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

Carpets And Rugs

At about this time Axminster became the seat of the imitation Oriental carpet industry, so that certain imitation Oriental carpets were known as Axminsters. The Axminster of today is a machine-made carpet of the Oriental type, and stands at the head of the list of modern carpets.

Mr. Richard Whytock of Edinburgh, Scotland, invented in 1831 a type of carpet which has since developed into two types, Tapestry (Tapestry Brussels) and Velvet (Tapestry Velvet) depend- ing upon whether the pile is looped or cut.

Patent Axminster, or Chenille, was invented in 1839 by two Scotchmen, James Templeton and William Quigley.

Carpets in the United States
For many years the United States bought practically all its carpets from England, and when the time came to manufacture carpeting in this country, it was England who contributed most of the skilled labor and machinery. Although the first carpet mill operated in the United States was established in 1791, it was not until some fifty years later that the industry reached any important proportions. This first mill was set up in Philadelphia by William Peter Sprague, and Philadelphia is still one of the most important carpet centers in the United States.

Our chief contribution to the carpet industry was made by Erastus B. Bigelow, who invented the power loom. He began his work in 1839 and continued it over a period of years. Beginning with Ingrain carpet, the power loom has been applied to the manufacture of all modern carpets, and in this way the production capacity of looms has been increased in some cases as much as tenfold.

Another important contribution to the carpet industry is the machine-made Axminster, originally known as Moquette, an invention of Halcyon Skinner. This invention was made in 1876 while Mr. Skinner was in the employ of Alexander Smith. The Skinner loom was introduced into England by Messrs. Tomkinson & Adam of Kidderminster. In the United States the machinemade Axminster was first known as Moquette and later as Royal Axminster.

Carpet Types

If it were undertaken to list all trade-names for Oriental, hand-made and machine-made carpets, the task of describing these carpets would extend far beyond the scope of this publication. However, if the classification is based on the method of weaving, or rat her on the structure of the carpet, this myriad of types reduces to a relatively small number. Most of the trade-names have been devised to distinguish the different grades produced by certain manufacturers, or dealers, and many times they are quite misleading.