CARPETS. Woven C., such as are now so common in this country, were first used in the east, where the custom of sitting cross-legged on the floor still renders them especially useful. Our rude forefathers. covered the floors of their houses with rushes, hair, or straw; and in Norwegian farm-houses, where so many of our ancient customs still exist, the floor of the best room is commonly strewed with juniper-twigs. The first step towards a woven carpet was made by plaiting rushes to form a matting.
The principal varieties of C. now in use are the Turkey, the Axminster, the Brus sels, the Wilton, the Venetian, the Dutch, the Kidderminster or Scotch, Whytock's tapestry and velvet pile, and the printed felt carpet.
The real Turkey carpet is made in one piece; those manufactured for the oricntals are usually too small for use in this country. The patterns consist merely of curved and angular strips, of variegated but dark and unobtrusive colors. The is of strong linen or cotton, to which bunches or tufts of colored worsted are tied acconiing, to the pattern, a drawing of which is placed before the weaver to copy. The surface is afterwards shorn level.. Rugs are made in a similar manner; the colored worsteds are tied very rapidly by young girls.
The Axminster carpet is merely the English-made Turkey carpet, formerly manufac tured as above at Axminster, in Devonshire. They are usually made to order, and of the Size required for the room; frotn the tedious nature of the process of manufacture, they are very expensive.
Templeton's patent Axminster carpet is a very beautiful fabric, very much resembling that from which it derives its name, but it is wrought on the chenille principle.
The Brussels carpet is a mixture of linen and worsted, but, like the Turkey carpet, the worsted only is shown on the upper surface. The basis or cloth is a coarse linen fabric, and between the upper and under threads of the weft, several (usually five) worsted threads of different colors are firmly bound in. The pattern is produced by drawing to the surface, between each reticulation of the cloth basis, a portion of the worsted thread of the color required at that spot to produce the pattern; these updrawn portions are formed into loops, by being turned over wires, which are afterwards with drawn, and the loops thus left standing above the basis form the figured surface of the carpet. The machinery and processes bywhich this arrangement is produced are rather complex, and require to be seen to be fully understood.
The Wilton carpet is made like the Brussels, but the wire has a groove in its upper surface, and instead of being drawn out, it is liberated by passing a sharp knife through the worsted loop into this groove, and thus making a velvet pile surface instead of the looped thread.
The Venetian carpet is produced in a common loom, and the pattern is all in the warp, which alone is visible, as it incloses the weft between its upper and under sur faces. The patterns are geuerally checks or stripes; the latter are chiefly used for stair carpets.
The Dutch carpet is a coarser and cheaper variety of plain Venetian, sometimes made wholly of hemp, or of a mixture of coarse wool and cow-hair.
The Kidderminster or Scotch carpet has usually a worsted warp and woolen weft, and the pattern is made by the combination of the colors of each. Three-ply C. of this kind are made especially in Kilmarnock. This is the most durable of the moderate priced C.: the patterns are not so brilliant as those of the Brussels or the tapestry, but, being ingrained and woolen throughout, they retain their character until worn through. This, and the three immediately preceding descriptions of carpet, exhibit their patterns nearly similar on both sides, and are therefore reversible.
Whytock's tapestry and velvet pile carpet, as it is now frequently called, is very extensively used as a cheap substitute for Brussels and Wilton, which it is made to resemble very closely in the brilliancy and variety of pattern. The manufacture of this carpet is very curious and ingenions. Instead of five colored yarns. only one of which is drawn to the surface at any one place, while the other four remain buried between the upper and under threads of the cloth basis, a single colored yarn is used, and the variety of color produced by dyeing it of various colors at intervals of its length. The yarn is coiled upon a drum, and printed by means of rollers in such a manner that when the threads that encompass the roller shall be uncoiled and laid in line side by side, they shall present an elongated printing of the pattern, so that a rose, for example, the outline of which should be nearly circular, will be an oval. with length equal to four times its breadth. When, however the thread is looped over the wire, 4 in. of yarn being used for an inch of the carpet pattern, this elongation is exactly compensated, and the rose appears in its proper proportions. The machinery required for this is, of course, much simpler than that for the Brussels, only one yarn having to be looped, and that always in the same manner.
The printed felt carpets are, as the name implies, simply made by printing colors on felt. These are chiefly used for bedroom carpets.
A very beautiful fabric has also been introduced, called the patent wool mosaic, formed by cementing a velvet pile upon plain cloth. It is used for rugs, etc. The pile is formed by stretching lengths of woolen yarn between plates of finely perforated zinc, placed several yards apart, the colors of the threads arranged so that their ends shall show the pattern. The mass of yarn is then inclosed in a case, open at both ends, and compressed without deranging the fibers; and by means of a piston or ram at one end, a portion of this mass of yarn is forced forwards, the ends thus projecting arc glued to the plain cloth, and when dried, are cut off to the length required for the pile. In this manner, several hundred slices are made from one setting of the yarn mosaic, and as many rugs produced.