Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/28

20 CARPET imported by the Greeks and Romans; and from what we know of the fabric, it appears to have been rather of the nature of tapestry than of what we now call carpets made by introducing tufts of woollen yarn into a warp stretched in a frame, which are held down by a woof passed over each tuft. Such is the method of carpet weaving now practised by the Asiatics, the stitches being made one by one by the slow and tedious operation of the fingers. Young girls acquire great skill hi this work, and their hands and eyes are soon trained to do it with ease and rapidity ; but by one of the modern machines 1,000 stitches are sooner made, than one by the hand process. In Per- sia whole families, and even tribes, are em- ployed in carpet weaving. These carpets are, however, of so small a size that they are little used. They are purchased by travelling mer- chants, who dispose of them to Europeans in Smyrna and Constantinople. These carpets are also woven by families, and no large manu- factory for them exists. They are in one piece ; the patterns are peculiar, and no two are ever made exactly alike. Their chief beauty con- sists in the harmonious blending of the colors, and in the softness of their texture, rendering them agreeable both to the eye and to the foot. In the process of manufacturing the weaver sits in front of the loom, and fastens to each thread of the warp a bunch of colored yarn, varying the color according to the pattern. The row being completed, he passes a linen weft through the web, and drives it well up, so that all the bunches may be securely fastened. In this way narrow breadths of carpet are made, which are afterward laid side by side and united, so as to form one large piece. The tufts are then pared of equal length, and being beaten down, the whole presents a smooth, even surface. Rugs are made in the same manner. In British India the manufacture of carpets is carried on to a great extent. In Benares and Moorshedabad costly carpets of velvet with gold embroidery are made. Silk- embroidered carpets are manufactured in va- rious places; the woollen ones principally at Masulipatam. For many years Europe received all her supplies of carpets from the East. The manufacture is said to have been introduced into Europe by the French in the reign of Henry IV. The manufactory now belonging to the French government, and still producing excellent fabrics, was established at Beauvnis in 1664 by Colbert, minister of Louis XIV. Another large factory was at Chaillot, a league from Paris, where the carpets were worked in the manner of the modern Wilton carpet. The first successful operations in England were at Mortlake, in Surrey, to which enterprise James I. contributed 2,676. In the middle of the 18th century the business was much extended in different localities, and in 1757 a premium was awarded by the society of aVts to Mr. Moore for the best imitation Turkey^ carpets. This kind of carpet was afterward^ largely produced at Axminster, in Devonshire, made even more expensive than the real Turkey by the substitution of worsted for woollen yarn ; but the manufacture ceased here, and in Yorkshire also, many years ago. The other varieties of carpets in use, as the Kidder- minster or two-ply, called in this country the ingrain, the three-ply, the Venetian, Brussels, and Wilton, are all made by machinery. The ingrain, made with two sets of worsted warp and two of woollen weft, consists of two dis- tinct webs incorporated into each other at one operation, the warp threads passing from one to the other to bring the required colors to the surface. Each web, however, is a cloth of itself, which, if separated by cutting it from the other, would present a coarse surface like bnize. Two colors only are used to best ad- vantage in this kind of carpet, the introduction of more tending to give a striped appearance. The three-ply is also ingrained, the threads being interlaced to produce three webs, thus making a fabric of greater thickness and dura- bility, with the advantage of greater variety of color. The pattern, however, does not appear in opposite colors on the two sides in this, as it does in the two-ply. Great difficulty was experienced in applying the power loom to weaving this fabric ; in Europe the idea was wholly abandoned ; nnd in 1839 two-ply in- grains were woven at Lowell, Mass., only by the hand loom, at the rate of eight yards a day. At this time Mr. E. B. Bigelow of Boston im- proved the power loom so that he obtained with it from 10 to 12 yards a day, and after- ward by still further improvements so perfect- ed the machinery that the power loom is now wholly used, nnd with such economy of labor as to have greatly reduced the cost of car- pets, and extended their manufacture to meet the increased demand. The inventions of Mr. Bigelow have been so important in this branch of manufacture as to have given it an entirely new character ; and though their full descrip- tion would be too technical and detailed, a general account of those immediately connect- ed with this subject may properly be intro- duced. The object sought for was a loom which should make carpet fast enough to be economical, one which should make the figures match, nnd produce a good regular sel- vage, and a smooth, even face. The hand weaver can at any moment tighten the weft thread, if too loose after the shuttle hns been thrown, and so make the selvage regular ; if he finds by measurement that, by reason of the irregularity of the weft threads or the ingrain- ing, the figure is being produced too long or too short, he gives more or less force to the lathe in beating up ; and if he finds that the surface of the cloth is getting rough, he regu- lates the tension of the warps. In this way, by observation and the exercise of skill and judgment, he can approximate, and only ap- proximate, to the production of a good nnd regular fabric. In the first loom Mr. Bigelow