Jacquard Weaving and Designing

by T. F. Bell

Figs. 54 and 55 show mountings on jacquards with 208 hooks in each, the former tied on the Norwich principle, and the latter in the London style. In both cases only 200 hooks are used, the remaining eight hooks being left idle for selvages, if required. These mountings are made for four repeats of the pattern, which would only make 8 in. of cloth; but there may be any number of repeats, say 13, to make 27 in. of cloth or 28-1/2 in. of warp in the loom, with, say, 92 threads per inch. There must be a harness twine for each repeat of the pattern tied to each hook of the machine; when four repeats are used, four twines are tied to each hook, as in Figs. 54 and 55. The harness reed or cumber board, G, must be of the same set or fineness as the weaver’s reed (if finer, it can be used by passing over the surplus holes). It is divided into four portions, leaving 200 holes for each repeat, and the twines are, in [Fig. 54], taken straight down from the hooks to the holes in it, as can easily be seen. In this figure the cross-rows of the cumber board at the first of each repeat are shown filled; but in mounting, the back row, taken from the hooks A to B, would be filled first. In [Fig. 55] the reverse is the case, the cross-rows, as shown, being the first filled; this is owing to the twist in the harness, as the machine is sitting so that the cards will hang over the side of the loom. The letters A, B, C, and D in both figures denote the same corners of the machines, showing that in [Fig. 55] there is a quarter twist in the harness. In [Fig. 54], the dotted lines from the 200th hook show the last cord of each repeat; L is the first cord of the last cross-row, and E and F are the same in [Fig. 55]. In these figures only the skeleton of the mounting is given; it must, of course, be filled up as the first rows which are given.

Fig. 55

For this description of mounting the yarn is drawn into the mails in regular order, beginning at No. 1, and proceeding with the numbers as given. In this case the back hook to the left-hand corner must be taken as the first hook of the machine, and the cards cut to suit this. Sometimes the first hook to the front left-hand corner is considered the first hook, but if so it must be remembered when cutting the cards. Sometimes the mounting is begun at the right-hand side, but in any case it is only necessary to see that the draft of the yarn and cutting of the cards correspond with the order of mounting; the result of the work should be the same in all cases.

Fig. 56

[Fig. 56] shows a pattern for a gathered border with a repeating centre, which is a very common style of design. It will be seen that the two halves of the border, A and B, are alike, if taken from the centre outwards; or if one-half of the border were traced on tracing paper, it would, if turned over, form the other half. For this reason it is also called a ‘turn-over’ border. In the same way, if two cords are tied to each hook of the jacquard for the border, and those to the first hook taken down to the cumber board for the two outside threads of the border (that is, one to the right and the other to the left), then those from the next hook taken to the two next outer holes, and so on, coming from the outsides to the centre, the first half of the pattern would be repeated by the mounting in exactly the same way as by turning over the tracing paper.