CARPET, a thick fabric, generally composed wholly or principally of wool, for covering the floors of apartments, staircases, and passages in the interior of a house. They were originally in troduced from the East, where they were fabricated in pieces, like the modern rugs, for sitting on—a use obviously suggested by the Eastern habit of sitting cross-legged upon the floor. Eastern carpets are still highly thought of. The Persian, Turkish, and Indian carpets are all woven by hand, and the design is formed by knotting into the warp tufts of woolen threads of the proper color. Of carpets made in the United States and Europe Brussels carpet is a common and highly-esteemed variety. It is com posed of linen thread and worsted, the latter forming the pattern. The linen basis does not appear on the surface, being concealed by the worsted, which is drawn through the reticulations and looped over wires that are afterward withdrawn, giving the surface a ribbed appearance. Wilton carpets are similar to Brussels in process of manufacture, but in them the loops are cut open by using wires with a knife-edge, and the surface thus gets a pile. Tapestry car
pets have also a pile surface. They are made in a manner similar to that in which Brussels and Wilton carpets are manufactured; but only one yarn is used instead of five or more of different colors, as in the carpets just named. The Kid derminster or Scotch carpet consists of two distinct webs woven at the same time and knitted together by the woof. The pattern is the same on both sides of the cloth, but the colors are reversed. An improvement upon this is the three ply carpeting, made originally at Kil marnock. The original Axminster car pets were made on the principle of the Persian or Turkish carpets. Axminster carpets, made in one piece to suit the size of the room, have a fine pile, which is produced by using chenille as the weft, the projecting threads of which form the pile, which is dyed before being used. Carpets of felted wool, with designs printed on them, are also used, and are very cheap. Philadelphia is the leading carpet-manufacturing city in the United States.