woollen loom

SUBJECT AREA: Domestic appliances and interiors, Textiles

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Halcyon was the son of Joseph and Susan Skinner. When he was 8 years old, his parents moved to Stockbridge in Massachusetts, where he obtained education locally and worked on farms. In 1838 his father moved to West Farms, New York, where Halcyon helped his father make violins and guitars for seven years. He then worked as a general carpenter for eight years until he was hired in 1849 by Alexander Smith, a carpet manufacturer. Skinner designed and constructed a hand loom that could weave figured instead of striped carpets, and by 1851 Smith had one hundred of these at work. Skinner was retained by Smith for forty years as a mechanical expert and adviser.

Weaving carpets by power started in the 1850s on enormous and complex machines. Axminster carpets had traditionally been produced in a similar way to those made by hand in Persia, with the tufts of woollen yarn being knotted around vertical warp threads. To mechanize this process proved very difficult, but Skinner patented a loom in 1856 to weave Axminster carpets although, it was not working successfully until 1860. Then in 1864 he developed a loom for weaving ingrain carpets, and c. 1870 he altered some imported English looms for weaving tapestry carpets to double their output.

His most important invention was conceived in 1876 and patented on 16 January 1877. This was the Moquette or Royal Axminster loom, which marked yet another important step forward and enabled the use of an unlimited number of colours in carpet designs. This type of loom became known as the Spool Axminster because of the endless chain of spools carrying lengths of coloured yarns, wound in a predetermined order, from which short pieces could be cut and inserted as the tufts. It put Smith's company, Alexander Smith \& Sons, Yonkers, New York, in the lead among American carpet manufacturers. This type of loom was introduced to Britain in 1878 by Tomkinson \& Adam and spread rapidly. Skinner virtually retired in 1889 but continued to live in Yonkers.

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SUBJECT AREA: Textiles

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John Kay was the youngest of five sons of a yeoman farmer of Walmersley, near Bury, Lancashire, who died before his birth. John was apprenticed to a reedmaker, and just before he was 21 he married a daughter of John Hall of Bury and carried on his trade in that town until 1733. It is possible that his first patent, taken out in 1730, was connected with this business because it was for an engine that made mohair thread for tailors and twisted and dressed thread; such thread could have been used to bind up the reeds used in looms. He also improved the reeds by making them from metal instead of cane strips so they lasted much longer and could be made to be much finer. His next patent in 1733, was a double one. One part of it was for a batting machine to remove dust from wool by beating it with sticks, but the patent is better known for its description of the flying shuttle. Kay placed boxes to receive the shuttle at either end of the reed or sley. Across the open top of these boxes was a metal rod along which a picking peg could slide and drive the shuttle out across the loom. The pegs at each end were connected by strings to a stick that was held in the right hand of the weaver and which jerked the shuttle out of the box. The shuttle had wheels to make it "fly" across the warp more easily, and ran on a shuttle race to support and guide it. Not only was weaving speeded up, but the weaver could produce broader cloth without any aid from a second person. This invention was later adapted for the power loom. Kay moved to Colchester and entered into partnership with a baymaker named Solomon Smith and a year later was joined by William Carter of Ballingdon, Essex. His shuttle was received with considerable hostility in both Lancashire and Essex, but it was probably more his charge of 15 shillings a year for its use that roused the antagonism. From 1737 he was much involved with lawsuits to try and protect his patent, particularly the part that specified the method of winding the thread onto a fixed bobbin in the shuttle. In 1738 Kay patented a windmill for working pumps and an improved chain pump, but neither of these seems to have been successful. In 1745, with Joseph Stell of Keighley, he patented a narrow fabric loom that could be worked by power; this type may have been employed by Gartside in Manchester soon afterwards. It was probably through failure to protect his patent rights that Kay moved to France, where he arrived penniless in 1747. He went to the Dutch firm of Daniel Scalongne, woollen manufacturers, in Abbeville. The company helped him to apply for a French patent for his shuttle, but Kay wanted the exorbitant sum of £10,000. There was much discussion and eventually Kay set up a workshop in Paris, where he received a pension of 2,500 livres. However, he was to face the same problems as in England with weavers copying his shuttle without permission. In 1754 he produced two machines for making card clothing: one pierced holes in the leather, while the other cut and sharpened the wires. These were later improved by his son, Robert Kay. Kay returned to England briefly, but was back in France in 1758. He was involved with machines to card both cotton and wool and tried again to obtain support from the French Government. He was still involved with developing textile machines in 1779, when he was 75, but he must have died soon afterwards. As an inventor Kay was a genius of the first rank, but he was vain, obstinate and suspicious and was destitute of business qualities.

