LACE MANUFACTURE

The pillow-made, or bone-lace, which formerly gave occupation to multitudes of women in their own houses, has, in the progre of mechanical invention, been nearly superseded by the bobbin-net lace, manufactured at first by hand-machines, as stockings are knit upon frames, but recently by the power of water or steam. This elegant texture po e es all the strength and regularity of the old Bucking ham lace, and is far superior in these respects to the point-net and warp lace, which had preceded, and in some measure paved the way for it. Bobbin-net may be said to surpa every other branch of human industry in the complex ingenuity of its machinery; one of Fisher’s spotting frames being as much beyond the most curious chronometer in multiplicity of mechanical device, as that is beyond a common roasting-jack. IMG:4147767755307473660_illo0730.png:Lace The threads in bobbin-net lace form, by their intertwisting and decu ation, regular hexagonal holes or meshes, of which the two opposite sides, the upper and under, are directed along the breadth of the piece, or at right angles to the selvage or border. Fig. 608. shows how, by the cro ing and twisting of the threads, the regular six-sided mesh is produced, and that the texture results from the union of three separate sets of threads, of which one set proceed downwards in serpentine lines, a second set proceeds from the left to the right, and a third from the right to the left, both in slanting directions. These oblique threads twist themselves round the vertical ones, and also cro each other betwixt them, in a peculiar manner, which may be readily understood by examining the representation. In comparing bobbin-net with a common web, the perpendicular threads in the figure, which are parallel to the border, may be regarded as the warp, and the two sets of slanting threads, as the weft. IMG:4147767755307473660_illo0731a.png:Lace These warp threads are extended up and down, in the original mounting of the piece between a top and bottom horizontal roller or beam, of which one is called the warp beam, and the other the lace beam, because the warp and finished lace are wound upon them respectively. These straight warp threads receive their contortion from the tension of the weft threads twisted obliquely round them alternately to the right and the left hand. Were the warp threads so tightly drawn that they became inflexible, like fiddle-strings, then the lace would a ume the appearance shown in fig. 609. ; and although this condition does not really exist, it may serve to illustrate the structure of the web. The warp threads stand in the positions a a , a′ a′ , and a′ ′ a′ ′ ; the one half of the weft proceeds in the direction b b , b′ b′ and b′ ′ b′ ′ ; and the second cro es the first by running in the direction c c , or c′ c′ , towards the opposite side of the fabric. If we pursue the path of a weft thread, we find it goes on till it reaches the outermost or last warp thread, which it twists about; not once, as with the others, but twice; and then returning towards the other border, proceeds in a reverse direction. It is by this double twist, and by the return of the weft threads, that the selvage is made. The ordinary material of bobbin-net is two cotton yarns, of from No. 180. to No. 250., twisted into one thread; but sometimes strongly twisted single yarn has been used. The beauty of the fabric depends upon the quality of the material, as well as the regularity and smallne of the meshes. The number of warp threads in a yard in breadth is from 600 to 900; which is equivalent to from 20 to 30 in an inch. The size of the holes cannot be exactly inferred from that circumstance, as it depends partly upon the oblique traction of the threads. The breadth of the pieces of bobbin-net varies from edgings of a quarter of an inch, to webs 12, or even 20 quarters, that is, 5 yards wide. IMG:4147767755307473660_illo0731b.png:Carriage and bobbin Bobbin-net lace is manufactured by means of very costly and complicated machines, called frames . The limits of this Dictionary will admit of an explanation of no more than the general principles of the manufacture. The threads for cro ing and twisting round the warp, being previously ga ed, that is, freed from loose fibres by singeing with gas, are wound round small pulleys, called bobbins, which are, with this view, deeply grooved in their periphery. Figs. 610 , 611. exhibit the bobbin alone, and with its carriage. In the section of the bobbin a , fig. 610. , the deep groove is shown in which the thread is wound. The bobbin consists of two thin discs of bra , cut out in a stamp-pre , in the middle of each of which there is a hollow space c . These discs are riveted together, leaving an interval between their edge all round, in which the thread is coiled. The round hole in the centre, with the little notch