shown at oo, fig. 4. This shaft o has two cranks upon it, which, by means of the connecting links P, P, gives motion to the lay. The other end of this shaft has a small toothed-wheel q, seen at fig. 3, which takes into another toothed-wheel r, of twice the diameter, which last is fixed upon the end of an horizontal axle tt, extending the whole width of the loom, as shown at fig. 1. This axle has a small bevel pinion fixed upon it, which actuates a bevel-wheel u upon the cross axle w. The tappet wheel r is also fixed upon this axle, and the geer is so regulated that the tappet wheel makes one revolution to every nine revolutions of the crank shaft.

The tappet wheel is formed by two wheels which carry nine small axles, on each of these axles are six small friction rollers, making in the whole fifty-four friction rollers. These rollers are intended to act upon twelve curved levers y, z, fig. 1. The curved levers move upon fixed centres supported in small bearings; six of these curved levers are supported at 1, and the other six at 2, crossing each other, as shown in fig. 1, the extremities of the levers alternately rising and falling. The ends of these levers, towards the middle of the loom, are attached by cords to the lower rails of the heddles, and their other extremities by cords to the top levers, from which are suspended the upper rails of the heddles.

The operation of the tappet wheel upon the heddles is this:Having been actuated by means of the shaft and geer, as before described, the wheel in its revolution causes the friction rollers to strike alternately upon one or other of the levers y or z, and force them down, by which means the respective heddles are depressed or raised at certain parts of the operation, and these drawing the sheds of the warp up or down to permit the shuttle to pass, as before described, dispose the warp according to that particular arrangement which is calculated to produce a twilled fabric. In order to vary the twill, the friction rollers are capable of being shifted, and, by so disposing the collets between the rollers, certain of them may be situated so as not to act upon any particular one or more of the curved levers.

The operation of pecking, or throwing the shutle, is effected by means of a double arm or tappet 3 on the axis of the shaft tt, which acts upon the levers 4, seen in fig. 3, whence rods and bands pass to a vibrating lever 5, upon the axle of a wheel at the top of the loom in front, as seen in fig. 1. Thus the revolution of the tappets 3, causing the alteration of the levers 4, produce the vibratory action of the lever 5; and cords being passed from this lever to the peckers 6, 6, cause the peckers alternately to strike the shuttle out of its box, and send it across the lay e.

There is a provision in case the shuttle should by any accident stop in the race to prevent the lay from coming forward, which would otherwise break the reed; this is by means of small springs in the shuttle boxes, which, when the shuttle has not reached its destination, stand out and catch against small projections, and by that means stop the advance of the lay. Whenever this happens, the main strap m is, by the sudden action of a spring, pushed off the rigger of the main shaft, and the machinery is altogether stopped until the accidental interruption is removed.

The second improvement applies to that descrip

tion of loom employed for the weaving of figured goods, and consists in certain machinery to be placed above the loom for the purpose of effecting the raising and depressing of such parts of the warp as are usually operated upon by the draw boy. Very considerable difficulty and labor are attendant upon the old mode of setting in any particular pattern, figure, or design to be woven, but this labor and consequent expense are, in a great measure, overcome by the plan proposed under the present patent.

A section of the improved piece of mechanism is shown in plate II., fig. 1, which is to be placed immediately over the heddles or leases of the loom; a is a cylinder mounted upon an axle, and supported upon bearings in the frame. The periphery of this cylinder is perforated with a vast number of holes at equal distances apart, so as to render the appearance of its entire surface like a colander. Previous to placing the cylinder in the loom, it is to be covered with stout drawing paper, and, when set in such a situation that the light may shine through the perforations, a small punch is to be employed for the purpose of pricking through the paper, and through the cylinder, certain holes corresponding to the required pattern.

The cylinder thus pierced is then placed in the frame as shown at a, so as to revolve upon its pivots, resting in bearings capable of accurate adjustment. A series of needles 6 are ranged in a horizontal position, so that their end may come in contact with the periphery of the cylinder.-Cords cc and dd, fastened to the frame above, pass through eyes in the needles, and proceed down to the heddles or leases below. These needles work in guide pieces, and are supported by a straight bar e, which passes through their bent.parts behind, and by that means they are enabled to slide acccurately in a line with the axis of the cylinder. When the ends of the needles come against the blank or unpierced parts of the paper upon the periphery of the cylinder, they are pressed back, and the cords are drawn out of the perpendicular, as d, d, by which means the needles acquire a tendency to advance when any of the apertures come opposite them, so as to permit their ends to slide forward. When any of the needles have slidden forward through any of the apertures of the cylinder, the cords attached to those needles become straight as c, c. There are four bars f, g, f, g, from each of which a row of forks, like a wide toothed comb, extend. Between the forks or teeth of these bars the cords pass; and as the bars are drawn up or let down, by the action of the top levers, a knot in each of the cords causes them and the heddles to which they are attached below to be drawn up or let down also: it will hence be seen that those needles which have been allowed to advance by passing into the apertures of the cylinder, draw the bent cords d, d, into the straight position of c c, and by that means those cords are withdrawn from the teeth of the forked bars g, g, and are placed between the teeth of ff, which, in rising, take hold of the knots and lift the heddles attached to the cords so operated upon; while those needles which are forced back by the blanks of the cylinder keep their cords bent in the position of d, d, and the heddles connected to these cords are lifted by the rising of the bars g, g; thus the different parts of the warp required to be raised, to produce any particular pattern or damask figure, are so raised

the manner of working these shuttles for the weaving of narrow goods as ribbons; by which arrangement, shuttles with different colors or shades of color may be worked at the same time. The lay is provided with an iron sliding frame, having beaters extending up and down, so as to reach the several shuttles in the upper and lower rows; or, if more than two rows of shuttles be arranged, then the sliding beater is formed as a ladder. WEB, n. s. WEB'BED, adj.

