Carpets

by R. S. Brinton

Of machine-made carpets, that which naturally demands the first mention is the Brussels carpet, which was the first kind to be woven in this country by the aid of a Jacquard, a pattern-selecting mechanism to which allusion will be made later. Brussels is a loop-pile fabric, consisting of a strong woven foundation, composed of linen, jute, and cotton yarns, together with that portion of the worsted yarn which is not utilised on the surface to form the pattern. The pattern itself is formed on the surface by differently coloured looped threads of worsted yarns.

The character of the fabric lends itself to patterns well-defined in design and colour. The smooth, gently-ribbed surface gives a clean and neat, but not a luxurious effect; and the carpet is generally more suitable for small and medium-sized rooms and simple furnishing schemes, than for bold or ambitious effects. The number of shades available is also limited.

The processes of manufacture are comparatively few and simple.

The yarn is received from the spinner in grease, that is, still containing the oil that was put into the wool for the purpose of spinning, and in skeins. Worsted spinners supply a large variety of counts and twists of yarn for Brussels and Wilton carpets, which need not be particularised. As a normal Brussels yarn we may take 16s, 2 × 3; a thread sharply twisted in the doubling, and loosely in the re-doubling, running about 100 yards to the ounce. The yarn should be spun from wool of a moderately long staple.

In the dye-house it is first scoured, to get rid of the oil, which would interfere with the dyeing, and then dyed. From the dye-vat the yarn is taken to the hydro-extractor, or wince, where a large proportion of the moisture is eliminated by centrifugal force. The skeins of dyed yarn are then dried, either by being hung on poles and exposed to a current of warm air, or by being passed through a mechanical dryer, which normally consists of a large chamber of wood and iron, through which the yarn is carried by an apron, or pair of aprons, while exposed to streams of hot air propelled by fans.

From the drying room or drying machine, the yarn passes to the winding room, to be wound on to bobbins. The winding frame consists of a series of pulleys set on a shaft. Opposite each pulley or drum is a swift on which the skein is adjusted, the end of the yarn from the skein being led on to the body of the empty bobbin, which is held against and rotated by the pulley, the face of the pulley being a little less than the space between the flanges of the bobbin. This bobbin, called the creel bobbin, because it goes into the creel frames of the loom, has a face of 2¾ in. and a flange diameter of 3½ in.

The creel bobbins, each of which when fully wound will contain about 1/3 lb. of yarn, are then taken to the creel frames at the back of the loom. For a best five-frame Brussels carpet, five sets of 256 or 260 bobbins will be required. These five sets are placed in each of the five creel frames, each bobbin being free to revolve slowly on a creel peg, and so release its yarn as required. Each of the 1,280 or 1,300 ends of yarn is led through to the front of the loom, being threaded first individually through an eyelet in the harness, and then, along with the other ends of yarn that belong with it, through a reed of the sley.

The body and back of the carpet is provided for normally by two warp beams, the chain and the stuffer. The chain consists of twice as many ends of cotton as there are reeds in the sley. Thus, if the pitch is 256, there will be 256 reeds, or reed spaces in the 27 in. width of the sley (in practice the sley is made a little wider than the carpet is to be woven); and there will be 512 ends of cotton chain in the same width, two to each reed space. The stuffer beam consists normally of as many ends as there are reed spaces. The stuffer warp is of jute, bump, or cotton yarn.

The object of the chain is to form, in combination with the weft, the woven base of the fabric; all the rest is either surface or back. The weave is effected by the chain ends being threaded through eyelets mounted on two heald-frames or gears, which rise alternately in such a way as to allow the shuttle, carrying the weft, to be shot through the shed or opening thus formed.

The purpose of the stuffer, or dead warp, is merely to give body or weight to the fabric, and it is not essential if there is enough body provided by the rest of the warp. The stuffer ends are also carried on eyelets in a gear frame, but are not divided like the chain, and remain practically in the middle of the fabric.