Part 18

The most valuable Persian rugs come from Kurdistan, Khurasan, Peraghan and Karman. The most highly prized come from Kurdistan. The pattern does not show a uniform ground of flowers or other objects, but looks more like a field of wild flowers in the spring, which is very appropriate as a design for anything that is to be walked upon. It is astonishing what wonderful artistic ability is displayed by some of the members of these wild nomadic Persian people. The carpets and rugs are woven on a simple frame on which the warp is stretched. The woof, or cross threads, consist of short threads woven into the warp with the fingers and without the use of a shuttle. Then a sort of comb is pressed against the loose row of cross threads to tighten it. The weaver sits with the back of the rug towards him, so that he depends entirely on his memory to produce a perfect pattern.]

[Illustration: This rug is an American copy of a typical Kurdistan. It is marvellous how well the effect in colors and design are reproduced in this domestic rug.]

[Illustration: HOW WE IMITATE POPULAR DESIGNS BY MACHINERY

This Tabriz reproduction has all the characteristics of the genuine rug in both design and color. The ground is of a soft rose with figures olives, ivory and deep blue.]

[Illustration: This is a copy of an old piece of a rug in the Kensington Museum, London, which is 500 to 600 years old. The design is very interesting on account of the symbolical figures which cover the ground.]

[Illustration: WOOL-PICKING MACHINE.]

The Making of Carpets

How Are Modern Rugs and Carpets Made?

The best way to learn of this is for us to take a brief visit to one of the largest carpet factories, where we will assume we have already arrived.

There is a sharp whistle, then an outlet of steam, the clang of a bell and a locomotive rolls around the curve of the spur-track into the factory yard. Attached to it are several freight cars that only the day before received their cargoes at the New York docks fresh from steamships coming from foreign lands. Inside the yard, the engine comes to a stop alongside a warehouse. Sturdy men unlock the doors of the cars and begin pulling out bales of the imported wool.

This is the first step in the evolution of a rug. Between the arrival of the rough wool at the warehouse and the placing in the stock room of the finished rug, splendidly woven after an artistic design shown in attractive colors, many interesting processes are followed. It is sufficient to state that few people looking at rugs of the Saxony, or Axminster or Tapestry type realize the high degree of mechanical science and artistic perception that have been brought to bear in the manufacture of these rugs.

After the arrival of the wool there are many steps to be taken until the skeins of yarn receive their coloring treatment in the dye-house and, at the bidding of the great machine, assemble themselves in the beautiful designs that the artists have created. Though there are many details of work in the development of a rug, they have been so well mastered that the employes in charge of every stage of the rug’s evolution give to their work a nicety of attention in little time that careful training and scientific understanding alone can supply.

The travel-stained covers of the bales are removed. The heavy bulk is broken and the tightly-compressed bales loosened. Then the wool is fed into the washing-machine, and after that goes into the picking-machine. The process of cleansing the wool is an elaborate one, for it is so full of dirt and grease that several waters and several operations are necessary to its final appearance in a white and fleecy condition. After the last washing the wool is lifted to a drying-room, where the heat from steam-coils is forced through it by means of blowers.

The wool now passes to the sorting-room, where the blends are carefully made before it goes to the machine which tears the wool fibers apart, and gets them in shape for the carding and combing processes. Next the wool is blown into a spinning mill. The wool is now ready to be converted into yarn. It passes through a picking-machine, which blends the different grades of the raw material, selecting the strands as to fiber and color. Then it is refined and purified.

[Illustration: CARDING MACHINE]

Through tubes the wool is forced to the carding-room by means of air pressure. In passing through the cards it is carefully weighed to secure evenness in the yarn. Leaving the carding machine, the wool is taken to the floor above, where the big spools of yarn reach the combing machine for the next process. This machine separates the long from the short fibers. The strands of wool are still thick and must go through another process before they are ready to be made into yarn. They are finally united and given sufficient strength to stand the weaving process. As the visitor sees the strands of yarn first appear on the machine they resemble rolls of smoke.