Sax. pebba. Texture; any thing woven; a film: webbed WEB FOOTED, is joined by a film: webfooted, WEB'STER,N. s. having films between the toes: webster, a weaver (obsolete).

Penelope, for her Ulysses' sake, Devised a web her wooers to deceive:

In which the work that she all day did make, The same at night she did again unreave. Spenser. This is the foul flibertigibbet; he gives the web and the pin, squints the eye, and makes the hairlip.

Shakspeare.

Spiders touched, seek their web's inmost part.

Davies.

After local names, the most in number have been derived from occupations: as, Taylor, Webster, Wheeler. Camden. The sword, whereof the web was steel; Pommel, rich stone; hilt, gold approved by touch. Fairfax. The fates, when they this happy web have spun, Shall bless the sacrel clue, and bid it smoothly run. Dryden.

Webfooted fowls do not live constantly upon the

land, nor fear to enter the water.

Ray. Such as are whole-footed, or whose toes are webbed together, their legs are generally short, the most convenient size for swimming. Derham.

WEBB (Philip Carteret), esq., an eminent English antiquary and lawyer, born in 1700. In 1751 he was employed to procure the charter of incorporation for the Society of Antiquaries, London. In 1754 he was elected M. P. for Haslemere; and re-elected in 1761. He was appointed solicitor to the treasury; in which office he continued till June 1765. In 1747 he published Observations on the Proceedings in the Admiralty Courts, 8vo. In 1760 he presented the famous Heraclean Table to the king of Spain, for which he received a diamond ring worth £300. In April, 1763, he was employed in defending Mr. Wilkes in the celebrated prosecution against him. On that occasion he published A Collection of Records about General Warrants, and other political tracts. He also published, 1. A Letter to Dr. Warburton, 1742, 8vo. 2. Excerpta ex Instrumentis Publicis de Judæis, 4to., with other tracts about the Jew bills. 3. Account of a Copper Table discovered at Heraclea, 1760. He published many other temporary tracts. He was three times married; and died in 1770.

WEBSTER (Rev. James), a Scottish divine, was educated at St. Andrew's, then under the noted archbishop Sharp, to whom he rendered himself obnoxious by his attachment to Presbyterian principles. Having joined the party who refused to abjure the covenant (see CAMERONIANS, CARGIL LITES, &c.), he shared in their persecutions, and underwent two severe imprisonments in Dundee and Dumfries, from the latter of which he was liberated by king James VII.'s act of universal toleration in 1685. On the establishment of Presbyterianism in 1688 he obtained first Liberton, whence he was removed to Whitekirk, and lastly

to Edinburgh, in 1693. He published several sermons, and died in 1720.

WEBSTER (Alexander), D. D., son to the preceding, was born in 1737, studied at Edinburgh, and in 1733 was ordained minister in Culross. In 1737 he was called to the Tolbooth church in Edinburgh. In 1745 he continued in the city when it was taken by the rebels, and all the clergy had fled. By his popularity and eloquence he retained vast numbers loyal to the house of Hanover. He suggested and entirely planned the scheme for the relief of the ministers' widows of the church of Scotland, called the widows' scheme. To him also was owing the first outline of the plan for extending the royalty, and building the new town of Edinburgh. In 1755 he was engaged in a work of vast public utility, being the first Statistical Account of Scotland; and the amount of the population of the different parishes which he procured, other investigations have since proved to be exceedingly accurate. He died in 1784.

WEBSTER (Charles), M. D., a learned physician, born in Dundee, and educated at St. Andrew's, where he also studied divinity. About 1760 he went to Edinburgh, where he practised as a physician, gave lectures on chemistry and materia medica, at the public dispensary, where he was assistant physician along with Mr. Duncan; and became minister of the non-jurant Scottish episcopal congregation in Carrubber's Close, and afterwards of St. Peter's Chapel in Roxburgh place, which he himself built. He lived many years much respected in Edinburgh, and contributed greatly to the procuring the repeal of the penal laws against the Episcopalians of Scotland, and was one of the committee which went to London on that business. He published a short essay, proving condensation to be the cause of heat, and some other chemical tracts. He went abroad during the revolutionary war, and died in the West Indies about 1797. He published also a sermon preached at the opening of St. Peter's Chapel, and an occasional prayer prefixed. A volume of his posthumous sermons has been published for the benefit of his daughters.

WEBSTER (William), a mathematician of London, born in 1684, who kept a school in LeicesterFields. He translated from the French of La Hoste A Compendious course of Mathematics; 2 vols. 12mo. He also wrote a Treatise on Arithmetic; and another on Book-keeping; and died in 1744, aged sixty.

WECHEL (Christopher), a celebrated printer of the sixteenth century at Paris; who in 1530 began to print elegant and correct editions of the ancient Greek authors. To make them perfectly accurate, he employed the learned Sylburgius to prepare the copy and correct the proofs. He died in 1572. They were so correct that not two errors could be found in a large folio.

WECHEL (Andrew), son of Christopher, being a Protestant, about the time of the massacre of Paris, fled to Frankfort and to Basil, where he carried on the printing with equal reputation as his father. He published a catalogue of all the books printed by them both at Frankfort, in 8vo. 1590. He printed also many valuable works at Basil.

WED, v. a. & v.n. Į Sax. pedian. To marry; WED'DING, n. s. Stake for a husband or wife; join in marriage; unite or take permanently to contract matrimony: a wedding is the nuptial ceremony; marriage.