Carpets

by R. S. Brinton

It remains to cut off the tufts, to lay them in their place at the fell of the cloth, and weave them into the carpet.

There is a set of grippers, in shape very similar to the neck and beak of a bird, mounted on three shafts, and arranged so as to revolve in about a semicircle between the carriers and the fell of the carpet. The Jacquard, having operated so as to present the ends of the required colour in the carriers in a horizontal line, the grippers come up in front of them with open beaks, which are inserted just into the carrier grooves, and then close, nipping the ends of the yarn. The whole of the frame in which the carriers are mounted is then withdrawn away from the points of the grippers a sufficient distance to give the required length of tuft. A flat-toothed comb of hardened steel, of the same pitch as the grippers, carriers, and carpet, drops down with its points between the threads so as to hold them steady, while a travelling knife or set of knives, passing along the face of the comb, severs the tufts. The grippers then descend into the warp threads, laying the tufts against the fell of the carpet; the needle or shuttle passes over them and through the shed, carrying the binding weft, which is beaten up by the open sley, at the same time as the grippers open to release the end of the tuft, and double it upwards. Two other shots are inserted, while the grippers move in their semicircular path upwards to seize the next row of tufts, and again downwards to lay them in place.

The advantages claimed for this very ingenious method of Axminster weaving are: that the preparatory processes are considerably simpler than with the Royal and Crompton patents; that the quantity of any pattern to be woven can be better controlled; and that it involves less waste. There is no disadvantage in the weaving of a small quantity, if required, as 1 yard or 500 can be woven equally well; and the yarn left over at the end of an order can be cut off at the back of the carriers with a minimum of waste, and stored conveniently on creel bobbins. The cutting mechanism is also so good, that the surface waste is reduced to a negligible quantity, and a minimum of shearing and finishing is required.

However this may be, it is noteworthy that the principle has been applied with complete success to looms for weaving wide seamless carpets, where the gripper mechanism, though necessarily heavy, has probably a distinct advantage over the wide spool and tubes.

Axminster, like other carpet fabrics, has tended to develop in the direction of wide seamless goods; and this is a tendency that will be worth watching, leading as it does towards the evolution of the ideal carpet—a machine-made knotted fabric. Ideal, that is to say, in the sense that the knotting of a tuft on to a groundwork of warp and weft is the best way of putting a carpet together, and having regard for the facts that we live in a mechanical age; that we cannot afford time or money to make our own carpets by hand; and that we ought not to buy foreign hand-made carpets. Experiments in mechanically knotted carpets have continually been made, and definite progress has been won in recent years; but the technical difficulties are considerable, and it will be interesting to see whether a carpet of so exceptional a weave can be put on the market, except at a price comparable only with that of a hand-tufted fabric. Meanwhile, the seamless tufted Axminster, as it is now made in two or three forms, with tufts as securely fastened for all practical purposes into the body of the fabric as if they were knotted, holds the field as the nearest approach to the ideal, and is deserving of a far larger measure of support from the British consumer that it has enjoyed hitherto.

CHAPTER VIII
CHENILLE

Chenille Axminster carpeting possesses one or two features which differentiate it sharply from other kinds of carpet. It is the product of two distinct processes: the formation of the chenille fur, and the weaving of that fur, which is the weft, into a carpet. It is, in fact, about the only cut-pile carpet fabric in which the pattern is distinctively formed by the weft; for in almost all other makes the weft only performs the function of combining with the chain to form the woven fabric.

Taking first the manufacture of the fur, the dyed yarn, which is normally a single woollen, about 55 yards per ounce, is wound on cops which fit inside the shuttles for the weft looms. Before starting to weave, the weaver will have a supply of cops of all the colours required in the carpet. The paper design will show full size, the whole of the pattern, filling and border, that repeats, in the colours that are to be used. The design is cut up horizontally into strips two squares wide; and the weaver works by this paper strip, which is attached to the fabric in its length, inserting and changing the shuttles carrying yarn of various colours. The warp of the loom consists of sets of ends of fine cotton at intervals of about ½ in. Thus the woven fabric consists of a woollen weft of various colours held together at intervals by a fine cotton warp.

The pitch of the warp varies, of course, according to the character and quality of the fur to be made, the scales, indicating the number of sets of warp threads to the yard, being, normally, either 28, 38, 56, 76, or 112. On an ordinary weft loom, making a fabric 42 in. wide, on a 76 scale, there will be 88 strips, which will make two repeats of a certain portion, say 4½ in. long, of 44 carpets. The average length of the woven strip is about 48 yards.