The continuously operating ring-spinning machine is provided with a ring frame (Figure 68) around the cop or spindle. This frame, together with the spindle, revolves at high speed, but as the ring revolves a little more slowly than the spindle it winds the yarn comparatively slowly upon the spindle or bobbin. WOVEN, BRAIDED, KNITTED, AND NET GOODS Having now produced our yarn, we may pause to consider the different types of fabric into which it may be formed, and to draw a distinction between, woven, braided, knitted, and net goods. In weaving we have two sets of threads, one set running transversely to the other; in braided materials the threads all run longitudinally and are arranged to cross each other diagonally, so that they are interwoven; in knitting and netting there is a single thread. In the case of netting this thread is knotted where it loops back upon itself, whereas in knitting it is merely looped without knotting. THE LOOM The loom can trace its genealogy away back to early Babylonian times, and the modern power-driven machine does not differ in its broad principles of operation from its ancient progenitor--the hand loom. [Illustration: FIG. 68.--RING-SPINNING FRAME] [Illustration: FIG. 69.--THE HEDDLES OF A LOOM] Every industry has a vocabulary of its own to furnish names for its machine parts and products peculiar unto itself, and in this respect the textile industry is by no means an exception. The threads that run lengthwise in a piece of woven cloth are known as the “weft,” “woof” or “filling.” In the loom the warp threads are threaded through loops on what are known as “heddles”; in fact, there are two “heddles,” _A_ and _B_, Figure 69. Alternate warp threads (_C_) pass through the loops of one heddle, and the other threads through the loops on the other heddle. When one heddle is raised and the other lowered, the threads form a wedge-shaped space (_D_) which is known as a “shed.” The filling thread is sent through the shed and is then pressed closely into the wedge-shaped space against the cloth already woven by means of a “reed” (_E_) which is a comblike member with teeth or flat pieces of metal that pass between the warp threads. This done, the position of the heddles is reversed, so that _A_ is now lowered and _B_ raised, thus binding the warp thread in place and forming another shed for the next warp thread; and thus the process continues. The filling thread is placed in a shuttle (_F_) which carries a bobbin on which the thread is wound. As the shuttle is thrown back and forth through the shed, the thread is unwound and trails behind it. Formerly the shuttle was thrown back and forth by hand, but years ago, long before the invention of the steam engine, the flying shuttle was invented. In other words, a mechanism was provided for striking the shuttle a blow and throwing it across the warp from side to side. By this means the speed of operations was greatly increased.