Rug and Carpeting
Floor coverings in great variety decorate
homes, churches, stores, schools, and other buildings today.
These coverings range from Oriental
rugs--rich in color and design and created by hand with patient
skill--to wide, deep-piled carpets that whirl from power machines
which can produce 40 yards an hour.
The terms carpet and rug
are sometimes used interchangeably. Rug generally means a textile
floor covering that is not fastened down and that does not extend over
the entire floor. Carpet usually refers to a floor covering that is
installed and fastened down from wall to wall. Examples of flat-woven
rugs are Navajo Indian rugs, the so-called fiber (or grass) rugs, and
homemade braided or crocheted rugs. The two main types of carpeting
are flat-woven and pile. Pile carpets are by far the most widely used
floor coverings.
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Oriental Rugs
Oriental rugs are usually woven on upright
looms. The weaving methods have not changed in centuries. The warp
threads are stretched lengthwise from the top to the bottom pole. The
weaver sits on a board beside the loom. To make the silky pile for
which these rugs are famous, the weaver
loops bits of yarn in knots around the warp threads. A pattern hanging
on the warp guides the choice of colored yarns to fill in the design.
After a row of knots is tied, the weft yarn is shuttled across the
rug, then combed and pressed against the knots to hold them firmly.
The knot ends are clipped and stand erect as pile.
Weavers may work on household looms in village cottages or in nomad
tents, or they may be employed in city factories. The factories hold
only the looms--no machinery. Several
may work on one rug.
The fineness of the weave and the wearing qualities are determined by
the number of knots. These vary from 64 to 400 to the square inch. Of
the two knots in use, the Ghiordes (or double knot) is regarded as
Turkish and the Sehna (or single knot) as Persian, though both are
used in present-day Iran. The finest rugs are made from the wool of
fat-tailed sheep. Flat-woven, or pileless, rugs are known as kilims.
Carpet designs have been influenced by
the spread of Islam over the Middle East . This strict religion
prohibits the representation of human life in art and frowns upon the
depiction of animal life. For example, in countries where the austere
Sunnah sect is predominant, the rugs feature geometric designs. In
Iran, however, the more liberal beliefs of the Shi'ah sect are
followed, and Persian rugs utilize flowers, fruits, leaves, birds, and
animals in their patterns. Prayer rugs are made with a design of an
arched niche, called the mihrab, which is turned toward Mecca when
Muslims kneel in prayer.
Among the well-known varieties of Persian rugs are the Khorassan,
Meshed, Herat, Shiraz, Kirman, Tabriz, Senna, Sarouk, Herez, Hamadan,
Sultanabad, and Ispahan. Among the most famous types of Turkish rugs
are the Ghiordes, Kulah, Bergama, Ladik, Anatolian, Melez, KirSehir,
and Konia. The hand-weaving of rugs in Turkey has declined since the
1920s, when Atatürk undertook the westernization of the country.
Handwoven rugs are also produced in the Central Asian countries to the
north and east of Iran, such as Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan,
and Azerbaijan, formerly in the Soviet Union. Weaves include the
Bokhara, Tekke, Yomud, Sarouk, and Salor. Samarkand rugs are woven in
China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. With the rise of Communism
in China, however, the weaving and export of handmade rugs declined.
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Handwoven Rugs in the West
In the West the handweaving of rugs on a
commercial scale is rare. The Alpujarra rugs from Spain and the Rya
rugs from the Scandinavian countries are characterized by their long,
shaggy pile yarns. Navaho, or Navajo, rugs--a flat-woven type with
geometric designs--are made by the Native American Navaho tribe in the
Southwestern United States. Similar rugs and blankets are made by
Mexican Indians.
In the United States today rugmaking by hand is principally a hobby or
a handicraft. Braided, crocheted, hooked, and needlepoint pieces are
some of the types made.
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Materials in Carpets and Rugs
For the earliest coverings fibers were
usually chosen because they were native to the place where the rugs
were to be woven. Because sheep raising was so widespread, wool became
the chief carpet fiber. Silk was woven into rugs and hangings in the
Far East. The hair of animals--including goats, camels, and
alpacas--was used in certain lands. Cotton, jute, and linen were also
used, especially in backing.
Today's carpets and rugs are made from both natural and man-made
fibers. Wool remains popular, but nylon has exceeded wool in poundage
consumed in the United States since the 1960s. Carpet wools are
imported by United States manufacturers. Domestic breeds of sheep
yield fine wool; coarser and more resilient wool is used in rugmaking.
New Zealand and Argentina are the chief producers of carpet wool. Some
also comes from the Middle East. The use of cotton for carpetmaking is
relatively minor, confined mainly to the production of scatter rugs.
The leading man-made fibers are filament and staple nylons, acrylics
and modacrylics, rayon and polypropylene, and polyester. These fibers,
though of the same generic types used for apparel and other
furnishings, are made especially for carpet use. Olefin fibers are
used for both pile and backing.
