Weaving. Also 9 bier. [The same word as BIER ‘a means of carrying,’ cf. the synonym PORTER used in Scotland.] The name given to a (variable) number of ends (interlaced with a cord or cords), into which a warp is divided in the process of warping, in order to facilitate the opening and dividing of the warp, after sizing, while being wound on the beam; it also facilitates the subsequent process of weaving.
1712. J. Beaumont, Math. Sleaing Tables, 40. Every weaver should be obliged to run a coarse coloured thread through every forty threads in the breadth of the cloth to mark the beers or scores.
1819. Peddie, Linen Weaver’s Assist., 178. In Manchester and Bolton … these biers contain 19, but more frequently 20 splits, or what is termed there dents.
1860. White, Weaving, 277. The hundred splits … is nominally divided into five equal portions for the sake of calculation, called porters in Scotland and beers in England.
1880. T. R. Ashenhurst, Use & Abuse of Arithmetic in Textile Calculations, 5. Beers are variable quantities according to the custom of the district.
