Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

319 CARPET MANUFACTURE. MACHINE industry has stimulated varia- tion in the carpet trade during the past half-century, and it would be rash to state a positive limit to the kinds of carpet produced in Great Britain. Only six distinct kinds of carpet, however, are largely pro- duced. These are Brussels and Wilton, Axminster, patent Axminster, Kidder- minster, tapestry, and felted carpets. With the exception of the Kidder- minster and felted varieties, all carpets are woven of wool and linen or jute. The mode of preparing these materials for weaving is, up to a certain point, precisely the same for all. The wool is sorted, scoured, spun, and reeled into hanks. Similarly the linen or jute foundation of the carpet is spun into yarn and reeled on to large bobbins. After this the treatment of the wool for the different varieties of carpet is so diverse that each process must be de- scribed separately. We can go further, however, in the general treatment of the jute. The bobbins are placed in high creels or frames, one on each side of a bare beam. From each of the bobbins a thread is led round this beam, and then by a mechanical movement all the yarn is wound on to the beam. Next, this beam of yarn, or warp as it is called, goes into the dressing room. The warped beam is laid on the end of a long vat filled with boiling stuff of a starchy nature, in which cylinders roll and churn. Through this vat the linen warp is led, and wound on to a beam at the other side. Again the warp is unwound, this time to pass through heated cylinders, and returns to the weaving beam grey and glossy. Part of the linen yarn is reserved for another pur- pose. The dressed yarn is hanked, and then sent to the yarn-winding machines. Stretched round a wooden frame extended horizontally along the back of the long winding frame, the threads of the hanks are run through little eyelets and on to a long spool that twirls with the motion of the machine. Round go the swifts, reeling off the thread, and the while the spools are filled. Linen warp and linen weft are now prepared, and the process is the same for all kinds of tufted, looped, and pile carpets. At this point difference begins. For the sake of clearness we will first BRUSSELS CARPET : PERFORATING THE CARDS FROM THE DESIGN PREPARATORY TO THE CARDS BEING LACED TOGETHER IN ROTATION FOR THE JACQUARD MACHINE (MESSRS. RICHARD SMITH AND SONS, KIDDERMINSTER). describe one process at once, viz. the manu- facture of Brussels carpets. Carpet manufacturers make their own designs. The designing room is usually a well-lighted, spacious apartment, closely re- sembling an art school, with easels and drawing desks disposed all over the room. Leading designers work out their ideas with the aid of models : one here is studying the graceful contour of an antique vase ; another has in his left hand a bunch of fresh flowers, while with his right he tries to reproduce their beauty. Some are working with charcoal, others paint from a full palette. From the