Sheet (fabric)

“ On many of the fragments of the large pans in my collection the impressions of the cloth are perfect delineations of the fabrics used. Though differing greatly in pattern and in fineness of texture, they are all, with one single exception, made woven in the same manner—that is, by twisting two threads of warp around the single thread of the woof, precisely as the wire faces of laid moulds for forming paper are now made. The coarsest fabric that I find the impression of has warps about one and a half inch apart, with about five threads of woof to the inch. ”

“ Girls pack the sheets on the tables as they fall from the cutters, and throw out the damaged or dirtied sheets. A small black spot or hole or imperfection of any sort is sufficient to reject a sheet. In some orders fifty per cent. of the sheets are thrown out. There is no waste, as the damaged paper is ground into pulp again. Having been cut, the paper must be counted and folded. Then it is packed into bundles for shipment. The young lady who does the counting and folding is the wonder of the mill. ”

“ When a book is to be bound, the pile of sheets which form it is made even at the back, and a saw, working by steam, cuts shallow grooves across the back, for the twine over which the sewing is done. Two girls are pictured sewing at their frames,—passing the needle through the fold of the sheet and round the upright twine, adding one sheet at a time to the pile, until the entire book is sewed. ”

“ Good sheets are always torn—not cut—and finished with a 2 1/2- or 3-inch hem at the top and an inch hem at the bottom, the finished sheet measuring not less than 2 3/4 yards. There must be ample length to turn back well over the blankets and to tuck in at the foot, for it is a most irritating sensation to waken in the night with the wool tickling one's toes and scratching one's chin. Sheets are to be had in varying widths to suit different sized beds. ”

“ A sheet of leather, tin, or copper, is cut with holes in the required pattern, and a brush dipped in colour is worked over the sheet after it is laid upon the paper, so that the paint goes through the holes, and leaves the pattern in colour. ”

“ After the sewing-press is properly regulated and the end-paper sewn as previously described, the sheets should then be taken, one at a time, in their regular order, and sewn all along, from one end of the sheet to the other, or, more properly, from one kettle-stitch to the other, taking especial pains to observe that in sewing each sheet, after the first kettle-stitch has been caught, the needle must be passed to the farthest side of the nearest band, then passed to the other side of the band, and so on for each successive band. ”

“ Pile Fabrics.—Materials of silk or cotton wherein the surface is woven with raised loops, which are afterwards cut, forming a raised "pile." They include Plushes, Velvets, Velveteens, and Corduroys.
The threads that go towards making the pile are special threads independent of the warp and weft threads necessary to make a fabric that will hold together. ”

“ Sewing [1] with us is invariably begun with the last sheet at the right, working on to the left, and reversing the process with the following sheet, and so to the end, so that the thread one way passes from and the other to the worker. With all other sheets, excepting the end sections, the thread is inserted at the kettle stitch and brought out at the next cord, round the cord, and inserted at the same hole, to be brought out again at the next cord, and so on till the thread comes out at the other kettle stitch and is inserted in the next sheet to go through the same process. ”

“ On every part of the carpet where these two fabrics do not exchange, each works on the plain weave. The exchanging of these two fabrics binds both into one, thus forming the ingrain carpet. In the manufacture of this carpet four sets of warp-threads, and also four sets of filling-threads are generally employed; but, if occasionally more or less should be used, in warp or in filling, or in both, in the same fabric, the principle of exchanging is still observed. ”

“ The paper is folded at the back with a small fold, the sheet placed in the fold, and the whole sewn through. It is at once apparent that under no circumstances can there be any strain on the ends, and that there is hardly any possibility of the ends breaking away from the sheets. ”

“ When the required length of the sheet is drawn from the rolls, a cast-iron clamp, placed close to the dead cross-cut knife, descends and firmly holds the paper until the movable cross-cut knife has cut off the sheets, which fall on a second endless felt, and are placed by the catchers in the usual manner. ”

