Temple: Sacred space or loom stretcher

To most of us, a temple is a building set aside for worship or religious ceremony. The word carries weight: it names spaces of reverence and tradition. But on the loom, a temple is something simpler and more mechanical: a spreading frame that grips the edges of cloth as it grows under the shuttle.

The textile temple is a pair of adjustable rollers or bars, usually made of wood or metal, that clamp onto the selvages (the finished side edges) of the web as it is woven. The web wants to pull inward as the weft passes through the warp; tension and friction draw the cloth narrower. The temple holds it open to its correct width. As the cloth moves forward on the loom, the temple moves with it, keeping the transverse stretch even. Without it, the finished cloth would be waisted and weak at the edges.

The name is old and its origin is metaphorical. The temple spreads and holds, just as the architectural temple stands firm and upright. Both sense a structure that provides support and containment. In some languages the same word does duty in both contexts; in English they have drifted apart so far that few people now recognize the kinship.

The temple garment worn by some practitioners of Latter-day Saint faith is named after the building, not the loom. But the metaphor persists in both: a temple in any form is meant to hold something sacred or necessary in place, to keep it from shrinking or warping under strain.