[Illustration: DYEING THE YARN]

~HOW THE YARN FOR CARPETS IS DYED~

The yarn next appears on rows of spindles in the mule-room, six hundred feet long, where the yarn is twisted and brought to its final stage. The yarn now is ready for the dye-house. Here the atmosphere is very dense. Clouds of steam rise from the many vats of boiling dyes. The yarn receives the coloring for which it is intended, or is bleached in an adjoining department, and then is transferred on poles to the drying-room, after passing through a steaming process which sets the color. Next it passes on an electric conveyor to the weave-shop.

Considerable skill is required in the weaving process. The assembling of the yarns and matching of colors require expert attention. The skeins of yarn are wound on spools, which are put in sets back of the looms, each color or set representing one “frame” of color in the rug. By the famous Jacquard motion of cards each color wanted in the surface of the rug is pulled up in its proper place, the other frame color laying in the back of the rug. The mechanical process is a remarkable sight. As the pattern forms itself from the mechanical devices, the onlooker is struck with the wonder of it.

[Illustration: HOW A CARPET IS WOVEN BY MACHINERY

WEAVING A RUG BY MACHINERY]

[Illustration: 10,000,000 YARDS OF CARPET PER YEAR FROM ONE FACTORY

This picture shows the plant of one of the largest carpet factories in the United States at Thompsonville, Conn. From the looms of these mills are annually produced ten-million yards of the twenty-five different grades of carpet manufactured by this concern.

Imagine a strip of carpet across the United States at its widest part, the Forty-second latitude--a strip of “Hartford Saxony”, say, stretching from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific coast; and then another carpet strip the length of the United States, where this country is the longest--i. e., from the Northern boundary of the state of Minnesota to the Southern boundary of the state of Texas; then imagine one more strip stretching from Chicago to New Orleans, and finally a connection between the two latter strips at about the vicinity of St. Louis.

With a mental picture of this vast country thus stripped with carpet, you wonder if there is that much carpet in the world. It seems incredible that this great sweep of land could be measured with carpet--and yet enough material comes every year from the looms of one carpet factory alone in this country to strip the United States East and West, and North and South as indicated above.]

The weave is now completed; the rug comes out. But it is rough and has to be finished. It is passed through a machine that removes the roughness of the face as a lawn-mower cuts away the top-grass. The ends are finished, and the carpet is complete.

~SOME DESIGNS STAMPED ON YARN BEFORE WEAVING~

The pattern of tapestry carpet is obtained by printing the colors to appear in the design on the yarn which forms the face before the weaving is started, by means of large drums. After all rugs leave the weave-shop a force of skilled women examine them carefully to make sure that there are no defects. Every yard of the annual output of carpet and rugs is inspected five times before it leaves the factory.

[Illustration: EXAMINING AND REPAIRING]

[Illustration: PACKING FOR SHIPMENT]

Why Do I Yawn?

When you yawn, you do so because you have not been breathing quite properly and for some reason or other your blood supply has not been getting sufficient oxygen through the air which has been taken into your lungs. Nature’s way, in this instance, is to call for a big intake of air all at one time, and since it is important at such times that a large quantity of air should be supplied to the lungs at once, nature has so arranged matters that certain muscles shall cause you to open your mouth wide and take in as much air as you can at one time, and also has arranged so that it is almost impossible to keep from yawning when the demand for it is once made. The yawn is controlled by a part of our nerve structure which looks after the breathing apparatus.

The satisfaction we feel after a wholesome yawn is due to the fact that having replied to nature’s demand that we bring in more air, our blood secures the oxygen which it needs and we feel the effect of better blood in our arteries at once.

A peculiar thing about the process of yawning is that one person in a room yawning will quite likely set all or nearly all the others to yawning also. There seems to be no explanation of this excepting that when a number of people are in one room and one of them begins to yawn, the others do so, not because they perceive the first yawn so much as the probable fact that the air in the room has become so poor that there is not enough good air for all the people in it, breathing normally, and many of them are forced to yawn at about the same time.

Where Do Living Things Come From?

This is a big subject, but a very interesting one. To understand it fully we must begin at the very beginning of the world.

God made first of all the rocks, the mountains, the sun, the moon, the stars, the soil, and put the water in the lakes, rivers and oceans. This took a long time, but they had to be there before the living things could begin to be.

What is Inorganic Matter?

