Richard Marsden's 1895 handbook on cotton weaving covers the whole industry. It begins with the history of weaving from ancient Egyptian, Greek and Indian looms through Kay, Cartwright and Roberts and the development of the power-loom. It then explains woven fabric construction with weave plans (plain, twills, double cloth, crimped cloth, gauze/leno, pile fabrics, damask, Jacquard harness, fabric analysis), followed by the modern loom with its shedding, dobby, Jacquard and picking motions. Later chapters cover winding, warping, beaming, yarn bleaching and dyeing, sizing machinery and size materials, the layout and equipment of a weaving shed, factory management, and the Lancashire standard wage lists (Blackburn, Burnley, Colne, Oldham). The book is heavily illustrated with engravings of machinery, and it ends with a publisher's catalogue.