Nottingham lace curtain machine
.jpg)
The lace curtain machine, is a lace machine that was invented by John Livesey in Nottingham in 1846. It was an adaptation of John Heathcoat's bobbinet machine. It made the miles of curtaining which screened Victorian and later windows.[1]
History
The forerunner of mechanical lace making stems from the 1589 stocking frame. This is a weaving frame fitted with a bar of bearded needles that passed back and forth, to and from the operator. There was no warp. The beards were simultaneously depressed by a presser bar catching the weft and holding it back a course making a row of loops. After Jeremiah Strutt had modified the machine in 1759 to do ribbing, Hammond in 1764 used a tickler stick to transfer the loops 2 or 3 gaits sideways,mechanic lace making was born. [2] There was no carriage, no comb and the operations continued to be done in sequence by the operator.
Invented by John Livesey in Nottingham in 1846, lace curtain machine was initially seen as a form of a Leavers machine- a modification of the Circular. The Leavers mesh tends to be hexagonal while the Curtain machine gives a straight mesh. The use of Jacquards for producing patterned lace was well established. At the 1851 Great Exhibition curtains 5 yards (460 cm) long by 2 yards (180 cm) wide were displayed. The spacious designs required over 12000 Jacquard cards. The curtain Lace industry prospered now the fashion was for large rising sash windows. [3]
There width increased to 420 inches (11 m), and in 1928 a 300 inches (7.6 m) in machine was considered to be the smallest viable size. Its supremacy was challenged in 1900 by the Schiffli embroideriies on bobbinet, then in 1950s by the Raschel [4] and the use of artificial fibres
Description
The frame viewed from the front is similar to Leavers machine. Its action is different as it produces a square net rather than a hexagonal one. The Nottingham lace curtain machine only has one warp and the patterning threads are carried on a spools not on a beam. The terms to describe the actions are the same as those used for a Leavers machine: rise, fall, right, left, sley, carriage, comb et c.[5] The lace is collected at the top, unlike the Pusher machine where it is at the bottom, It is collected on a take up beam; a spiky roller called the porcupine beneath it, regulated the take up tension.
The curtain machine
There are four groups of threads: warp, top board, bottom board and bobbin. On a 10 point, 360 inch machine there are four groups of 3600 threads : 14400 in all. [5] Point means warps ber inch.
- The warp passes down the lace in straight lines, the warp beam is at the bottom and the thread passes through a sley, and then the front guide bar, the warp bar. The warp bar is controlled by a cam. All warps remain in parallel; they cannot pattern, they form the skeletal support for the fabric.
- The top board threads can act as both warp and weft- they can pillar to the weft or can shog gaits in the pattern as weft.The threads pass through tensioning springs than a sley and through holes in the back guide bar (third bar, coarse spool bar).
- The bottom board, (Swiss board or occasionally beam) was not present in the early machines, acts as weft in both the ground and the pattern. This contains the finer threads. If the pattern is complex spools must be used but a beam can be used where the pattern is fairly even. The threads go through a tensioning spring and through holes in the middle guide bar (Swiss bar, fine spool bar).
- The bobbin threads tie the top and bottom board threads to the pillars.[5] The bobbin threads are carried on brass bobbins that are held in carriages that are swung back and forth on combs in a pushing and catching routine. Pillaring is controlled by the pillaring cam; in net formation the pillars must be connected and this can be done by the spool threads (top or bottom board). These are secured each time by the bobbin threads. Patterning or gimping is created by using longer shogs on the spool threads. [6]
There are three guide bars controlled by work cams. These allow a shogging movement across 2, 3 or four gaits. The cams can not be stopped, but threads in the middle and back bars can be interrupted by a Jacquard mechanism.[7] Each bobbin thread has its own jack- a steel wire that can interrupt its movement and place a hole in the pattern, in effect leaving off a tie.[8]
References
- Notes
- ↑ Farrell 2007, p. 8.
- ↑ Earnshaw & 1986, p. 21.
- ↑ Earnshaw 1986, pp. 174-175.
- ↑ Earnshaw 1986, p. 175.
- 1 2 3 Earnshaw 1986, p. 176.
- ↑ Earnshaw 1986, pp. 180, 182.
- ↑ Earnshaw 1986, p. 180.
- ↑ Earnshaw 1986, pp. 183,184.
- Bibliography
- Earnshaw, Pat (1986). Lace Machines and Machine Laces. Batsford. ISBN 0713446846.
- Farrell, Jeremy (2007). "Identifying Handmade and Machine Lace" (PDF). DATS (Dress and Textile Specialists) in partnership with the V&A.
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lacemaking machines. |
Lace types | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Needle lace |
|  | |||||||
| Bobbin lace |
| ||||||||
| Tape lace |
| ||||||||
| Crocheted lace | |||||||||
| Machine-made lace | |||||||||