at top, serves for spitting them upon a feathered rod, in order to be filled with thread by the rotation of that rod in a species of reel, called the bobbin-filling machine. Each of these bobbins (about double the size of the figure), is inserted into the vacant space G of the carriage, fig. 611. This is a small iron frame (also double the size of the figure), which, at e e , embraces the grooved border of the bobbin, and by the pre ure of the spring at f , prevents it from falling out. This spring serves likewise to apply sufficient friction to the bobbin, so as to prevent it from giving off its thread at g by its rotation, unle a certain small force of traction be employed upon the thread. The curvilinear groove h h , sunk in each face or side of the carriage, has the depth shown in the section at h . This groove corresponds to the interval between the teeth of the comb, or bars of the bolt, in which each carriage is placed, and has its movement. A portion of that bolt or comb is shown at a , fig. 612. in plan, and one bar of a circular bolt machine at b , in section. If we suppose two such combs or bolts placed with the ends of the teeth opposite each other, but a little apart, to let the warp threads be stretched, in one vertical plane, between their ends or tips, we shall have an idea of the skeleton of a bobbin-net machine. One of these two combs, in the double bolt machine, has an occasional lateral movement called shogging , equal to the interval of one tooth or bolt, by which, after it has received the bobbins, with their carriages, into its teeth, it can shift that interval to the one side, and thereby get into a position to return the bobbins, with their carriages, into the next series of interstices or gates, in the other bolt. By this means the whole series of carriages receives succe ive side steps to the right in one bolt, and to the left in the other, so as to perform a species of countermarch, in the course of which they are made to cro and twist round about the vertical warp threads, and thus to form the meshes of the net. IMG:4147767755307473660_illo0732a.png:Comb The number of movements required to form a row of meshes in the double tier machine, that is, in a frame with two combs or bars, and 2 rows of bobbins, is six; that is, the whole of the carriages (with their bobbins) pa from one bar or comb to the other six times, during which pa ages the different divisions of bobbin and warp threads change their relative positions 12 times. IMG:4147767755307473660_illo0732b.png:Working of comb and carriages This interchange or traversing of the carriages with their bobbins, which is the most difficult thing to explain, but at the same time the most e ential principle of the lace-machine, may be tolerably well understood by a careful study of fig. 613. , in which the simple line IMG:4147767755307473660_line.png: represents the bolts or teeth, the sign IMG:4147767755307473660_closed.png: the back line of carriages, and the sign IMG:4147767755307473660_open.png: the front line of carriages. H is the front comb or bolt bar, and I the back bolt bar. The former remain is always fixed or stationary, to receive the carriages as they may be presented to it by the shogging of the latter. There must be always one odd carriage at the end; the rest being in pairs. No. 1. represents the carriages in the front comb or bar, the odd carriage being at the left end. The back line of carriages is first moved on to the back bar I , the odd carriage, as seen in No. 1., having been left behind, there being no carriage opposite to drive it over to the other comb or bar. The carriages then stand as in No. 2. The bar I now shifts to the left, as shown in No. 3.; the front carriages then go over into the back bar or comb, as is represented by No. 4. The bar I now shifts to the right, and gives the position No. 5. The front carriages are then driven over to the front bar, and leave the odd carriage on the back bar at the right end, for the same reason as before described, and the carriages stand as shown in No. 6. The bar I next shifts to the left, and the carriages stand as in No. 7. (the odd carriage being thereby on the back bar to the left.) The back carriages now come over to the front bar, and stand as in No. 8. The back bar or comb I shifts to the right as seen in No. 9., which completes the traverse. The whole carriages with their bobbins have now changed their position, as will be seen by comparing No. 9. with No. 1. The odd carriage, No. 1. IMG:4147767755307473660_open.png: has advanced one step to the right, and has become one of the front tier; one of the back tier or line IMG:4147767755307473660_open.png: has advanced one step to the left, and has become the odd carriage; and one of the front ones IMG:4147767755307473660_open.png: has gone over to the back line. The bobbins and carriages throughout the whole width of the machine have thus cro ed each other’s course, and completed the mesh of net. The carriages with their bobbins are driven a certain way from the one comb to the other, by the pre ure of two long bars (one for each) placed above the level of the comb, until they come into such a position that their projecting heels or catches i i , fig. 611. , are moved off by two other long flat bars below, called the locker plates, and thereby carried completely over the interval between the two combs. There are six different systems of bobbin-net machines. 