page_title: Nottingham lace curtain machine
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Nottingham lace curtain machine / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Fig. 49.--Section of Lace Machine. E is the cylinder or beam upon which the lace is rolled as made, and upon which the ends of both warp and weft threads are fastened at starting. Beneath are w, w, w, a series of trays or beams, one above the other, containing the reels of the supplies of warp threads; c, c represent the slide bars for the passage of the bobbin b with its thread from k to k, the landing bars, one on each side of the rank of warp threads; s, t are the combs which take it in turns to press together the twistings as they are made. The combs come away clear from the threads as soon as they have pressed them together and fall into positions ready to perform their pressing operations again. The contrivances for giving each thread a particular tension and movement at a certain time are connected with an adaptation of the Jacquard system of pierced cards. The machine lace pattern drafter has to calculate how many holes shall be punched in a card, and to determine the position of such holes. Each hole regulates the mechanism for giving movement to a thread. Illustration from 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, article Lace.
context_page_description: The lace curtain machine is a lace machine 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.
context_section_description: The forerunner of the mechanical lace-making machine was 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 for a course, making a row of loops. After Jeremiah Strutt had modified the machine in 1759 to make it capable of ribbing, in 1764 Hammond introduced a tickler stick to transfer the loops 2 or 3 gaits sideways. In this way, mechanical lace-making was born.  But there was no carriage or comb, and the operations continued to be performed sequentially by the operator.
  Invented by John Livesey in Nottingham in 1846, the 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 produces 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. Their extensive designs required over 12,000 Jacquard cards. The curtain lace industry prospered with the advent of the fashion for large rising sash windows. 
  The width of the frame ultimately increased to 420 inches (11 m), and in 1928 a machine of 300 inches (7.6 m) was considered to be the smallest viable size. Its supremacy was challenged in 1900 by the popularity of Schiffli embroideries produced on the bobbinet, then in the 1950s by the Raschel  and the use of artificial fibres.
caption: Section of a lace machine as shown in 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. No Jacquard has been fitted.
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