WILTON
WILTON carpeting is similar in manufacture in many respects to Brussels.
The loom is practically the same for both fabrics, convertible from one
to the other without much difficulty or expense. The preparation of
yarns for worsted pile, chain, stuffer, and weft is substantially
identical, while most of what has been said with regard to weaving and
finishing operations applies no less to Brussels than to Wilton.
The essential differences are two—a major and a minor one. In the first
place, the loops of worsted yarns are cut, so that the character of the
surface is velvety instead of smooth and ribbed. This is effected by the
use of a narrow wire ending in a knife blade, which blade stands outside
the fabric when the wire is inserted, but severs the loops of worsted
when the wire is withdrawn.
The second difference, which, however, does not apply to all grades of
Wilton carpet, is that for the sake of holding down the pile more
securely, there are three shots of weft to each row of pile, instead of
two. This is effected by an adjustment of the gear and harness motions,
in such a way that the lash or shed of worsted selected to form the
pattern does not rise alternately with the shed of the chain, but once
in every three picks of the shuttle or beats of the sley.
The cutting of the yarn, resulting as it does in exposing to view the
ends instead of the sides of the wool fibre, gives a richer and softer
surface effect both in appearance and in feel, while the treble weft
shot makes a better weave and a firmer fabric. Generally also Wilton
carpeting is woven closer, with more rows to the inch, than Brussels,
which necessitates, incidentally, the use of thinner wires.
The standard best or Super Wilton carpet is 256 pitch, with a beat-up of
10 to the inch, woven with a wire about 3/16 in. high; a linen weft is
used, and a stuffer of bump. Five frames of worsted are generally
employed. This is an excellent carpet for dining and drawing rooms,
theatres, show rooms, and restaurants, and will wear well. Several
better qualities are made, however; and the fabric lends itself readily
to fine and luxurious effects. Wires are used occasionally as high as
3/8 in. or more.
[Illustration: Fig. 6
SECTION OF FIVE-FRAME WILTON
A, Chain; B, Pile warp; C, Stuffer warp]
Depth of pile, however, is not the highest desideratum in a Wilton
carpet; and the most notable development of recent years in the fabric
has been in the direction of a fine, closely woven fabric with no
excessive wool surface. These fine Wiltons are made 256 pitch, 12 or 13
shots per inch, and are generally 2-shot, with chain, stuffer, and weft
of cotton. Neither depth of pile nor weight is aimed at, but fineness
and smoothness of surface and artistic effect; and their great
popularity in spite of the present high price seems to indicate that
they have justified themselves. At the present time most manufacturers
of Wilton produce a fine Wilton quality of this nature.
Among the better qualities of Wilton, mention must be made of Saxonies,
the name given to Wiltons woven with a heavy, sharply twisted twofold
Saxony worsted yarn, which possesses exceptional wearing qualities.
Below Super Wilton come the medium qualities, made in 236 pitch, 10 to
the inch, in five, four, and three frames; artistic and serviceable
carpets suitable for studies, bed-rooms, and what may be called general
use; while they are also in great demand for Cinema theatres.
The cheaper grades of Wilton are made in 214 pitch with three frames or
less. Their manufacture has been limited during the war by the
restricted supplies of worsted yarn; and even before that time they
suffered from the competition of woollen Wiltons, of which mention will
be made. The limitation of colours on the one hand, and the comparative
poverty of the fabric on the other, restricted the demand to those for
whom the question of price was important; and now that price-cutting has
passed away in an era of high values and shortage of material, these
qualities are out of favour.
Woollen Wiltons, or Wilton fabrics whose pile is made of a sharply
twisted woollen yarn, instead of worsted, require special mention. They
are of comparatively recent growth, and probably originated in the
effort of the Jacquard loom manufacturer to meet the competition of
Imperial Axminster, dating from the time when the price of the latter
fabric was round about 4s., and woollen yarn was correspondingly cheap.
It was necessarily rather an uphill fight for the Jacquard loom, because
the Axminster possessed the initial advantages of a greatly superior
range of colours, and of greater economy in manufacture owing to the
yarn being all on the surface.
The price of woollen Wiltons therefore had to be appreciably lower, and
the qualities cut as much as they would stand. Working on this basis,
however, the woollen Wiltons did justify their existence. Made mainly in
214 pitch, with three frames of yarn or less, and beaten up from 8½ to
7½ per inch, they achieved unambitious but ingenious and saleable
effects, and if the cover and consequent wear was not all that could
have been desired, yet they served a purpose.
But it must not be implied that the only woollen Wiltons were, or are,
the cheap grades. The suitability of woollen yarn for use in a Wilton
loom to produce a soft and even luxurious fabric with an Oriental effect
has long been recognised; and admirable qualities have been woven in 256
and 236 pitch with four or five frames of yarn and with fairly high
wires. Indeed, some of these can be regarded as more successfully
imitating the Eastern carpet in texture than even the finer worsted
Wiltons.
Wilton carpeting lends itself particularly well to single shade effects:
plain Wiltons have been woven in a variety of qualities with both
worsted and woollen yarn for many years; and, indeed, the demand has
shown signs of a steady increase. For those who are content with a
single colour on the floor in their scheme of furnishing, and who do not
object to the sensitiveness of a plain carpet to “shading,” and, indeed,
to the recording of individual footprints, no fabric is better than a
plain Wilton. But it should be borne in mind that a plain carpet has
that defect. Wool fibre is elastic, but not infinitely so. A plain
carpet, however well and carefully woven, cannot be expected to retain
its virgin smoothness and level colour for long under wear. Wear on a
carpet is never evenly distributed: the feet tread down some places more
than others; the pile is depressed unequally, with the result that, in a
plain carpet, the light, falling at different angles upon the fibres
causes light and dark patches to appear. This is called shading, and is
often wrongly attributed to defective manufacture, or to the presence of
some foreign substance like oil. Shading actually occurs equally in
figured Wiltons; but it is rarely the subject of complaint, simply
because it is concealed by the design and colours.
Subject to this limitation, then, plain carpets, and plain Wiltons in
particular, are all right for those who like them. The manufacturer does
not regard them with great enthusiasm, for, though in some respects they
are easier to make than figured goods, yet they are exacting if they are
to be turned out perfectly. Moreover, they are more subject to
competition, and do not afford scope for artistic skill in design and
colour combination.
As has been indicated, Wilton carpeting, like Brussels, has, in
comparison with some of its competitors, two main limitations; one
economic and one artistic. For every square or tuft of yarn showing on
the surface, there are, roughly, from two to four parts uneconomically
used in the body of the fabric, and the number of shades that can be
used to work one over the other to form the pattern is limited to five,
or, exceptionally, to six. These limitations, however, are not serious
ones; and the Wilton carpet, in its higher grades, is regarded by many
as the best of all machine-made carpets. It is certainly the finest; and
closeness of texture, broadly speaking, means both finer effects and
better wear. The higher grades of Wilton are made, as has been stated,
in pitch and beat-up which give from 95 to 123 points to the square
inch; so that in the matter both of texture and of delicacy of design,
effects can be produced in Wilton which surpass those of any other
carpet fabric, with the exception of the finest Persians.