Blends of one fiber or of various fibers may be used to obtain the
advantages each offers. Wools from different countries have special
characteristics, such as luster, strength, or resiliency. For example,
wool with strength may be reinforced by nylon in a blend of 70 percent
wool and 30 percent nylon.
Wool must be put through many processes--such as scouring, drying,
blending, carding, spinning, and twisting--before the yarn is woven
into carpet . It may be dyed as fiber before spinning or in skeins
after spinning, or the entire carpet roll may be immersed in the color
bath. Mothproofing is usually done during the dyeing operation.
Synthetic fibers are usually produced in pure white form, so they need
no scouring. Continuous-filament fibers are ready for weaving without
carding or spinning. Some synthetic fibers are dyed while in the
liquid, or solution, state. Synthetic fibers are mothproof and
mildewproof. Current advances in fiber technology have enabled
manufacturers to develop outdoor carpets and new stain-resistant
materials. Many synthetic and natural fibers also are used to make
decorative carpet wall hangings.
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History of Carpet Making
Rugs and carpets have been prized
possessions through the ages. Rugs were listed as valued chattels in
the literature of Persia in the 6th century. They were probably coarse
fabrics flat-woven on a loom in much the same way that other plain
textiles were made. Hand-knotted rugs were created later, possibly by
nomad tribes of Turkestan or the Caucasus. The weaving of hand-knotted
rugs spread throughout the Orient, and Persia became the predominant
center of manufacture.
Oriental rugs were carried to Europe by the Saracen conquerors of
Spain and by the returning Crusaders. The Spanish were the first
Europeans to make hand-tied pile rugs. In the tapestry-weaving center
of Aubusson, France, flat-woven rugs were made. Aubussons were known
for their floral patterns in pastels. Deep-pile rugs, first made in
Paris in the 17th century, were called savonneries, after the
abandoned soap works that housed the carpet factory.
Carpet-weaving industries developed in Brussels, Belgium, and, in the
1700s, in Wilton, Axminster, and Kidderminster, England. The French
inventor Joseph-Marie Jacquard devised the mechanism for figured
weaving in 1800. It was first used in Wilton.
The first carpet factory in the United States was founded in 1791 in
Philadelphia, Pa., by W.P. Sprague, and the second, in Worcester,
Mass., in 1804. Erastus Brigham Bigelow revolutionized the industry
when, in 1841 in Lowell, Mass., he introduced the first power loom.
Bigelow used steam to power an ingrain (flat-weave) loom. Later he
perfected a power loom to make a Brussels, or looped-pile, carpet. The
Axminster power loom was developed in 1876 by Halcyon Skinner, based
on an idea by Alexander Smith.
The high-speed tufting method of carpet manufacture originated in the
United States in the 1920s. It was improved for making broadloom
carpet after World War II. The knitting method of carpet manufacture
was developed commercially in 1951.
The carpet industry grew steadily in the decades following World War
II. The United States became the leading producer. Belgium ranked
second, followed by Great Britain and West Germany. The Middle East
remained the chief producer and exporter of handmade Oriental rugs.
Factors in the industry's expansion included the vogue of wall-to-wall
and room-to-room carpeting, the improvements in machinery for
producing tufted carpets, and the development of synthetic fibers.
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Hand Woven Rugs
Although power machinery
turns out most of the carpets sold today, it has not eliminated the
ancient craft of handweaving. Most handmade rugs are Orientals, made
in the Middle and Far East.
Oriental rugs are usually classed geographically as Persian, Turkish,
Caucasian, Turkoman, Indian, or Chinese. Varieties within these groups
may be named for towns in the various weaving districts--often for
their marketing centers.
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Machine Manufacturer of Pile Rugs
In pile carpets, strands
of yarn stand erect from the carpet backing to create a soft,
luxurious surface. The pile may be a loop of yarn or a yarn tuft with
free ends. The thicker and denser the pile, the more wear and service
may be expected.
The principal methods
used to manufacture pile carpets and rugs today are weaving and
tufting. In the weaving process, pile yarns and backing yarns are
interlocked simultaneously. In tufting, pile yarns are attached to a
preconstructed backing.
The first looms produced fabrics no wider
than 27 or 36 inches. Technological developments led to the creation
of wider looms that produce broadloom carpeting up to 30 feet in
width.
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The Wilton Loom
The Wilton loom utilizes
the Jacquard mechanism for weaving patterned fabrics. The design of a
carpet is drawn on cross-ruled paper, and the colored yarns are
selected. Then the design is punched onto Jacquard cards which are
laced together and hung on the loom. Each card controls a row of
tufts. As a card passes over the head of the loom, its perforations
designate which of the colors of pile yarn on the loom will be lifted
to show on the surface. The other yarns are buried in the rug to add
more body and resilience. The pile is formed over wires. Multilevel
patterns may be created by using serrated wires.
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