Heddles & the Electoral College

Two topics:  About Heddles and, below that, if you are interested in U.S. politics, About the U.S. Electoral College.

About Heddles

I set up my new (one previous owner) floor loom, a Gilmore 8-harness loom (54″ weaving width), and I saw I needed to lot more heddles. What is a heddle?

A floor loom has at least two shafts or harnesses, and on each are numerous heddles.  The heddles separate the warp threads:  The warp threads (except for selvedge threads, if used), pass through heddles.  The pattern the weaver uses determines which warp threads go through a heddle on specific shafts and where.  Here’s a close up drawing of a harness and its heddles.

If you look at the top row of printing in the picture below, you can see where the harnesses sit on a loom (behind the beater):

(Source of both pictures)

There are different kinds of heddles from which a weaver can choose.

While the mainstay of many weaving devotees, many knitters and crocheters find using a small rigid heddle loom the perfect way to give weaving a try.   A rigid heddle loom uses a single shaft (usually).  The warp threads pass alternately through the eyes in the heddles and through the spaces between those heddles.  The heddles don’t move, just the shaft.  When the weaver raises the single shaft, the threads through the eyes go up.  When she lowers the shaft, they are lowered.

Two popular rigid heddle looms are Ashford’s  Knitters Loom.  Another is Schacht’s Cricket loom that I bought for Granddaughter F.  (I wove two projects on it.  Granddaughter F hasn’t touched it!)

Texsolv heddles, made from heat-treated polyester, are very popular among many weavers.  Far quieter than metal heddles, they are also very light, though for some jack looms their light weight could cause problems.  (Click here and here for some useful information on Texsolv heddles.)

Wire twist heddles are easy to find, though they can be hard on threads.  Weavers have an option on height of the eye.  Wire heddles slide on the heddle bar more easily than Texsolve heddles.

Inserted eye heddles are similar to wire heddles but easier on the threads:  The eyes have been dipped into solder, creating a smoother eye.  Many weavers working with hairy yarns find the yarn is less likely to tangle when going through these eyes.

In 1920 the Steel Heddle Manufacturing Co. could not keep up with orders for its flat steel heddles.  When I learned to weave in the early 1980s, they were commonly used.  Sadly, however, the company was purchased by a German company which destroyed the Steel Heddle Manufacturing’s dies.  Heddles are no longer made in the U.S. and more difficult to find.

Though not quiet like the Texsolv heddles, they are a good weight for jack looms.  Further, they lay flat into each other, which means weavers are able to pack a lot of these heddles onto the heddle bars – a benefit for weavers who work with densely packed warp threads.

So, which type of heddle did I go with?  I found two source with stashes of flat steel heddles and bought several hundred.  Then a weaving friend generously gifted me with a box of Steel Heddle Manufacturing Co. heddles!  (Thanks, SMN!)

As an aside, are you wondering about the origin of the word “heddle?”  According to Merriam-Webster, it is “probably alteration of Middle English helde, from Old English hefeld; akin to Old Norse hafald heddle, Old English hebban to lift.”

About the U.S. Electoral College

The U.S. Electoral College is a conundrum to many people, whether or not they’re Americans.  What is it and why does the U.S. have it?  First, some background.

When the Constitution was signed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 17, 1787, it didn’t automatically go into effect.  It first had to be ratified by the states.  It would be 3 years before the 13 states ratified the Constitution and, as this chart illustrates, not all states overwhelmingly supported its ratification.

State	Date	Votes for	Votes against
Delaware	December 7, 1787	30	0
Pennsylvania	December 12, 1787	46	23
New Jersey	December 18, 1787	38	0
Georgia	January 2, 1788	26	0
Connecticut	January 9, 1788	128	40
Massachusetts	February 6, 1788	187	168
Maryland	April 28, 1788	63	11
South Carolina	May 23, 1788	149	73
New Hampshire	June 21, 1788	57	47
Virginia	June 25, 1788	89	79
New York	July 26, 1788	30	27
North Carolina	November 21, 1789	194	77
Rhode Island	May 29, 1790	34	32

The debate over whether to ratify the constitution came to a head in Virginia and New York.  It coalesced around two opposing factions: people favoring a republic – that is, a democracy where people were best represented by elites – and those who sought a popular democracy – where all citizens (errr, i.e., free white male property owners) should have a equal voice in governance.

Could or should the “masses” (most of whom were uneducated yeoman) be entrusted with democratic tools?  Opposing the creation of a strong, centralized federal government, the Antifederalists thought they could.  The Federalists thought not and feared the instability of the democracy by the masses.

The Federalists won, in no small part by the arguments of Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison crafted in a series of persuasive essays called the Federalist Papers (U.S. Library of Congress), wherein they argued for a strong, centralized republican government with controls on popular democracy.

One control on direct democracy was that U.S. Senators were not popularly elected; they were appointed by the state legislatures.  This changed in 1913 with the 17th Amendment.

Another control on popular democracy was an “intermediate body of electors” as outlined by Alexander Hamilton in Federalist Paper No. 68.  Why?

[So] that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications. Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single State; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of merit, to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole Union, or of so considerable a portion of it as would be necessary to make him a successful candidate for the distinguished office of President of the United States.”

The result?  The Electoral College was a compromise between electing presidents by a popular vote of citizens and electing the president by a vote of elite representatives (i.e., Congress).

I’ve read Federalist Paper No. 68 many times.  Trump certainly is “not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications” and has displayed – boasted of! – his “[t]alents for low intrigue and the little arts of popularity.”  Nonetheless, when the Electoral College met last month, Donald Trump received 304 votes and, though she won the popular vote by almost 3 million votes Hillary Clinton received 227 votes from the Electoral College.

I suggest that in casting votes for Trump, the Electoral College blatantly failed to fulfill its role.  According to the U.S. Library of Congress, there have been 700 attempts to reform or abolish the Electoral College in the last 200 years.  The Electoral College is way past its expiration date.