FIG. 159.
If several sets of cards of the same pattern are required, a repeating machine is used. In the hand repeater the cards are made to leave punches in a plate where there are holes in the card, and the plate is then taken to a repeating press, where any number of cards can be cut like the first by applying pressure to the plate, which is done by passing it under a roller or wheel.
Some repeating machines are capable of repeating direct from one set of cards to the other, at the rate of thirty or forty cards per minute. The cards may be laced blank, and kept in stock ready for use when required, which is a great advantage. The machine is built on the Jacquard principle, and the punches required to cut are fastened, whilst those which are not required to cut are taken out of the way of the card.
These machines are rather costly, but in large fancy weaving establishments they soon repay their cost.
LAPPETS.
Lappet figures are formed by giving a horizontal motion to a thick end, and making it interweave in the manner shown at [Fig. 160]. The system has long been used in hand-looms, and it is now extensively used in power-looms, especially in Scotland. The figures are usually produced with a very thick end upon a fine muslin ground, and the advantage it possesses over figuring with extra weft is that the figuring material does not require cutting off every pick, and therefore there is not the same amount of waste, and in addition the figures are more firmly bound into the cloth.
FIG. 160.