Jacquard Weaving and Designing

by T. F. Bell

The order of working for the section [Fig. 176] would be as follows:—For the first pick, which is white, raise the trapboard B and the first journal; for the second pick, which is red, raise the trapboard A and the third journal; for the third pick, raise the trapboard B and the second journal; for the fourth pick, raise the trapboard A and the fourth journal. This is the general order of lifting for a pattern; but a simple lined effect across the cloth as the section could be wrought with the journals without the machine, using them as heddle shafts. It could also be wrought by the machine without the journals. The use of the journals in conjunction with the machine is to pass the cloths through each other and make a pattern. For figure work, when a card is pressed in against the needles, all the warp for the figure on the design paper is raised by the trapboard B, which clears this portion of the red and black warps out of the way of the ground shed; and as the first pick of the ground is white, the white journal is raised to bind the white pick, leaving the olive warp down to bind it at the back. For the next shot the same card acts, and the trapboard A is raised, which lifts all the white and olive warp corresponding with the portion of the red and black that was left down at the last shot, so as to clear this portion out of the way of the face shed. As a red pick follows white, the red journal (No. 3) is raised to bind the red on the face, leaving the black warp down to bind it on the back. The other picks follow similarly. This shows the defective binding common to journal weaving, the white being bound with olive and the red with black at the under side of the cloth. To have pure binding, instead of all the white or red being raised by a journal as above, only as much of either should be raised as is required to bind its own colour of weft on the face of the cloth. The olive or black in respective cases should be raised for the remainder of the shed, leaving the white and red down to bind their own wefts where these colours come out on the back or under side of the cloth, thus giving pure colours on both sides of the cloth, and letting the mixed or impure binding be in the centre between the two cloths. This, however, is beyond the range of journals, and requires a harness.

Fig. 178

[Fig. 178] gives a neat pattern on a small scale for a two-ply cloth with, say, a red and a pale olive warp for ground and figure cloths respectively, the shaded squares being red and the ground or white squares olive; the weft for each cloth to be the same colour as the warp, or sometimes a tint one or two shades lighter and brighter, or deeper and duller, according to the colours or shades of colours used, gives a good effect. A further effect in this can be produced by having the 6th to 10th and 18th to 22nd threads black, brown, or dark green, end-and-end with pale olive, for the back warp, and picking similarly on the 5th to the 9th picks for the ground cloth. This would, of course, make a striped effect on the under side of the cloth, as where the additional colours do not show above they must appear below. A still better effect can be produced by having an additional weft lying between the two cloths which can be flushed on the face in spots as at picks 12, 13, and 14, and of course a three-ply cloth will be a step farther in advance; lined effects can then be produced anywhere desirable, in portions to suit the nature of the design, to vary and enrich it, at the same time the breadth of effect is maintained by working the greater portion of the pattern in masses of pure colour, whether they be large or small. For full-harness work the harness is divided into two sections, four rows for the back cloth and four rows for the face cloth, on an 8-row machine; no journals are used, the machine doing all the work. The harness is tied up in the usual way, the cord from the first hook passing through the first hole of the cumber board, and the cord from the second hook passing through the second hole, and so on.

The harness is nominally divided into two sections, the front four rows being for the face cloth and the back four for the back cloth; when drawing the warp into the harness the mails are taken in the following order: 1, 5, 2, 6, 3, 7, 4, 8, the back or ground warp coming on 1, 2, 3, 4 mails, and the face or figure warp on 5, 6, 7, 8.

Suppose the pattern to be a dice, as [Fig. 179], the warps to be white and olive, and red and black, with the same colours of weft. Each upright line of the design represents two threads of warp, one of which will be drawn on the front half of the harness and the other on the back half; and each horizontal line of the design represents two weft shots, for which there must be two cards cut. Let the order of drawing the warp into the harness be as [Fig. 180]. The white is on the odd and the olive on the even numbers of the four back rows of the harness, and the red is on the odd and the black on the even numbers of the four front rows.

Now to cut the cards:—Take the first line of the design [Fig. 179], cut the odd numbers of holes (that is, the first and third) on the first half, or first four holes, of the card, and cut the white and olive on the second half of the card. For the second card, from the same line of the design cut red and black on the first half of the card, and the odd numbers of holes on the second half of the card. For the third card, take the second line of the design and cut even numbers of holes on the first half of the card, and white and olive on the second half of the card. For the fourth card, from the second line of the design cut red and black on the first half of the card, and the even numbers of holes on the second half of the card. Of course when there is none of a colour raised, as in the first line there is no black, no notice is taken of it. For the pattern in [Fig. 178] the cutting would be the same, except that there are only two colours of warp to be dealt with instead of four. No. 1 card: cut odd numbers of holes on the first half of the card, and olive on the second half of the card. No. 2: cut red on the first half of the card, and odd numbers of holes on the second half of the card, &c.