Braid
3 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Braid. All 3 are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a narrow band or tape formed of three or more strands of silk, wool, or other material. Braid differs from woven fabric in that warp threads only are employed, while weaving involves two sets of threads,--those that run lengthwise, called warp threads, and those that run crosswise, called weft threads. In braiding, the warp threads cross and recross the web diagonally, each thread alternately over and under one or more of the others. It will be seen that braid is much more elastic than a woven web. It is less desirable, consequently, in case strength and firmness are required; but it may be used to advantage in trimming and finishing garments, its elasticity rendering it adaptable to following outlines and forming ornamental figures. The art of braiding is probably older than that of weaving. The variety of articles in whose manufacture it forms a part is endless. So far as is known, the first machine for manufacturing braid was patented in England in 1748, but it is certain that machines were used at about the same time in Barmen, Germany, which became and has since remained the center of the braid industry. It is estimated that, at the present time, more than 100,000 machines for the manufacture of braid are in use in Barmen. The materials used for braiding include straw, bast, wire, cotton, worsted, mohair, silk, linen, jute, tinsel, and others. A different machine is used for each different width and style of braid, but their action is so automatic that one operator can tend from one to eight machines.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
JAMES, a Scotch physician, born in Fife, in 1795, studied medicine at Edinburgh, and settled as a surgeon in Manchester. He is noted for his researches on animal magnetism, which he called hypnotism. He died March 25, 1860.
An Encyclopaedia of Occultism (1920)
(See Hypnotism .)
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's 1910 description of braiding e recrossing diagonally, with no weft, and more elastic than woven web is still exactly how the process is defined and taught. What has moved is the use: braid is no longer mainly trimming for garments but a structural technology, machine-braided over a mandrel to make carbon- and glass-fibre preforms for aircraft and car parts, high-pressure hose and cable sheathing, surgical sutures and the fine wire braid of catheters and stents. Barmen, called "the center of the braid industry," was absorbed into the new city of Wuppertal in 1929, though "Barmen braider" survives as the standard trade name for a machine type. Collier's 1921 note on James Braid needs one correction: he did not research animal magnetism so much as demolish it, arguing from 1841 onward that the effects came from the subject's own nervous system and suggestion rather than any magnetic fluid, and coining "hypnotism" for it the view psychology still holds.
Written for this edition, 2026.