quarter of a century ago, Iris had a marked influence in cheapening carpets and extending the limits of the industry. An improvement upon the Kidderminster carpet is the triple or three-ply fabric, the invention of Mr Thomas Morton of Kilmarnock. This is composed of three distinct webs, which, by interchanging their threads, produce the pattern on both sides, permitting at the same time much greater variety of colour, with a corresponding increase of
thickness and durability in the texture.Figured Venetian carpeting is of similar description ; but in it the woof is completely covered by a heavy body of warp. Dutch carpeting is much inferior in quality, and was originally nvide of cow-hair, but now of the coarsest wool Neither fabric has great capabilities of design ; simple diced patterns are wrought in the Venetian, stripes and chequers in the Dutch.
The Brussels Carpet is a very superior texture composed of worsted and linen, and has a rich corded appearance. The figures are raised entirely from the warp, by inserting a series of wires between the linen foundation and the superficial yarn. These wires are afterwards withdrawn, leaving a looped surface. In this manufacture there is a great waste of material, and the colours are usually limited to five, although in carpets of the best quality six colours are introduced. Each colour has its continuous layer of thread, running from end to end of the web, which rises to the surface at intervals indicated by the design, and then sinks into the body of the fabric. Thus, in a five-colour Brussels there are five layers or covers, only one of which is visible at any given point ; and owing to -the irregularity of their ascent to the surface, the colours cannot be placed upon one beam, but each thread is wound on a separate bobbin, with a weight attached to give a proper tension. These bobbins are arranged in five frames jutting out behind the loom 260 bobbins in each frame for the ordinary width. Additional frames are requisite for additional colours introduced ; but where more than five are engaged the pattern is rather indistinct. The threads of all the bobbins are then drawn through the harness, heddles, and reed, to unite with the linen yarn in the compound fabric, the Jacquard machine being employed to produce the pattern. The manufacture of Brussels carpets was first introduced into Wilton upwards of a century ago, from Tournai in Belgium Kidderminster is now the chief seat of this manufacture ; but it is also ex tensively prosecuted in many other localities.
Moquette or Wilton Carpets are woven in the same manner as Brussels carpets, differing only in this, that the loops are cut open into aa elastic velvet pile. To effect this the wires are not circular as in the Brussels fabric but fiat, and furnished with a knife edge at the upper extremity, the sharp point of which, drawn across the yarn, cuts the pile These carpets, which have a rich soft appearance, besides being manufactured in many parts of England and Scotland, are also made in France.
Tapestry Carpets are manufactured by a very ingenious process which was invented and patented by Mr Richard Whytock of Edinburgh in 1832. In Mr Whytock s in vention, by a combination of printing and weaving, a pile similar to Brussels carpeting is produced, in which any desired range of colours is available to the designer, while only a single thread is used in the texture instead of the five or six which run through the Brussels texture. In tapestry carpet weaving the ordinary process of printing is reversed ; for instead of the fabric being first woven and afterwards printed, the threads are printed before even the warp is formed. One thread, or two treated as one, in some cases miles in length, are coloured, by steps of half an inch, faster than a swift runner would make the distance. "When these threads have been all parti-coloured in this manner, they form the elements, as it were, of the intended design or fabric. Singly, they exhibit no regular figure or pattern ; but when arranged in their proper order, ready for the weaver s beam, the figure comes into view, much elongated of course, inasmuch as 18 feet of the warp will sometimes be gathered into 4 feet of cloth, in order to secure the due proportions of the intended object. The two combined arts of printing and weaving are simplified by this contrivance. With regard to the weaving 1st, The loom occupies only one-third of the space in length that the Brussels loom requires ; 2<7, The latter must have 1300 little beams or bobbins, from which the worsted pile has to be gathered, whereas this loom requires only one beam for the whole of the worsted threads; 3d, While the Brussels or Wilton, on a web of 27 inches, requires for the best fabric 2860 threads, only 780 are here requisite one layer instead of five to produce as good or a better surface ; and 4th, While the number of colours in suc cession lengthwise, on the Brussels principle, must not exceed six or seven, any desired number can be introduced in a tapestry carpet. Again, as regards the printing, whereas formerly a change of blocks was required for every change of pattern, in this new process the same blocks serve for all patterns as the pen serves for every form of type. If an object, say a rosebud, recurs a thousand times in the length of a web, at intervals of 4 feet, the block printer must apply his block a thousand times to point the opening bud ; but here the buds are congregated, so that one stroke may dye them all. If it be desired to have a thousand buds in the length of the web, let a thread be wound round a hollow cylinder a thousand times, and a traversing wheel charged with colour be passed across the coil The thread, when uncoiled, will be found to be marked in a thousand places, exactly where it is wanted to tip the opening bud with red from end to end of the web. Design-paper, whereon the pattern is indicated in small squares, serves as a guide to the printer, each square being one stroke of the colour-pulley. After the threads are thus streaked across with colour, they are removed from the cylinder or drum, and the dyes are fixed by the action of steam. The threads are then arranged in setting frames, according to the squares of the design-paper, to constitute the warp of the projected web. The Jacquard is thus superseded, and the loom restored to nearly the same simplicity as of old, when
" Between two trees the web was hung."
Not only can the pile of Brussels carpets be readily imitated by the process of Mr Whytock, but a velvet pile can also be produced by simply cutting the loops as practised for Wilton or Moquette carpets.
Like every other improvement, this invention on its first introduction met with considerable opposition, particularly on the part of manufacturers and dealers. During the first fourteen years, the number of looms employed gradually increased from one to fifty-six, the greatest number in operation at Lasswade in 1847. The great success which has attended the manufacture of tapestry carpets was chiefly owing to the energetic manner in which Mr Whytock s brilliant idea was taken up and developed by the eminent firm of Messrs John Crossley & Sons of Halifax. The manufacture was entered on by many other carpet-weavers, and now, as tapestry and velvet pile carpeting, it is one of the most extensive and best estab lished departments of the industry ; and the invention has been the means of bringing articles fit for the use of the most refined and fastidious within the reach of all classes of the community. Rugs, table -covers, velvets, and tapestry-hangings are printed and woven on the same principle.