“ The grain of the paper is often disfigured by the felts, when they are too much used, or when the loose fibres do not cover the twisted thread. The two sides of the felt are differently raised, and that on which the fibres are longest is applied to the sheets which are laid down. As the felts have to resist the reiterated action of the press, their warp should be made stout, of long combed wool, and well twisted. The woof, however, should be of carded wool, and spun into a soft thread, so as to render the fabric spongy, and capable of imbibing much water. ”

“ Quartos are generally sewn on five bands to make the work firmer, but if in half-sheets, as in the folio size, six or more are used, sewing as many sheets on as bands, giving each sheet but one tack or sewing, and piercing the needle through the whole of the course at each end or kettle-stitch before fastening the thread. This, which gives sufficient firmness, is necessary to prevent the swelling of the back which a less number of sheets in a course would make and spoil the appearance of the binding. ”

“ Next place the paper between sheets of oil board, [70] make a pile of them and screw them up between the wood clamps again good and tight and leave them there over night; then hang up each sheet of paper by a corner with a clip and let it dry.
[70] This is a heavy oiled paper and you can buy it at a painter’s supply store, or of C. B. Hewitt and Bros., 48 Beekman St., New York City.
Sizing and Finishing. —When the sheets are dry take them down and lay them carefully in a pile for sizing. ”

“ The loose threads existing between the figures when the goods leave the loom are usually cut away, leaving a somewhat imperfect figure or spot with a bit of the figuring thread protruding at either extreme edge of the figure or spot. Lappet-figured fabrics are not Brocades.
Lastings.—A plain twill or kindred weave fabric firmly woven from hard-twisted wool or cotton yarns. Smooth in appearance but having a somewhat hard handle, Lasting is a fine, durable, generally piece-dyed, material, of which there are several varieties, such as the Printed and the Figured. ”

“ Pressing plates. Thin plates of metal, japanned or nickeled, used to give a finish or polish to the leather on a book by placing them next to the leather and then subjecting book and plates to heavy pressure.
Publishers’ bindings. See Case bindings.
Quarto. When a sheet is folded into four leaves, the size of the folded piece being about 11 × 81⁄2 inches; usually written, 4to.
Quire. Twenty-four sheets. When the sheets of a pamphlet are folded and set into each other in one section, they are quired. ”

“ Divide the 30 by 17 into 10 strips, each 3 by 17, for penny pinwheels. If the paper were cut the other way of the sheet, it would not wind smoothly, but crumple up. The fibres, from some cause or other, appear [Pg 92] to arrange themselves in one direction, like the grain in wood. For halfpenny wheels, divide the sheet into two pieces, each 10 by 30; then cut each of these into 12, each 10 by 21⁄2. For a former, have a straight piece of iron, or steel, wire, 1⁄8 of an inch thick, and 24 inches long. One end of this must have a basil, or sloping enlargement upon it, which is thus made. ”

“ It is then lifted off like a sheet of paper; and as the iron plate is cooled in water, several hundred weight of lead can be readily cast in a day. In certain white-lead works these sheets are one twenty-fourth of an inch thick; in others, half that quantity; in some, one of these sheets takes up the whole width of the conversion-box; in others, four sheets are employed. It is of consequence not to smooth down the faces of the leaden sheets; because a rough surface presents more points of contact, and is more readily attacked by acid vapours, than a polished one. ”

“ Within the recollection of my father, it was not at all an uncommon occurrence for a parcel of paper to become so completely perished from the circumstance of its not having been thoroughly washed after bleaching, that to draw a sheet as a sample, and to fold it up in the usual way, was found utterly impossible, without the sheets being cracked or broken at every fold. In some instances, the fibre was so completely destroyed, that an entire ream, composed of 480 sheets, might be as readily snapped asunder as a piece of rotten wood, merely by giving it a sharp blow against the back of a chair. ”

