The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Carpets And Rugs
The quality of wool used in the manufacture of carpets determines the quality of the carpet. The best carpets are made of long fibered line wool, which is first thoroughly washed to remove all animal fat and foreign substances. It is then carded and combed in a series of machines for the purpose of straightening out the fibers, and laying them in one direction, at the same time removing the short fibers. After the wool has been combed into long strips which resemble feather boas, it is drawn into long strands and spun into threads which are then twisted into yarn.
Wool yarn is usually made of shorter libers, which are closely intermingled and spun into threads of comparatively large diameter.The finest Long fiber wool, when spun tightly and with the libers laying fairly straight, is called "worsted yarn."
The principal steps in transforming raw wool into worsted yarn are shown by the series of photographs in Figures 15 to 19. The captions explain the various operations involved.
Carpets having long pile and coarse weave usually employ wool yarn for the pile, while those which have short pile and fine weave are made; with worsted yarn. Wilton, Brussels, Tapestry and Velvet carpets are usually made with worsted; while Chenille and Axminster carpets and many hand-tufted carpets are made with woolen yarn. These are not hard-and-fast rules, because worsted is often used in Chenille and Axminster carpets, and woolen yarn is sometimes used in Wilton carpets.
Dyeing
The use of natural dyes such as were employed in ancient times has practically disappeared from the carpet industry, these dyes having been supplanted by chemical dyes made for the most part by the distillation of coal tar.
