The most popular web now made up into men’s garters is what is known as the cable web, shown at Fig. 9. With the pronounced prominence of the two-dent rib, which gives it a character peculiarly different from the plain web, it is well adapted to this class of goods. Simple in appearance, it nevertheless requires special care to manufacture, particularly when we remember that it is not unusual to be required to make a finished stretch of not less than 100 per cent. The harness draft and weave are shown at Fig. 9A. The construction is as follows: Binder, 34 ends 80/2; Gut, 24 ends 20/2; Rubber, 18 ends 28s; Reed, 20 dent; Picks, 80 per inch; Stretch, 100 per cent.
The filling, floating across the wide spaces under which lie the rubber threads in pairs, is very easily thrown out of place, the result of which may be an unsightly seersucker appearance, as shown in Fig. 10, which the process of finishing aggravates rather than corrects.
Trouble may manifest itself by the filling over the ribs opening up and allowing the gut threads to prick through. To prevent this objectionable feature it is necessary to use a good quality of moderately soft yarn for the gut, not necessarily of high grade stock, but a yarn which is uniformly spun and not at all hard or wiry. As these goods are being woven and on full stretch, the gut threads, of course, are perfectly straight and accurate in line, but when contraction takes place, to probably one-half the former length, these heavy threads, which form probably about 25 per cent. of the weight of the entire web, should bend or fold uniformly and dispose of themselves in such a manner as not to appear in any way on the face of the web, snugly housed away in the several pockets or cavities. If the yarn composing these gut threads is spotty or irregularly spun, this uniformity of fold inside the pockets will be broken up and the appearance of the face of the goods is likely to be marred by unsightly specks of cotton pricking through, which can be both seen and felt.
Chapter IV.
Elaboration of Honeycomb Effects by Parti-Dyed and Printed Fillings—Bandage and Surgical Webs Made with Plain and Covered Rubber—Frill Web Woven on Cam Looms—Double Cloths—Importance of Securing Balance Between Back and Face of Goods
Among the group of single cloth webs confined to the capacity of plain looms, is what is commonly known as the honeycomb, shown at Fig. 1 and Fig. 1A. This is generally made with silk, wood silk, or schappe filling. The smooth filling floating over two cords gives the web a smooth feel, there being no rib effect noticeable whatever, making it well adapted for a fine trade. The warp lines are almost entirely hidden by the filling, so that it is not practicable to introduce any sharp stripe fancy effects, which can be done both in the plain web and the cable. The honeycomb is thus confined to plain solid colors or such elaboration as can be obtained from the filling.
Fancy effects are often secured by dyeing skein yarn in two or more colors. Such yarns when woven in the goods produce alternating effects at regular distances in different colors, such distances being governed by the length of the dips and the width of the goods. The effects which can be produced are quite varied. The simplest way of accomplishing this is to use the regular 54-inch skein, having white or some light shade as a base, and then dyeing a given portion of the skein another color. This process is carried out by hanging the skeins on sticks placed in a rack at the required distance above the color liquor, and then lowering them into the vat and dyeing the immersed part in the usual manner.
Where cotton is used for the filling and more elaborate effects are desired, long reeled skeins are used, sometimes 108 or 216 inches, which have been reeled on specially designed collapsible reels. Such skeins are not practicable to handle in the dye house in the manner already described. Sections of such skeins are wrapped in heavy waterproof paper and tied tightly, so that the dye liquor cannot penetrate that portion, and then the whole is put in the liquor, when the exposed part only will be dyed.
Then again sometimes wood clamps are used, like that shown at Fig. 2, having a recess into which part of the skein is laid after being carefully folded. The two halves are clamped together tightly in such a manner that the dye cannot penetrate the clamped part of the skein while the part left outside the clamp is dyed when the whole is immersed in the dye liquor.