The picking plate ends in a point and acts on an upright picking shaft through a stud affixed to the latter. The point is removable and is lengthened in broader looms about 1/8 inch for every 10 inches wider reed space. At the top of the picking shaft is a picking stick, an arm of some 30 inches long, carrying a band connected with the shuttle box of the slay. It is now necessary to describe the slay. This is a beam of wood along which the shuttle is passed through the shed and by which the reed is held to beat up the weft. Its length is about 3 feet more than the width of the cloth being woven, the space at each end being taken up by the shuttle boxes. These are cavities open at the top and at one end just sufficiently wide to hold one shuttle. Parallel to the bottom of the box or fly-plate is a spindle carrying a hard piece of horny substance called a picker. To the top of this the band from the picking-stick is attached, whilst at the bottom the shuttle rests against it. The back of the box forms an angle of 86° with the fly-plate--thus, as it were, forming a dovetail into which the shuttle is bevelled to fit. The space between the boxes is called the shuttle race; it is not absolutely level, the middle point being from 1/8 to 1/4 inch lower than the boxes, the greater depression being for wide looms. It will be easily seen how the revolution of the picking plate actuates quickly the picking shaft, and consequently the end of the stick, with an increased speed. The blow is transmitted to the picker and the shuttle driven across the slay into a similar box at the other side. When a new shed has been formed by the healds it is driven back again. A smooth pick is most desirable, and for this reason the stud on the picking shaft must be set so as to receive a smooth _side_ blow from the plate, neither a downward nor an upward one. This is a point in the tackling of looms which receives the attention of every good overlooker. The shuttle used in the ordinary classes of cotton goods is of box or some other heavy wood pointed and tipped at each end with iron. The usual length is about 13 inches and depth 1-3/8 inch. Care must be taken that it is smooth at all parts where it comes in contact with the twist, free from knots or other flaws, which, should they give, would make havoc among the threads.