“ Air is admitted to the lofts by means of louvre boards. When sufficiently dry, the paper is taken down, and sleeked, dressed, and shaken, to get rid of dust, and to separate the pages. It is then laid in heaps in the warehouse, preparatory to sizing. The size is made from the shreds and parings of leather and parchment; it is nicely filtered, and a little alum added. A number of sheets are then dipped into the size and separated, so as to expose both surfaces of each sheet; the sheets are taken out, turned over, and dipped a second time. ”

“ Thin sheets of metal of different kinds can be used to great advantage in decoration; and it would seem hardly possible that strips of stovepipe iron, sheet-lead, brass, copper, and zinc could be employed to form such artistic edgings to wood boxes and bits of furniture as may be seen in the following illustrations. ”

“ Sheets are of thicknesses of less than 1/4 in. This distinction of thickness is of importance in its bearing on workshop practice. A thin sheet requires a very different kind of treatment from a thick plate. Not only is more powerful machinery required for the latter, but in bending it allowance has to be made for the difference in radius of outer and inner layers, which increases with increase of thickness. Short, sharp bends which are readily made in thin sheets cannot be done in thick plates, as the metal would be stressed too much in the outer layers. ”

“ The Firmness of Cloth.—The number of ends and picks per inch which can advantageously be put into a fabric depends upon the number of intersections per inch in the pattern or weave, and on the counts or diameters of the yarns used. In a plain cloth woven with 32’s twist and 32’s weft, the number of threads per inch which could be put into the cloth without undue compression would be a little more than one-half the number which could be laid side by side touching each other. ”

“ However it might strike you, fair reader, to the poor woman and her guests there was nothing incongruous in a sheet serving as a tablecloth. Was it not white and clean and properly shaped, and would it not have been a tablecloth if it hadn't been a sheet? How very nice and particular some people can be over the trifling matter of a name! ”

“ Hood Mould.—These may be cut with the “knife-compass,” and the mouldings worked by fitting a piece of ivory filed to the required form in lieu of the knife; they must be slightly gummed upon the underside to the cutting-board, to keep them steady while being worked.
I. Ironwork.—May be represented in either paper, tea-lead, thin sheet copper, or wire, depending on size 108and form; perhaps the easiest and best material for general purposes is tea-lead, i. e., the lead with which the tea chests are lined. ”

“ The complete frame resembles that of a picture, and serves to define the area and thickness of the cast, which is made by pouring the pap of Paris plaster into its interior space, up to a given line on its edges. The plaster mould, which soon sets, or becomes concrete, is lifted gently off the types, and immediately placed upright on its edge in one of the cells of a sheet-iron rack mounted within the cast-iron oven. An able workman will mould ten sheets octavo in a day, or 160 pages. ”

“ This material is always plain woven and is of comparatively recent creation; it can be described as a very rough surface dress fabric, properly in part of wool, but now also made entirely of cotton. The characteristic rough surface is caused by the use of special fancy weft threads which are composed of two or more different size yarns so twisted together as to produce knob effects at intervals in the thread. A more expensive fabric is made of filling threads composed of braided yarns. ”

“ Experiment 62—How to Examine a Fabric
The first thing a buyer of cloth notices in examining the fabrics is the finish. The finish is tested by feeling and seeing. To illustrate: broadcloth should have a smooth face and a nap evenly laid. If the finish is in keeping with the character of the cloth, he next examines the fiber of the yarn to see whether it is composed of pure wool or two or more fibers in combination. ”

“ Crosswise of the fabric is the direction in which the yarn feeds while the fabric is in the process of construction, forming loops adjoining one another, or the same direction as the course. Lengthwise of the fabric is the direction in which the fabric is built up by drawing one loop through another, or the same direction as the wale. Therefore the width of the fabric is restricted by the number of loops or needles used as a base, while the length of the fabric has no restrictions other than the supply of material or the will of the knitter. ”