1. Heath coate’s patent machine. 2. Brown’s traverse warp. 3. Morley’s straight bolt. 4. Clarke’s pusher principle, single tier. 5. Leaver’s machine, single tier. 6. Morley’s circular bolt. All the others are mere variations in the construction of some of their parts. It is a remarkable fact, highly honourable to the mechanical judgment of Mr. Morley of Derby, that no machines except those upon his circular bolt principle, have been found capable of working succe fully by mechanical power. The circular bolt machine (comb with curved teeth) was used by Mr. Morley, for making narrow breadths or edgings of lace immediately after its first invention, and it has been regularly used by the trade for that purpose ever since, in consequence of the inventor having declined to secure the monopoly of it to himself by patent. At that time the locker bars for driving acro the carriages had only one plate or blade. A machine so mounted is now called “the single locker circular bolt.” In the year 1824, Mr. Morley added another plate to each of the locker bars, which was a great improvement on the machines for making plain net, but an obstruction to the making of narrow breadths upon them. This machine is now distinguished from the former by the term “double locker.” [31] [31] By reading the above brief account of Bobbin-net, in connexion with the more detailed description of it in my Cotton Manufacture of Great Britain , a tolerably clear conception of the nature of this intricate manufacture may be obtained. A rack of lace, is a certain length of work counted perpendicularly, and contains 240 meshes or holes. Well-made lace has the meshes a little elongated in the direction of the selvage. The term gauge, in the lace manufacture, means the number of gates, slits, or interstices, in one inch of the bolt-bar or comb; and corresponds therefore to the number of bobbins in an inch length of the double tier. Thus, when we say “gauge nine points,” we mean that there are nine gates with nine bobbins in one inch of the comb or bolt-bar. Each of such bobbins with its carriage is therefore no more than one ninth of an inch thick. The common proportion or gauge up and down the machine is 16 holes in the inch for ten bobbins transversely. Circular bolt double tier machines can turn off by steam power fully 360 racks each day of 18 hours, with a relay of superintendents. The number of new mechanical contrivances to which this branch of manufacture has given rise, is altogether unparalleled in any other department of the arts. Since Mr. Heath coate’s first succe ful patent, in 1809, a great many other patents have been granted for making lace. In the year 1811, Mr. Morley, then of Nottingham, invented his straight bolt frame, more simple in construction, better combined, and more easy in its movements, than the preceding machines; but the modest inventor did not secure it, as he might have done, by patent. The pusher machine was invented in the same year, by Samuel Mart and James Clark, also of Nottingham. The following year is remarkable in the history of the lace trade, for the invention of the circular bolt machine, by Mr. Morley—a mechanism po e ing all the advantages of his straight bolt machine, without its disadvantages. Nearly at the same time Mr. John Leaver brought forward the lever machine, conjointly with one Turton, both of New Radford, near Nottingham. About the year 1817, or 1818, Mr. Heath coate applied the rotatory movement to the circular bolt machine, and mounted a manufactory on that plan, by mechanical power, at Tiverton, after he and his partner, Mr. Boden, had been driven from Lough borough, in 1816, by the atrocious violence of the frame-destroying Luddites. Such has been the progre of improvement and economy in this manufacture, that the cost of labour in making a rack , which was, twenty years ago, 3 s. 6 d. , or 42 pence, is now not more than one penny. The prices of this beautiful fabric have fallen in an equally remarkable manner. At the former period, a 24 rack piece, five quarters broad, fetched 17 l. sterling, in the wholesale market; the same is now sold for 7 s. ! The consequence is, that in lace decoration, the maid servant may now be more sumptuously arrayed than her mistre could afford to be twenty years ago.