The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Carpets And Rugs
Loom
The power loom is a complicated piece of mechanism. It would serve no useful purpose to go into the details of its construction. However, it may be of interest and it certainly should be of assistance in studying carpet structures to understand how the threads are manipulated. The essential elements of a Brussels loom are shown in Figure 24, Plate I. The warp threads are set up in the same way as in a hand loom, except that provision is made for moving them automatically forward as the weaving proceeds. In the power loom the comb is known as the reed, R. It is set permanently with the warp threads passing be tween its teeth. Each opening in the reed is called a "dent". Figure 24, Plate I, shows the number of threads that pass through each dent or opening in the reed. There are as many sets of threads in the loom as there are dents in the reed.
The worsted threads which form the pile each pass through a little ivory ring, which is suspended from a board, J, called a "comber board", and held straight by a weight hanging on the lower end. The chain warp threads, as well as the filler threads pass through rings carried by frames called "healds", H1, H2 and H3. The healed perform the same operation as the piece of cardboard described in connection with the elementary loom on page 60. In operation the warp of the loom is fed from several sources and is wound up on a single beam as a completed carpet. The chain warp, C, conies from a large wooden roller called a "beam". The filler, F, comes from a similar beam. The worsted warp which forms the pile comes from a series of spools, there being one spool for each color.
The operation, referring to Figure 24, Plate 1, is as follows: Heald II,, is raised, H2 is lowered, making a shed through which a weft thread is passed. A weft thread is passing through the shed. It is shown as a dot just in front of the reed, R. At the same moment one of the cords raises a worsted thread of the proper color (blue), and while this thread is up the wire W, is shot across in the upper shed. This is the position which the sketch shows. The next operation is for the reed, It, to move to the left forcing the weft thread and the wire, tight against the completed carpet at the left. Now the cord carrying the blue thread descends. H2 raises and H, lowers, making a chain warp shed above the body of the warp. A weft thread is shot across and the reed moves to the left, binding the loop of blue worsted which had just been formed over the wire. From here on the weaving proceeds in exactly the same manner as described, each time the proper color being raised to form the pattern.
