Jacquard Weaving and Designing

by T. F. Bell

CHAPTER V
CARD-CUTTING AND LACING

The mountings which have been given are of two descriptions—the Norwich, with the straight harness, and the London or twisted harness, with the cards hanging to either side of the loom, as the machine can be turned either way to suit. For the Norwich ties the cards are supposed to hang to the back of the loom, but it often happens that there is not space between the looms to admit of all the cards being hung at the back, and it is usual for one loom to have the cards to the back and the next one to the front. When the cards hang to the front of the loom the mounting is tied up so that when finished it will be the same as if mounted for the cards to hang at the back; and afterwards turned round so that the back will be at the front. In case the back left-hand corner twine is the first cord of the harness with the cards at the back, the front right-hand twine would be the first if the cards are at the front, and the drawing in of the yarn must begin at it. If the loom is mounted in this way, and the yarn drawn in from the opposite side, as if the cards were to hang at the back, the result will be a toothed or broken-up appearance round the edges of the pattern. The same cards will do for either mounting, but the pattern and twill will be reversed on the cloth—that is, they will run from left to right on the one, and from right to left on the other. The effect produced on letters was mentioned when speaking of them.

It was mentioned that jacquards are usually made with 51 rows of hooks or needles, of 8, 10, or 12 in the row, being for 4⁰⁰, 5⁰⁰, and 6⁰⁰ machines respectively, which are those most used; 2⁰⁰ and 3⁰⁰ machines are used for small mountings, but they may be considered as half 4⁰⁰ and 6⁰⁰ machines. Sometimes the machines are made of any size required—that is, with any desired number of rows of holes in the needle boards. The objection to this is that the cards cannot be copied on the ordinary repeating machines; but piano card-cutting machines can be made with the index to suit for cutting any length of card. When using 4⁰⁰, 5⁰⁰, or 6⁰⁰ machines, or the double sizes, 8⁰⁰, 10⁰⁰, or 12⁰⁰, and more than one is required for the mounting, a second must be used, such as an 8 and a 4, or a 12 and a 6; a 12 and a 5 would not do so well, as the 12 has 12 needles in the row and a 5 has but 10. It would be better to use a 12 and a 6 and leave 100 hooks idle, if only 1700 are required. If a 12 and a 5 is to be used it may be done by having the cumber board made 12 in the row, but made finer in the proportion of 12 to 10; then, where the 12-row harness is to pass through it, every sixth row of holes can be left empty, and it will be all right for the 10-row harness from the 5⁰⁰ machine.

Designs are painted upon the point paper for the purpose of enabling them to be transferred to the cards, which act on the needles of the jacquard, and cause the proper warp threads to be raised. The pattern is put upon the cards by punching holes in them, one hole being punched for each check on the design paper that is filled in with colour, or it may be the reverse of this, or otherwise, according to circumstances. The common method is to cut the red, and leave the ground or unpainted portion, and the black, which stands for ground. There is a card for each line of the design paper for damask patterns; the holes in the cards represent the dots on these lines, if each line was cut off and cut into separate designs or larger squares, then these squares set up lengthways and laid together. Take the pattern, Fig. 70, and cut the first line from left to right. The card is shown at [Fig. 89] at A. Turn the pattern upside down and examine the first line to the right-hand side. The two first checks are empty; two holes in the card or two punches of the piano machine are passed over; the next three checks are painted, for these three holes are cut in the card, and the remaining three checks in the design being empty are passed over. The next design has the second and seventh checks filled and these are cut on the card, and so on with the others. The two small holes at each end of the card are for the lacing twine, and the large one at each end for the peg on the cylinder of the jacquard. The intersections of the fine lines on the card show where the holes fall when required to be cut.

This card would be for a 200 machine, the empty or unused needles being left at the first half of the card; 26 rows of 8 needles to the card. The card B given in this figure is the first of the heavy cutting, No. 17 on the pattern. Reading from the pattern as before, pass 2, cut 2, pass one which is black, cut 3, and so on, cutting the red and passing the black or twilling dots whether they be white, black, blue, yellow, or green; they are only there for convenience, to avoid the trouble of leaving the spaces empty when painting the pattern at first, it being simpler to dot them over afterwards.

Fig. 89

The cards are numbered at the selvage end, which goes to the sneck side of the jacquard when working. The design may be read from left to right, but the usual method is to turn it upside down, and read from right to left, which comes to the same thing, beginning to cut from the numbered end of the card. Some begin to cut at the other end of the card, and read from right to left on the design without turning it, which is still the same. If the loom is mounted or the yarn drawn in, beginning with the front row of the harness instead of with the back row to the left-hand side, the cards should be read the reverse way from the design paper; or, what would be the same, turn them over after cutting them. This changes the top row of holes in the cards to the bottom, or from the back to the front of the cumber board. In case of the loom being mounted from back to front, and the yarn being drawn into the harness beginning with the front row in the cumber board, the cards, if cut in the ordinary way, would give the pattern a broken or toothed appearance. Turning the cards upside down would remedy this, but would only answer if each part of the mounting consisted of full rows of needles, for, if any part began or ended on a broken row, turning the card would take the holes in it for this part row away from the needles: that is, say if the harness was connected with four needles at the top of the row and the card cut for these, the holes would fall on the four needles at the bottom of the row, if the card was turned upside down. The cards should be numbered on the side which is uppermost when they are being cut, and this side should come against the needles if the work is properly carried out.