Rest Scheduling for the Treadle Loom: The Work and Rest Pattern That Weaves the Most Cloth in a Six-Hour Day

Weavers who work full days at a treadle loom know that the afternoon loom is slower than the morning loom, and most respond by working through, reasoning that a slow pick still advances the cloth while a rest advances nothing. That reasoning treats the weaver's legs and attention as a fixed resource that rest merely spends. This paper models them instead as a state that weaving depletes and rest restores, simulates a six-hour day minute by minute under four work and rest patterns, and asks which pattern delivers the most finished cloth by the end of the day. In the computed results, the best schedule is 25 min work / 5 min rest; the best metres is 6.83; the best picks is 12287; the continuous metres is 5.85; the gain pct is 16.8. Take rest little and often, before fatigue has spent the rate. The study is simulated, not measured; all inputs are stated assumptions, printed in the accompanying computation, which readers may replace with their own values and re-run.