Carpeting

“ Lengths or pieces of felt and other substantial material are frequently made for floor and stair carpeting, and are often printed with patterns. These of course come into quite another class technically. The technological aspects of the several branches of carpet manufacture by machinery are treated in the articles on Textile-printing and Weaving. Briefly, the products of carpet manufacture practically fall into three main divisions: (1) Pile carpets (tapis moquettes) which are either looped (bouclé) or cut (velouté) ; (2) flat surface carpets (tapis ras) as in hand tapestry-woven material ”

“ Lovely in their summer garb of many-hued green, relieved by a carpeting of myriads of flowering plants, they are glorious beyond telling, when after a few frosty nights at the close of autumn, they assume every imaginable variety of shade, from glowing scarlet and soft violet, to rich brown and bright yellow. ”

“ Hand-made carpets are the oldest type of the fabric, and, coming from the East, are the historical parents of all modern carpets. This kind of carpet is made to-day in the United Kingdom, on the Continent, and in the East in almost exactly the same manner in which it has been made by the Orientals for several hundred years. The principle is extremely simple. The warp threads, or chain, are wound on two horizontal beams, between which they are stretched vertically. ”

“ It is not the dirt that may be swept away, but fine dust in the atmosphere that settles permanently in carpet, adding gray to the tone of the carpet, whatever its original color may have been. Therefore it is advisable when purchasing carpet to choose a shade a trifle stronger than the final floor color desired. In matching wall coloring, draperies, or upholstery fabrics, at the time of purchase, it is a wise expedient deliberately to soil a small cutting of the carpet so as to judge what its appearance will be for most of its life. ”

“ You cannot get at the corners. Take a whisk-broom or a round, pointed brush, such as is used to clean buttoned furniture, called a furniture button-brush, and with it clean out the corners where the carpet is turned in. Have close at hand a pointed stick, which, with a cloth wrapped about it, will enable you to pry into every nook thoroughly. Every few weeks it is well to draw the tacks in the corners a little way, and, turning back the carpet on to a thick paper or old cloth, give the edges a faithful brushing. It is under and near these corners that moths love to secrete their eggs. ”

“ The hand-tufted carpet possesses an individuality, even in its faults, which no product of a machine can attain, and which, after all, is an attribute to a work of art. More of the soul of the worker has passed into it than the clashing metal of a power loom will permit to filter into its product.
Hand-made carpets have a further advantage in their adaptability to requirements. A single carpet, for instance, can be made to any specified shape, size, design, colour, and quality. ”

“ It largely grows from very fanciful dispositions of free-growing natural forms, as well as curiously curved and tenuous forms, many of which are bone-like and fibre-like in character, flat in treatment and rather thin and washy in colour, and its influence has slightly percolated into designs for pile carpets. This style, sometimes intermixed with the more robust, less fantastic and rather fuller-coloured English style, has found followers in England, America and Germany, but the bulk of the designs now used in power carpet looms seems to be mainly of Oriental descent. ”

“ Of course, the same laws of colour harmonies and contrasts hold good for the carpet colourist, as for the artist in any other branches of applied art; but the carpet artist has his own particular problems, such as those that have been indicated, and such as arise, for instance, from the fact that carpets have wool surfaces and lie on the floor, and therefore bear quite a different relation to the decoration of a room than curtains or ceilings. ”

“ Then there is the consideration of the repeat, with the mysteries of the straight match, reverse, drop and half drop; of the width of the fabric, body and border; and of the various adjustments of design required for carpets of different sizes, whether breadth goods, Chlidema squares, medallions, or seamless. Last, there is the real artistic imagination that is required; the art of seeing from one repeat how a complete carpet will look, of estimating the difference in appearance between the flat colour on the paper and the richness of the wool ”