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1 to weave (hilos, mimbre).

2 to knit (hacer punto).

tejer y destejer (figurative) to chop and change

3 to spin (telaraña).

4 to carve out (labrar) (porvenir).

5 to tell, to invent, to spin.

* * *

► verbo transitivo

1 (en telar) to weave

2 (hacer punto) to knit

3 (araña) to spin

4 figurado (plan) to weave, plot, scheme

\

tejer y destejer figurado to chop and change

* * *

1) to knit

2) weave

* * *

1. VT

1) [+ tela] to weave; [+ tela de araña] to spin, make; [+ capullo] to spin

2) (=hacer punto) to knit; (=hacer ganchillo) to crochet; (=coser) to sew

3) [+ complot] to hatch; [+ plan] to devise; [+ mentira] to fabricate; [+ cambio etc] to bring about little by little

2. VI

1) [en telar] to weave

- tejer y destejer

2) (=hacer punto) to knit; (=hacer ganchillo) to crochet; (=coser) to sew

* * *

verbo transitivo

1)

a) ( en telar) to weave

b) (con agujas, a máquina) to knit; ( con ganchillo) to crochet

c) araña to spin

2) ( elaborar) < plan> to devise

* * *

= spin, weave.

Nota: Verbo irregular: pasado wove, participio woven.

Ex. Then the fairies told them how happily the spiders lived among the green leaves spinning garments for their neigbbors.

Ex. This article compares an expert system to a rug and the shell to the loom on which it was woven.

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* aguja de tejer = knitting needle.

* arte de tejer = weaving.

* máquina de tejer = knitting machine.

* tejer una historia = weave + story.

* tejer una telaraña = draw + web.

* * *

verbo transitivo

1)

a) ( en telar) to weave

b) (con agujas, a máquina) to knit; ( con ganchillo) to crochet

c) araña to spin

2) ( elaborar) < plan> to devise

* * *

= spin, weave.

Nota: Verbo irregular: pasado wove, participio woven.

* * *

tejer [E1 ]

1 (en un telar) to weave

alfombras tejidas a mano hand-woven rugs

2 (con agujas, a máquina) to knit; (con ganchillo) to crochet

máquina de tejer knitting machine

3 «araña» to spin

(elaborar, desarrollar): tejieron un plan para asesinarlo they devised a plan o they plotted to murder him

tejió una intriga vergonzosa he wove a shameful web of intrigue

tejió una gran mentira she spun an elaborate lie

1 (en un telar) to weave

2 (con agujas, a máquina) to knit

3 (con ganchillo) to crochet

* * *

a) ( en telar) to weave;

◊ tejido a mano hand-woven

b) (con agujas, a máquina) to knit;

◊ máquina de tejer knitting machine

c) [ araña] to spin

* * *

♦ vt

1. [hilos, mimbre] to weave;

tejió una cesta de mimbre she made a wicker basket;

artículos tejidos a mano hand-woven goods

2. [labor de punto] to knit;

tejer algo a ganchillo to crochet sth

3. [telaraña, capullo] to spin

4. [labrar] [porvenir] to carve out;

5. [tramar]

♦ vi

1. [hacer punto] to knit;

tejer a ganchillo to crochet;

tejer y destejer to change (opinions/behaviour), Br to chop and change

2. [araña, gusano] to spin

3. CSur, Perú Fam [conspirar] to scheme, to plot

* * *

I v/t weave; tela de araña spin; ( hacer punto) knit; fam

intriga devise

II v/i L.Am.

plot, scheme

* * *

tejer vt

1) : to knit, to crochet

2) : to weave

3) fabricar: to concoct, to make up, to fabricate

* * *

tejer vb

1. (entrelazar hilos, mimbre, etc) to weave [pt. wove; pp. woven]

2. (hacer punto) to knit [pt. & pp. knitted]

3. (araña) to spin [pt. & pp. spun]