Carpet, a thick fabric, generally composed wholly or principally of wool, for covering the floors of apartments, staircases, and passages in the interior of a house or other place. Carpets were originally introduced from the East, where they were fabricated in pieces, like the modern rugs, for sitting on - a use obviously suggested by the Eastern habit of sitting cross-legged upon the floor. Eastern carpets are still highly thought of in Europe, into which they are largely imported. The good quality Persian, Turkish, and Indian carpets are all woven by hand, and the design is formed by knotting into the warp tufts of woollen threads of the proper colour one after the other.
Of European carpets the Brussels carpet was a common and highly-esteemed variety at the end of the 19th century. It was composed of linen thread and worsted, the latter forming the pattern. The linen basis did not appear on the surface, being concealed by the worsted, which was drawn through the reticulations and looped over wires that were afterwards withdrawn, giving the surface a ribbed appearance.
Wilton carpets were similar to Brussels in the process of their manufacture, but in them the loops were cut open by using wires with a knife-edge, and the surface thus obtained a pile.
Tapestry carpets have also a pile surface. They were traditionally manufactured according to a process patented by Mr. Whytock of Edinburgh in 1832, the great speciality of which was that the threads were particoloured by printing in the proper manner for each design before being woven up.
The Kidderminster or Scotch carpet consisted of two distinct webs woven at the same time and knitted together by the woof. The pattern was the same on both sides of the cloth, but the colours were reversed. An improvement upon this was the three-ply carpeting, made originally at Kilmarnock.
The original Axminster carpets were made on the principle of the Persian or Turkey carpets. Patent Axminster carpets (invented by Templeton of Glasgow, 1839) have a fine pile, which is produced by using chenille as the weft, the projecting threads of which form the pile, which is dyed before being used. Carpets of felted wool, with designs printed on them, are also used, and are very cheap. Cheap jute carpets are also made. Research Carpet
Weaving is the art of interlacing yarn threads or other filaments by means of a loom, so as to form a web of cloth or other woven fabric. Two sets of threads are used which traverse the web at right angles to each other. The first set extends from end to end of the web in parallel lines and is called the warp; while the other set of threads crosses and interlaces with the warp from side to side of the web and is called the weft. Research Weaving
Sir Richard Arkwright was an English inventor. He was born in 1732 at Preston, Lancashire and died in 1792. The youngest of thirteen children, he was a barber by trade, while travelling the country dealing in hair for wigs he became interested in the slow and clumsy processes used for spinning and weavingcotton, and when about thirty-five years of age he gave himself up exclusively to the subject of inventions for spinningcotton. The thread spun by Hargreaves' jenny could not be used except as weft, being destitute of the firmness or hardness required in the longitudinal threads or warp. But Richard Arkwright supplied this deficiency by the invention of the spinning-frame, which spins a vast number of threads of any degree of fineness and hardness, leaving the operator merely to feed the machine with cotton and to join the threads when they happen to break.
His invention introduced the system of spinning by rollers, the carding, or roving as it is technically termed (that is, the soft, loose strip of cotton), passing through one pair of rollers, and being received by a second pair, which are made to revolve with (as the case may be) three, four, or five times the velocity of the first pair. By this contrivance the roving is drawn out into a thread of the desired degree of tenuity and hardness. His inventions being brought into a pretty advanced state, Richard Arkwright removed to Nottingham in 1768 in order to avoid the attacks of the same lawless rabble that had driven Hargreaves out of Lancashire. Here his operations were at first greatly fettered by a want of capital; but two gentlemen of means having entered into partnership with him, the necessary funds were obtained, and Richard Arkwright erected his first mill, which was driven by horses, at Nottingham, and took out a patent for spinning by rollers in 1769. As the mode of working the machinery by horse-power was found too expensive he built a second factory on a much larger scale at Cromford, in Derbyshire, in 1771, the machinery of which was turned by a water-wheel. Having made several additional discoveries and improvements in the processes of carding, roving, and spinning, he took out a fresh patent for the whole in 1775, and thus completed a series of the most ingenious and complicated machinery. Notwithstanding a series of lawsuits in defence of his patent rights, and the destruction of his property by mobs, he amassed a large fortune. He was knighted by George III in 1786. Research Richard Arkwright
In weaving, a heddle is one of the sets of parallel knotted cords forming loops for the warp threads; and by whose vertical reciprocation the warp threads are shifted so as to make the shed for the passage of the shuttle. Heddles are a necessary integral feature of all looms, having sets of strings for separating the warp threads into two or three groups, between which the weft is passed. This called mounting the loom and consists in dividing the warp among the leaves of healds or heddles. Research Heddle
Bombarzine is a mixed tissue of silk and worsted, the first forming the warp and the second the weft. It is fine and light in the make, and may be of any colour, though black is most in use. Research Bombazine
Chenille is an ornamental fabric made by weaving or twisting together warp-like threads with a weft the loose ends of which protrude all round in the form of a pile. Research Chenille
Gabardine is a fabric particularly suited to water-proofing, composed of fine botany wool yarnwarp, and cottonweft which are waterproofed before weaving. The name is also given to a raincoat with wide raglan sleeves, fastened at the centre front, sometimes belted, made from the material. Research Gabardine
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Carpet
