Studies in Primitive Looms
Part II of H. Ling Roth's series on primitive looms, covering African looms. He identifies seven forms: vertical mat loom, horizontal fixed heddle loom, vertical cotton loom, horizontal narrow band treadle loom, pit treadle loom, Mediterranean or Asiatic treadle loom, and the "carton" loom. The text describes museum specimens (Bankfield, Liverpool, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Brighton, British Museum) from Kwa Ibo, Ba-Pindi, Old Calabar, Madagascar, Nyasaland, Abeokuta and Opobo, with dimensions, warp attachments, heddles, selvedges, needles, spools, reeds and shuttles. It has many line drawings and diagrams, including pattern-heddle and herring-bone rod threading diagrams for the vertical cotton loom. It ends with a tentative distribution map of loom types in Africa and discussion of their origins.