page_title: Leavers machine
section_title: The lace machine
hierarchical_section_title: Leavers machine / Description / The lace machine
caption_attribution_description: English: Nottingham Industrial Museum
context_page_description: The Leavers machine is a lacemaking machine that John Levers adapted from Heathcoat's Old Loughborough machine. It was made in Nottingham in 1813. The name of the machine was the Leavers machine. The original machine made net but it was discovered that the Jacquard apparatus could be adapted to it. From 1841 lace complete with pattern, net and outline could be made on the Leavers machine.
context_section_description: The Leavers machine is probably the most versatile of all machines for making patterned lace. A 120 inches (300 cm) machine will weigh 17 tons and have 40,000 moving parts and carry between 12,000 and 50,000 threads. Working widths are always multiples of 9 inches (230 mm) since the web is calculated in quarter yards.
  It has two warp beams, though it can be run using just one or none. An S-twist thread is out on the front warp (right warp) and a Z- twist on the back warp (left warp, reverse warp). All the warp ends pass through a sley with individual perforations- to keep the threads from tangling. On a machine with 3000 front warp ends, that will mean 6000 perforations, all front warp ends will be of the same count, and all back warp ends will be of the same count, though the two warps can carry different counts. The warp threads interact with the brass bobbin threads to form the net or openwork ground. The reverse warp threads (introduced in 1830) lock the front warp threads against the bobbin threads. The warp threads are tensioned by a spring.
  Beams are the vertical threads from a beam roller that contributes to the pattern. Lace is made up of motif that is repeated vertically and horizontally. If a design has 48 horizontal repeats, there will be 48 threads on each beam roller. Every beam roller has its own guidebar, made of thin watch-spring steel. Each front warp ends has its own guidebar. The back warp ends share 4 stump bars between them. The guide bars are controlled by the Jacquards so can be reposition for each motion, indeed they are also known as Jacquard bars; they are held in a bar box above the sley but below the carriages.
caption: The brass bobbin in the carriage which move in a cradle between the warp threads
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