The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California

Carpets And Rugs

Seamless Wiltons

The usual Wilton rug, except the narrowest widths, is made up of two or more strips sewn together. When wide rugs are made in one piece a different system of Weaving is usually employed. The principal difference in the standard breadth looms and the seamless looms consists in using a special arrangement of wires for forming the loops.

In a seamless loom the wires that form the loops are arranged like the teeth of a comb along the front, and are fixed in position. The row extends clear across the loom and the wires point in the same direction as the warp. The pile threads are looped over these wires and pushed along them as shown in Figure 32, Plate II. Therefore, in a seamless Wilton the number of loops per inch can be greatly increased, as it is not dependent in any way upon the thickness of the wire, but simply upon the number of loops that can be pressed side by side on the wire.

In operation, as these loops are pressed along the wire, they finally arrive at the base, which is equipped with a sharp knife-edge that cuts them open and allows them to come back into their natural position, which is one-quarter turn from the position they occupied on the wire. With this system of weaving it is possible to get 18 or more loops per inch, and thus make the densest possible pile. Tn Figure 34 is shown a seamless Wilton with eighteen wires or loops per inch of length.