Lace machine

Lace machines took over the commercial manual production of lace.

At first part laces like Honiton and Brussels profited to a certain degree from mechanisations, as one could collect affordable motives to mount on machine made net after a while.[1]:135 Also new types emerged based on net, such as Carrickmacross and Tambour lace.[1]:127,132 Until by 1870 virtually every type of hand-made lace had its machine-made copy. It became increasingly difficult for lacemakers to make a living from their work. In England most of the handmade lace industry had disappeared by 1900.[2] Until the late 1960s few were interested in tracing and curating old laces and few courses where available to keep the technique alive.[1]:24

Time line

Major types of machine lace

Bobbinet

Main article: Bobbinet

The bobbinet machine, invented by John Heathcoat in Loughborough, Leicestershire, in 1808,[4] makes a perfect copy of Lille or East Midlands net (fond simple, a six-sided net with four sides twisted, two crossed). The machine uses flat round bobbins in carriages to pass through and round vertical threads.[5]

Leavers lace machines

Leavers

John Levers adapted Heathcoat's machine in Nottingham in 1813. The name of the machine was the Leavers machine (the 'a' was added to aid pronunciation in France). The original machine made net but it was discovered that the Jacquard apparatus (invented in France for weaving looms by J M Jacquard in about 1800) could be adapted to it. From 1841 lace complete with pattern, net and outline could be made on the Leavers machine. The Leavers machine is probably the most versatile of all machines for making patterned lace.[5]

Curtain Machine

The lace curtain machine, invented by John Livesey in Nottingham in 1846 was another adaptation of John Heathcoat's bobbinet machine. It made the miles of curtaining which screened Victorian and later windows.[5]

Barmen

Main article: Barmen lace machine

The Barmen machine was developed in the 1890s in Germany from a braiding machine. Its bobbins imitate the movements of the bobbins of the hand-made lace maker and it makes perfect copies of Torchon and the simpler hand-made laces.[5] It can only make one width at a time, and has a maximum width of about 120 threads.[6]

Pusher

In 1812 Samual Clark and James Mart constructed a machine that was capable of working a pattern and net at the same time. A pusher operated each bobbin and carriage independently allowing almost unlimited designs and styles. The machine however was slow, delicate, costly and could produce only short "webs" of about two by four yards.[7] The machine was modified by J. Synyer in 1829[3]:293 and by others before. Production had its heydays in the 1860s and ceased around 1870-1880.[8]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Earnshaw, Pat (1985). The Identification of Lace. De Bilt: Cantecleer. ISBN 9021302179.
  2. ↑ "The Origins of Lace". LaceGuild.org. Retrieved 7 January 2015.
  3. 1 2 Felkin, William. A history of the machine-wrought hosiery and lace manufacturies. Longmans, G.Keen, and co. 1867. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
  4. ↑ Pat Earnshaw (1986). Lace Machines and Machine Laces. p. 67. ISBN 0 7134 4684 6.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Jeremy Farrell (2007). "Identifying Handmade and Machine Lace" (PDF). DATS (Dress and Textile Specialists) in partnership with the V&A.
  6. ↑ Earnshaw, Pat (1986). Lace Machines and Machine Laces. p. 225. ISBN 0 7134 4684 6.
  7. ↑ Mahin, Abbie C. "Pusher Lace: An Early American Machine-Made Fabric" (PDF). The Bulletin of the Needle and Bobbin Club 6 (1922): 5. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
  8. ↑ Earnshaw, Pat (1980). The Identification of lace.
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