This section is from the book "The Engineer's And Mechanic's Encyclopaedia", by Luke Hebert. Also available from Amazon: Engineer's And Mechanic's Encyclopaedia.
The name of a rich kind of silk, which has undergone the operation of tabbying; which consists in passing between metallic rollers, the surfaces of which are variously engraven, producing thereby the device upon the stuff, by laying down the fibres in one part, and leaving them erect in the other, rendering them conspicuous by the difference of light and shade
 
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