-546: Is the same. The word "loom" derives from the Old English geloma , formed from ge- (perfective prefix) and loma , a root of unknown origin; the whole word geloma meant a utensil, tool, or machine of any kind. In 1404 "lome" was used to mean a machine to enable weaving thread into cloth. By 1838 "loom" had gained the additional meaning of a machine for interlacing thread. Weaving is done on two sets of threads or yarns, which cross one another. The warp threads are

720-409: Is used for narrow work . It is also used to finish edges, weaving decorative selvage bands instead of hemming. There are heddles made of flip-flopping rotating hooks, which raise and lower the warp, creating sheds . The hooks, when vertical, have the weft threads looped around them horizontally. If the hooks are flopped over on side or another, the loop of weft twists, raising one or the other side of

768-563: Is used to control each warp thread separately, allowing very complex patterns. A drawloom requires two operators, the weaver, and an assistant called a "drawboy" to manage the figure harness. The earliest confirmed drawloom fabrics come from the State of Chu and date c. 400 BC. Some scholars speculate an independent invention in ancient Syria , since drawloom fabrics found in Dura-Europas are thought to date before 256 AD. The draw loom

816-414: The 20th century. 42°12′31″N 72°36′01″W  /  42.2086°N 72.6002°W  / 42.2086; -72.6002 Loom A loom is a device used to weave cloth and tapestry . The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads. The precise shape of the loom and its mechanics may vary, but the basic function

864-601: The Canal District, parks already along the canal, and the historical downtown. By 2015, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation completed a new phase of sidewalk construction alongside the canals, opening the Canal Walk that linked the downtown to the then-new Holyoke station . The canals are drained twice every year, in the spring and fall, to allow for maintenance. Today's canal system

912-505: The backstrap loom. The warp-weighted loom is a vertical loom that may have originated in the Neolithic period. Its defining characteristic is hanging weights (loom weights) which keep bundles of the warp threads taut. Frequently, extra warp thread is wound around the weights. When a weaver has woven far enough down, the completed section (fell) can be rolled around the top beam, and additional lengths of warp threads can be unwound from

960-477: The beams can be simply held apart by hooking them behind pegs driven into the ground, with wedges or lashings used to adjust the tension. Pegged looms may, however, also have horizontal sidepieces holding the beams apart. Such looms are easy to set up and dismantle, and are easy to transport, so they are popular with nomadic weavers. They are generally only used for comparatively small woven articles. Urbanites are unlikely to use horizontal floor looms as they take up

1008-600: The company had failed and had passed into receivership, Alfred Smith purchased at auction its hydraulic system, consisting of the dam, its gate houses, and 2.5 miles (4.0 km) of power canals with a boat lock; some 1,100 acres (445 ha) of land in Holyoke containing mills and other buildings; and the public water supply reservoir and gas plant, each with a distribution system. He formed the Holyoke Water Power Company and sold stock to investors. Over

SECTION 20

#1732783391700

1056-459: The company was reconstituted, with a capital stock of $ 4,000,000, to create a new manufacturing center based on local river power. Over the next 10 years it would build the area's dam and canal system, lay out industrial, commercial, and residential areas on its 1,100 acres (445 ha) of land, and construct and operate two cotton mills and a factory making textile machinery. In 1848 the first timber crib dam, about 1,000 feet (300 m) in length,

1104-499: The design. Multiple rows of holes are punched on each card and the many cards that compose the design of the textile are strung together in order. It is based on earlier inventions by the Frenchmen Basile Bouchon (1725), Jean Baptiste Falcon (1728), and Jacques Vaucanson (1740). To call it a loom is a misnomer. A Jacquard head could be attached to a power loom or a handloom, the head controlling which warp thread

1152-415: The fell. The nature of the loom frame and the shedding, picking, and battening devices vary. Looms come in a wide variety of types, many of them specialized for specific types of weaving. They are also specialized for the lifestyle of the weaver. For instance, nomadic weavers tend to use lighter, more portable looms, while weavers living in cramped city dwellings are more likely to use a tall upright loom, or

1200-422: The finished cloth can be rolled around it, allowing the loom to be used to weave a piece of cloth taller than the loom, and preserving an ergonomic working height. The warp threads (F, and A and B) hang from the beam and rest against the shed rod (E). The heddle-bar (G) is tied to some of the warp threads (A, but not B), using loops of string called leashes (H). So when the heddle rod is pulled out and placed in

