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Image shows the Loom Tuner, seated centrally and flanked by ten female weavers. They were all employed at Charles Scarth's Laneside Mills and the photograph was taken some years before the first world war. The weavers were quite dependent on the Tuner for earning a good wage. He decided on which material each loom should weave, and the better quality of material being woven, the less time would be taken up with stoppages for breaks and the more money could be earned. When the weaver 'felled', ie. came to the end of the piece of cloth she was weaving, it was up to the Tuner to arrange for a new length to be set up. The waiting time depended on the Tuner and of course there was no payment while the weaver wasn't weaving. Some weavers might be weaving two looms and some only one, and so it became quite tricky installing new warps without keeping the weavers waiting out of turn, especially at periods of short time working. Tuning a loom was a bit similar to tuning a car engine in that although many models were identical, they did not all run with the same efficiency, and some were better than others which sometimes caused jealousy among the weavers. Photograph from the David Atkinson Archive. | License: | http://www.leodis.net/article.aspx?id=12 | Rights holder: | Leeds Central Library | Subjects: | tuner weaver Charles Scarth Laneside Mills | Source: | Leodis - A photographic archive of Leeds | Identifier: | http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?id=20... | Go to resource |
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