The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1893-10-26
MAKING OF SILK LACE.
Raw Silk Traced From Producer to Cor
suraer.

suaer.
To Nottingham, England, goes the
| credit for having placed window cur
tains within the reach of the masses
AS matter of fact, Nottingham is en-
tirely innocent in the premises and the
only connection between the two lies
in the fact that Nottingham, being the
home of the English lace industry, has
been adopted as an appropriate name
| to be given to the output of our cotton
lace manufactures. What Nottingham
| is to England and Calais and Candre to
France. Brooklyn stands TO the United
States-the home or head center of the
lace industry.
To follow a thread of silk from its
raw state, through its course of prepa-
ration to be worked up into delicate
lace by the marvelously ingenious ma
chinery, is an exceedingly interesting
occupation. The silk is received in this
country in bales shipped from Italy,
China and Japan. 1t is in skeins in the
raw state, either greenish white or yell
low in color. The finest silk comes
from Italy. The thread is like hair
and is as long as the skein. The first
operation is to throw it. or in other
words bring as many threads together
as may be required in very fine or
heavier fabrics, When the thread is of
the desired thickness it is boiled to re-
move the gum which is natural to it,
and when dry it is wound on spools
holding several thousand yards each.
| This is done by machines of from sixty
to ninety spools each.
The spools are then put on jack, or
| frames of pins, on which they revolve
and from which the silk is fed on n
drum or warping mill through brass
plates more or less perforated with
holes, according to the number of
/ threads to be placed in the warp. An
ingenious device registers the yards as
! they run on the drum, SO that when
the desired length has been wound
the machine is stopped. The warps
vary in width according to the work
in which they are to be used. The
next operation is to run the warps on
the warp beams. These beams are
steel rollers of various thickness and
in width running as high as 1914 inches.
1 Transferring the warp from the drum
to the beam is repetition of the oper-
alton from the spool to the drum. To
every machine there is a main warp
which forms the ground work of the
pattern. supplemented by several auXil-
larry wraps of various size threads, with
which the pattern IS perfected. The
main wrap may be several thousand
yards long, while the auxiliary wraps
are shorter and are replaced from time
to time When the skein is wound on
the spools part of it goes in another
direction, where the silk is run from
the spools on to bobbins. The bobbins
, are the instruments that in lace-mak-
ing form the design Of the pattern by
twisting around the warp threads At
this stage the machine is armed with
the material ready to be worked up.
And this is the point at which art
enters. A corps of draughtsmen are
employed making new designs and
laying out the work. The design be-
ing acceptable, draughtsman pat
tern is drawn to scale, one copy of
which goes to the operator on the
machine who threads it accordingly by
/ running the threads from the warp
beams which set at the bottom of the
machine through sley cloth and per-
forated steel bars and fastened or the
roller at the top.
! This operation is of the most exact
| ing character and the greatest care
must be exercised, as the misplacing
of a single thread will bring disaster
to the most elaborate and carefully
worked out design. Each thread is
handled separately and IN any hours are
required to thread "A ma chine of 154
inches in width Within that space
the pattern is repeated as many times
as the width will allow, so that when
| the fabric is turned out of the machine
as many as thirty strips may be found.
! Another copy of the draughtsman' $
! pattern is sent to the jacquard punchsr,
or what may be called a piano machine,
where the pattern is punched on heavy
cardboard on the same pri ncipie as the
music rolls of an orchest rion, but with
! the difference that each piece of card
| (about 2l2x1S inches) contains the de-
! sign of a single movement of the lace
| machine. If there are three hundred
stitches in pattern there will be three
hundred of these cards strung together.
The machine being threaded the cards
are adjusted to the jacquard attach
ment, without which lace might better
be made by hand. The design cards
operate troopers in the attachment
bars, through which the threads pass
and weave the pattern, each movement
being complete and perfect. On ma
chine 1874 inches in width as many as
| 10. 900 threads are used The Gescrip-
ton of the working of one machine
covers all. When the desired length
has been run off it goes to the eXamin-
| ing room, where skilled women go over
it and pick up any flaw that may be
found, after which it goes to the dye
! house to assume any color that may be
chosen. From thence it is taken to the
finishing room, where it is washed in
a prepared bath and then stretched on
! drying frames in rooms kept at a tenn
perature of 1870 degrees. 1t now reaches
| its last stage preparatory to going into
the world-the carding room-where
the draw threads between the strips
are pulled out and the strips wound on