1248-466: The forked sticks protruding from the posts (not lettered, no technical term given in citation), the shed (1) is replaced by the counter-shed (2). By passing the weft through the shed and the counter-shed, alternately, cloth is woven. Heddle-rods are used on modern tapestry looms. Tablet weaving uses cards punched with holes. The warp threads pass through the holes, and the cards are twisted and shifted to created varied sheds. This shedding technique

1296-412: The intersections of Cabot and Canal Street. Five rail bridges remain operable, including three trusses , along with one defunct deck bridge and another converted into a pedestrian bridge for the Canal Walk. At least two pedestrian bridges, one by Hadley Thread Mill and another by Holyoke Die Cut Card remain closed; another one pedestrian bridge at the corner of Oliver St was demolished in the latter half of

1344-497: The like. Tablet weaving can be used to knit tubes, including tubes that split and join. Small jigs also used for circular knitting are also sometimes called circular looms, but they are used for knitting, not weaving. It is possible to weave by manually threading the weft over and under the warp threads, but this is slow. Some tapestry techniques use manual shedding. Pin looms and peg looms also generally have no shedding devices. Pile carpets generally do not use shedding for

1392-436: The loop, which creates the shed and countershed. Rigid heddles are generally used on single-shaft looms. Odd warp threads go through the slots, and even ones through the circular holes, or vice-versa. The shed is formed by lifting the heddle, and the countershed by depressing it. The warp threads in the slots stay where they are, and the ones in the circular holes are pulled back and forth. A single rigid heddle can hold all

1440-636: The newly constructed fabric must be wound onto cloth beam. This process is called taking up. At the same time, the warp yarns must be let off or released from the warp beam, unwinding from it. To become fully automatic, a loom needs a tertiary motion , the filling stop motion. This will brake the loom if the weft thread breaks. An automatic loom requires 0.125 hp to 0.5 hp to operate (100W to 400W). A loom, then, usually needs two beams, and some way to hold them apart. It generally has additional components to make shedding, picking, and battening faster and easier. There are also often components to help take up

1488-404: The next 30 years the company flourished, as a number of large mills were built in the area. Energy was transmitted from the waterwheels to mills via a distribution system of gears, shafts, pulleys, and belts. The canals first produced municipal electricity on October 14, 1884, from an electric generator connected to a water wheel–driven shafting in an industrial building. In 1888 this was replaced by

Holyoke Canal System - Misplaced Pages Continue

1536-417: The number of different sheds that can be selected is two to the power of the number of treadles. Eight is a large but reasonable number of treadles, giving a maximum of 2 =256 sheds (some of which will not have enough threads on one side to be useful). The weaver must remember the sequence of treadling needed to produce the pattern. A drawloom is for weaving figured cloth. In a drawloom, a "figure harness"

1584-505: The ones stretched on the loom (from the Proto-Indo-European * werp , "to bend" ). Each thread of the weft (i.e. "that which is woven") is inserted so that it passes over and under the warp threads. The ends of the warp threads are usually fastened to beams. One end is fastened to one beam, the other end to a second beam, so that the warp threads all lie parallel and are all the same length. The beams are held apart to keep

1632-586: The pattern. Speed is lower, and shedding and picking devices may be simpler. Looms used for weaving traditional tapestry are called not as "vertical-warp" and "horizontal-warp", but as "high-warp" or "low-warp" (the French terms haute-lisse and basse-lisse are also used in English). Inkle looms are narrow looms used for narrow work . They are used to make narrow warp-faced strips such as ribbons, bands, or tape. They are often quite small; some are used on

1680-409: The pile, because each pile thread is individually knotted onto the warps, but there may be shedding for the weft holding the carpet together. Usually weaving uses shedding devices. These devices pull some of the warp threads to each side, so that a shed is formed between them, and the weft is passed through the shed. There are a variety of methods for forming the shed. At least two sheds must be formed,

1728-408: The shed and the countershed. Two sheds is enough for tabby weave ; more complex weaves, such as twill weaves , satin weaves , diaper weaves , and figured (picture-forming) weaves, require more sheds. A shed-rod (shedding stick, shed roll) is simply a stick woven through the warp threads. When pulled perpendicular to the threads (or rotated to stand on edge, for wide, flat shedding rods), it creates