“ It is far better that the room should be made to fit or adapt itself to the perfect carpet.
If you would buy one, the best that you can do is to choose wisely. They are all of modern make, with very few exceptions. If you have one that is antique, you yourself have made it so, or you have inherited a ragged and neglected example of bygone years. The modern carpets, nevertheless, those still made to-day, are many of them [Pg 95] superb pieces, far outclassing any small rugs of the same weaving. ”

“ If carpets will fade we may use matting, which is now obtainable in good designs and excellent colors. Or let us have good honest wood floors oiled or waxed, for they need not be very expensive. Then with a pretty rug, perhaps, in the middle of the room, we secure greater cleanliness than is possible with a carpet, and need not be afraid of the light of day, two points which should help to decrease our doctors’ bills. In providing for light it is better to have one large window than two small ones. ”

“ With this method the catcher beam is placed high up in the middle of the loom, and the sley is made of stronger reeds, open at the top to allow the catcher warp ends to descend between them.
From the loom the complete carpet passes to the finishing room, where it is picked back and front, brushed, steamed, combed, and shorn; all these processes tending to fill out and level the surface. It is then passed or examined for any defects that may have escaped notice in the first mending. The ends of the carpet, which are woven without fur, are turned over and hemmed, preferably by machine. ”

“ It may be said that a rug, like a baby, ceases to be a rug at an uncertain size, and then becomes a carpet. But carpets in the larger dimensions, ten by twelve feet or more, as ordinarily understood, are only herein considered. They are really articles of utility first and always, and must answer to certain measured requirements. Such is the accepted theory and practice. The buyer is wont to think that the merit or beauty of a carpet is of secondary consideration if only it fit the room. ”

“ From whatever source, however, the carpet manufacturer obtains his ideas for a design, it is by his expert staff, or by a professional carpet designer, that the ideas must be reduced to a practical form. And the technical preparation of designs for carpets is as full of difficulty as it is of interest. As has been indicated, the various makes of carpet differ from each other in many respects, including that of pitch, or number of threads or rows per inch. They all, however, have this in common, that, anatomically so to speak, as regards design, they are reducible to squares of colour. ”

“ Rag carpets have generally been woven of rags cut from any old garments cast aside by the household—coats and trousers too old for patching, sheets and pillow-cases too tender to use, calico, serge, bits of woolen stuffs old and new, went into the carpet basket, to be cut or torn into strips, sewed indiscriminately together, and rolled into balls until there should be enough of them for the work of the loom. ”

“ If the housekeeper thinks that this is "hominess" carried to excess, she may cover the floor with an ingrain carpet, or better, plain filling of a medium shade, on which a few rag rugs are laid, light in color. Very artistic carpets and rugs are made out of old carpets and sold at reasonable figures, and there still remain in some small towns throughout the country weavers who weave into carpets the carpet-rags sewn together by housewives for the price of their labor alone. ”

“ The harness part of the carpet draw-loom is furnished with mails, or metallic eyes, to save friction; two threads being drawn through each eye. The design or pattern of a carpet is drawn upon cross-rule paper, exactly in the same way as every other kind of fancy-loom work, and is transferred from the paper to the mounting by the rules for damask weaving. Suppose that a double web is so mounted that every alternate thread of the one may be raised, so as to form a sufficient shed-way for the shuttle, without depressing the other in the least. ”

“ Should there be grease spots, apply a mixture of beef-gall, fuller's-earth, and water enough to form a paste; put this on before tacking the carpet down. Use tacks inserted in small leather caps. Carpets in bedrooms and stair-carpets may be kept clean by being brushed with a soft hairbrush frequently, and, as occasion requires, being taken up and shaken. Larger carpets should be swept carefully with a whisk-brush or hand-brush of hair, which is far better, especially in the case of fine-piled carpets. Thick carpets, as Axminster and Turkey, should always be brushed one way. ”

