Heddle

A heddle is the cord, wire or steel strip with an eye through which a single warp thread passes on a loom. Lifting the heddle lifts the thread, and lifting a group of heddles opens the gap, called the shed, through which the weft is carried.

How are heddles grouped?

On most looms the heddles hang on frames called shafts, which British mill books call heald shafts, and each warp thread is assigned to one of them. Plain weave needs two shafts. In 1883 Alexander Brown noted that mills generally hung four leaves of heddles for plain weaving, tied in pairs so the heddles would not crowd on the shafts. A dobby lifts whole shafts in a pegged order. In E. A. Posselt's 1888 description of the Jacquard machine, each hook instead lifts a harness cord that carries heddles, so warp threads can be raised separately.

What does the Getty vocabulary say?

It describes heddles as the cords, wires or steel strips the warp passes through, which separate the warp threads so the shuttle can pass, and it calls them a major advance in the development of weaving technology.

Sources

1. Art & Architecture Thesaurus: heddles (300024953). Getty Research Institute
2. The Jacquard Machine Analyzed and Explained (1888), 'General arrangement and application'. E. A. Posselt, via Project Gutenberg
3. A Practical Treatise on the Construction of the Power-Loom and the Art of Weaving (1883). Alexander Brown, via Internet Archive
4. Tappet and Dobby Looms (1912), chapter I. Thomas Roberts, via Internet Archive

See also

• Warp
• Dobby
• Plain weave
• Jacquard loom

Read more

• Dobby, Jacquard, Plain: How a Pattern Gets Woven In

Last updated October 18, 2026 · Markdown