Dictionary

drawboy en · NOUN

Etymology

From draw + boy.

Meanings

1. (historical) A boy who operates the harness cords of a drawloom.
   • At some time in the fifteenth century a silk-worker called John of Calabria, an Italian immigrant, had introduced a new kind of silk-weaving loom, which made the process somewhat easier. The basic difference between weaving wool (or linen) and silk lies in the fineness of the latter's threads. Because there are so many of them to the square inch, and the material itself was already expensive, silk was costly. By the time the automated organ was in use, John's drawloom, as it was called, was already working in Lyons, with a few modifications. First a pattern was drawn on squared paper, to correspond to the pattern desired on the finished weave. Squared paper was used to show which of the warp threads had to be lifted each time the weft thread was passed between them. In this way, all the warp threads to be lifted at the same time could be attached to a common cord. When the cord was pulled, all the threads attached to it would lift in unison. The job of pulling these cords was left to children, commonly called drawboys, who worked long hours and often became tired enough to pull the wrong cords, with disastrous results. The weaver would only know of the mistake well after it had been made, when it was too late to correct it. […] [figure legend] A 'bizarre' pattern in silk. At the beginning of the eighteenth century these complex designs, inspired by silks from the Far East, required immense care in weaving. Drawboys' mistakes were ruinously expensive. 1978, James Burke, Connections, Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, pages 108-109:
2. Part of a power loom that performs the same function.

Forms

Relateds

child labour · drawgirl · drawstring

Translations (2)

cmn 挽花工 (boy who operates the harness cords of a drawloom) · cmn 提花小廝 /提花小厮 (boy who operates the harness cords of a drawloom)