How Are Modern Rugs and Carpets Made?
The best way to learn of this is for us to take a brief visit to one
of the largest carpet factories, where we will assume we have already
arrived.
There is a sharp whistle, then an outlet of steam, the clang of a bell
and a locomotive rolls around the curve of the spur-track into the
factory yard. Attached to it are several freight cars that only the
day before received their cargoes at the New York docks fresh from
steamships coming from foreign lands. Inside the yard, the engine comes
to a stop alongside a warehouse. Sturdy men unlock the doors of the
cars and begin pulling out bales of the imported wool.
This is the first step in the evolution of a rug. Between the arrival
of the rough wool at the warehouse and the placing in the stock room
of the finished rug, splendidly woven after an artistic design shown
in attractive colors, many interesting processes are followed. It is
sufficient to state that few people looking at rugs of the Saxony,
or Axminster or Tapestry type realize the high degree of mechanical
science and artistic perception that have been brought to bear in the
manufacture of these rugs.
After the arrival of the wool there are many steps to be taken until
the skeins of yarn receive their coloring treatment in the dye-house
and, at the bidding of the great machine, assemble themselves in the
beautiful designs that the artists have created. Though there are
many details of work in the development of a rug, they have been so
well mastered that the employes in charge of every stage of the rug’s
evolution give to their work a nicety of attention in little time that
careful training and scientific understanding alone can supply.
The travel-stained covers of the bales are removed. The heavy bulk is
broken and the tightly-compressed bales loosened. Then the wool is fed
into the washing-machine, and after that goes into the picking-machine.
The process of cleansing the wool is an elaborate one, for it is so
full of dirt and grease that several waters and several operations are
necessary to its final appearance in a white and fleecy condition.
After the last washing the wool is lifted to a drying-room, where the
heat from steam-coils is forced through it by means of blowers.
The wool now passes to the sorting-room, where the blends are carefully
made before it goes to the machine which tears the wool fibers apart,
and gets them in shape for the carding and combing processes. Next
the wool is blown into a spinning mill. The wool is now ready to be
converted into yarn. It passes through a picking-machine, which blends
the different grades of the raw material, selecting the strands as to
fiber and color. Then it is refined and purified.
[Illustration: CARDING MACHINE]
Through tubes the wool is forced to the carding-room by means of air
pressure. In passing through the cards it is carefully weighed to
secure evenness in the yarn. Leaving the carding machine, the wool
is taken to the floor above, where the big spools of yarn reach the
combing machine for the next process. This machine separates the long
from the short fibers. The strands of wool are still thick and must go
through another process before they are ready to be made into yarn.
They are finally united and given sufficient strength to stand the
weaving process. As the visitor sees the strands of yarn first appear
on the machine they resemble rolls of smoke.
[Illustration: DYEING THE YARN]
~HOW THE YARN FOR CARPETS IS DYED~
The yarn next appears on rows of spindles in the mule-room, six hundred
feet long, where the yarn is twisted and brought to its final stage.
The yarn now is ready for the dye-house. Here the atmosphere is very
dense. Clouds of steam rise from the many vats of boiling dyes. The
yarn receives the coloring for which it is intended, or is bleached
in an adjoining department, and then is transferred on poles to the
drying-room, after passing through a steaming process which sets the
color. Next it passes on an electric conveyor to the weave-shop.
Considerable skill is required in the weaving process. The assembling
of the yarns and matching of colors require expert attention. The
skeins of yarn are wound on spools, which are put in sets back of the
looms, each color or set representing one “frame” of color in the rug.
By the famous Jacquard motion of cards each color wanted in the surface
of the rug is pulled up in its proper place, the other frame color
laying in the back of the rug. The mechanical process is a remarkable
sight. As the pattern forms itself from the mechanical devices, the
onlooker is struck with the wonder of it.
[Illustration: HOW A CARPET IS WOVEN BY MACHINERY