“ The surface of the carpet then is inspected by the pickers, who mend any faults left from the weaving. Their work is supervised and checked by the passers. At this stage, some manufacturers pass their Brussels carpets, particularly the cheaper qualities, through a pressing machine, in which heavy pressure on the looped pile is exerted by rollers, the object being to obtain better cover, and to prevent grinning. It is questionable, however, whether the process is of any real benefit to the carpet, as it tends to impair the handle of the fabric and the resiliency of the pile. ”

“ A fire ought always to be made in the room after cleaning.
4. To clean Carpets.—Before sweeping a carpet, sprinkle over it a few handfuls of waste tea-leaves. A stiff hair-broom or brush should be used, unless the carpet be very dirty, when a whisk or carpet-broom should be used first, followed by another made of hair to take off the loose dirt. The frequent use of a stiff broom soon injures the beauty of the best carpet. An ordinary clothes-brush is best adapted for superior carpets. ”

“ In working over an old floor a plain or ornamental border can usually be laid at no great expense by using the thin wood carpet, manufactured by all the best makers of parquetry, and the centre can be laid with a pattern or with narrow strips such as the "roll goods" which are manufactured by S. C. Johnson of Racine, which are made up of strips usually one and three-eighths inches wide and five sixteenths of an inch thick, glued to a backing of canvas. ”

“ During the 19th century the carpet industry was developed in government gaols. Produced in great quantities the prison-made carpets as a rule are less well turned out, and the competition, set up between them and the rugs and carpets of private factories has had a somewhat detrimental effect upon the industry generally. Older in origin than the cut pile carpets are those of thinner and flat surface texture, which from almost immemorial times have been woven in cotton with blue and white or blue and red stripes in the simplest way. ”

“ The joy of these houses is that one needs almost no furniture, they are provided with the soft, thick straw mats (tatami) , and these serve as carpets if one likes. I infinitely prefer their delicate straw colour and black borders, which harmonise with the cream walls and unpainted woodwork, to the clashing carpets most people have. Then fireplaces being [119] absent, overmantels, fenders, coal-scuttles and fire-irons are all represented by a little china bowl of ashes, manipulated with metal chop-sticks. ”

“ In carpets, the pattern should, as a rule, radiate from geometric points; at least the more important spots should be on a circular, lozenge, or square basis, so that the eye should not be carried in one particular direction. If animals are used, they should have a simple outline, and should be treated flatly. Realistic flowers, birds, human figures, landscapes, and architecture are out of place on carpets. A border always improves a carpet, if properly designed to harmonize with the centre, or to enhance its value. ”

“ To preserve a carpet that cannot be often shaken, draw out the tacks twice a year, turn back the edges a quarter of a yard all around, brush out the dust, and then with a painter's brush put new spirits of turpentine upon the boards as far as the carpet is turned back ”

“ Other floor coverings are and have been made also without such a tufted surface, and of these some are simple shuttle-woven materials plain or enriched with needlework or printed with patterns, others are woven after the manner of tapestry-weaving (see Tapestry) or in imitation of it, and a further class of carpets is made of felt (see Felt) . This last material is entirely different from that of shuttle or tapestry weaving. Although carpet weaving by hand is, and for centuries has been, an Oriental industry, it has also been, and is still, pursued in many European countries. ”

“ Another kind of hand weaving is the tapestry method, wherein the weft colours, wound upon wooden needles, are threaded round and between the warp ends, leaving a flat or slightly ribbed surface, not unlike that of an ingrain carpet. The absence of a tufted pile does not make this a luxurious carpet; but it enables a fine pitch to be employed, and the richest and most delicate effects of design and colour to be obtained. ”

“ To choose a carpet, the first thing is to see if the colours are fast. This is done by rubbing with a wet cloth. If the slightest tinge is communicated to this, the carpet should be rejected. Then, if the carpet is limp, and can be doubled on itself like a cloth, it is “shul-berf” (loosely woven) and scamped. A carpet which is well woven (I am speaking of new ones) is always stiff. Greens in the pattern should be avoided, as they will fade to a drab, but this drab is not unpleasing ”