Page:How and Why Library 350.jpg

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THE WONDERFUL GIFT OF GOOD KING COTTON
293

to a roller. The roll is a yard long, and the threads are so close together that, altogether, they look like thin cloth. Every other thread is lifted, and all at once. The odd threads are lowered. A shuttle carries the cross thread between them. Then the upper threads go down and the lower ones up, and the shuttle flies back. In this way miles and miles of cotton cloth are woven by great looms worked by steam power.

How much work has been done since the little cotton seeds were planted. A great deal of it is dyed, too, or it is printed in pretty patterns. Sometimes, as in dress ginghams, the yarn is dyed many colors before it is woven. Some looms weave satin like stripes and dots and flowers on the cloth. Knitting machines make stockings and even gloves, without seams. Linen and silk and wool are spun and woven in much the same way, but these are not so cheap as cotton. It is good King Cotton that gives you most of your clothes.