1776-477: The threads (those passing through the heddles), and lowering the shaft lowers the same threads — the threads passing through the spaces between the heddles remain in place. A treadle loom for figured weaving may have a large number of harnesses or a control head. It can, for instance, have a Jacquard machine attached to it (see Loom#Shedding methods) . Tapestry can have extremely complex wefts, as different strands of wefts of different colours are used to form

1824-550: The three canals there are 28 bridges carrying cars, pedestrians, and parts of the former Holyoke & Westfield Railroad, today operated by the Pioneer Valley Railroad . Of these, in total 21 remain operable. Five single lane bridges, all on the Third Canal, are closed, with one similar remaining in operation at Gatehouse Road. The oldest bridge in the system is the stone deck arch bridge , built in 1894, at

1872-578: The warp beam, and the woven portion of the cloth is rolled up onto the cloth beam (which is also called the takeup roll ). The portion of the fabric that has already been formed but not yet rolled up on the takeup roll is called the fell . Not all looms have two beams. For instance, warp-weighted looms have only one beam; the warp yarns hang from this beam. The bottom ends of the warp yarns are tied to dangling loom weights. A loom has to perform three principal motions : shedding, picking, and battening. There are also usually two secondary motions , because

1920-400: The warp threads taut. The textile is woven starting at one end of the warp threads, and progressing towards the other end. The beam on the finished-fabric end is called the cloth beam . The other beam is called the warp beam . Beams may be used as rollers to allow the weaver to weave a piece of cloth longer than the loom. As the cloth is woven, the warp threads are gradually unrolled from

1968-416: The warp threads, leaving the weaver's hands free to pass and beat the weft thread. A pit loom has a pit for the treadles, reducing the stress transmitted through the much shorter frame. In a wooden vertical-shaft loom, the heddles are fixed in place in the shaft. The warp threads pass alternately through a heddle, and through a space between the heddles (the shed ), so that raising the shaft raises half

Holyoke Canal System - Misplaced Pages Continue

2016-450: The warp threads, though sometimes multiple rigid heddles are used. Treadles may be used to drive the rigid heddle up and down. Rigid heddles (above) are called "rigid" to distinguish them from string and metal heddles, where each warp thread has its own heddle, which has an eye at each end and one in the middle for the warp thread. The eyes in the ends are fastened to a shaft, all in a row. This requires multiple shafts; it cannot be done on

2064-563: The warps are stretched. One bar is attached to a fixed object and the other to the weaver, usually by means of a strap around the weaver's back. The weaver leans back and uses their body weight to tension the loom. Both simple and complex textiles can be woven on backstrap looms. They produce narrowcloth : width is limited to the weaver's armspan. They can readily produce warp-faced textiles, often decorated with intricate pick-up patterns woven in complementary and supplementary warp techniques, and brocading. Balanced weaves are also possible on

2112-400: The weaver. Computer-controlled dobbies use solenoids instead of pegs. The Jacquard loom is a mechanical loom, invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1801, which simplifies the process of manufacturing figured textiles with complex patterns such as brocade , damask , and matelasse . The loom is controlled by punched cards with punched holes, each row of which corresponds to one row of

2160-408: The weights to continue. This frees the weaver from vertical size constraint. Horizontally, breadth is limited by armspan; making broadwoven cloth requires two weavers, standing side by side at the loom. Simple weaves, and complex weaves that need more than two different sheds, can both be woven on a warp-weighted loom. They can also be used to produce tapestries. [REDACTED] In pegged looms,

2208-421: Was constructed across the Connecticut River to divert water into the canals. It failed within hours, and was replaced by a second timber dam, which in turn was replaced in 1900 by a granite-faced dam about 150 feet (46 m) downstream from its predecessor. The early canals were dug by men with picks and shovels, together with horse-drawn teams. Canal construction continued on and off until 1892. In 1859, after

2256-562: Was invented in China during the Han dynasty ( State of Liu ?); foot-powered multi-harness looms and jacquard looms were used for silk weaving and embroidery, both of which were cottage industries with imperial workshops. The drawloom enhanced and sped up the production of silk and played a significant role in Chinese silk weaving. The loom was introduced to Persia, India, and Europe. A dobby head

2304-402: Was raised during shedding. Multiple shuttles could be used to control the colour of the weft during picking. The Jacquard loom is the predecessor to the computer punched card readers of the 19th and 20th centuries. The weft may be passed across the shed as a ball of yarn, but usually this is too bulky and unergonomic. Shuttles are designed to be slim, so they pass through the shed; to carry

#699300