This thing we have spoken of is called inorganic matter, which means “without life,” and everything in the world which has no life is called inorganic matter. These things do not die, and for that reason do not have to be replaced. The form and appearance of inorganic matter and its location is often changed by man or other causes, but even when man burns the coal which he has dug up out of the ground in the furnace, no part of it is destroyed. Some of it is turned into smoke and gas and some of it is turned into ashes, while every other particle which went to make up the coal originally is still in existence. It remains as inorganic matter in some form or other.

Where Did Life Begin on Earth?

After the inorganic things had been made and the earth was ready for life, the different kinds of living things which we find on the earth began to exist. These are called organic objects, which means objects “with life.” The first living things to appear were the bushes, the grass, the garden vegetables, the flowers, trees, and all the kinds of life which we ordinarily think of as growing things.

This division of living things makes up what we call the vegetable kingdom, and in a general way of classing it is the kind of life which cannot move about from place to place and which has not a sense of feeling, or any of the other senses, seeing, hearing, tasting or smelling.

After this division of life had been established the world was ready for the other and more important form of life--the fishes, the birds, cats, dogs, horses, cows, with others that we call domestic animals, and also the lions, tigers, elephants and others which constitute the division of wild animals.

This kind of life was given some or all of the five senses, but not all classes of animal life possess all these senses. Some of the lower forms of animal life, like the oysters, clams, in the fish family, cannot see, hear, smell or taste. They can only feel; others are able to do more of these things, and many have all of the five senses.

When Did Man Begin to Live?

Man was not created until all the other living things on earth had been started, and he was given additional powers so that he might become the ruler of all the other living things, principally because he was given a brain with power to think, reason and originate.

Why Must Life Be Reproduced?

Life must be reproduced because living things die. They have power to live only for a certain length of time. The other life in the world is used to provide food for man, and if there were no way of reproducing life it would not be long before man had eaten all the vegetables and the animals too, and would himself then starve to death.

To avoid such a calamity God put into each living thing, both vegetables and animals, a power to cause other things of the same kind as itself to grow. This is called the power of reproduction. With this power each kind of living thing can bring other specimens of the same kind into the world and each kind of living thing can do this without aid from any other kind of life.

The trees, the flowers, and other kinds of vegetable life would reproduce themselves without the aid of man, as would also the fishes and other kinds of animal life. Man, however, just to have things conveniently at hand, uses his power over other life to cause his vegetables to grow near where he lives, and keep the animals which he wishes to use as food in some place where he doesn’t have to hunt for them every time he wishes meat for his table. This, however, he does only with the animals which he has domesticated or tamed. When he wants meat from the animals which are still wild he must hunt for them as he used to do.

Each kind of life has the power, however, to reproduce only its own kind. If you plant a peach stone you will sooner or later have a peach tree which will bear peaches, and these peaches from the young tree will look and taste just like the peach whose pit or stone you planted. There may be other kinds of fruit trees all about, and also trees which do not bear fruit. All of the trees secure the food upon which they live and grow from the same soil. Even the grass under your peach tree eats the same things as your peach tree, but it remains always true that things in the vegetable kingdom will grow only to be like the thing from which it came.

Have Plants Fathers and Mothers?

The little trees grow up to be exactly like their fathers and mothers (for they have fathers and mothers), which is something all living things must have. These are not the same kind of fathers, or mothers either, that a boy or girl has, exactly, but they are parents just the same. So far as the trees, flowers and plants are concerned we call the parents father and mother natures, which is a term used merely to keep you from confusing vegetable life fathers and mothers with the regular kind.

In the vegetable kingdom you cannot always see these father and mother natures, which enable them to reproduce their kind of life, but everything in the vegetable and also in the animal kingdom has them.

How Do Plants Reproduce Life?

In the spring we put seeds into the ground and later on plants grow up where the seeds were planted, and later the flowers come. The seeds contain the baby plants, which come to life, and after bursting the covering of the seed, unfold and grow up into plants if placed in the ground, where they can obtain the proper amount of warmth and moisture to give them a start.

Why Do Plants Have Seeds?

To get at this subject in the best manner we must study first how plants produce seeds and what happens. The power in a plant to make another plant like it grow comes from the flower. Ordinarily we think of the flowers as beautiful to look at and delightful to smell, but the flowers do not grow for the mere purpose of being beautiful, but are for a more useful purpose--to develop a seed which, when planted, will produce another plant. The machinery for producing a perfect seed is in the flower or blossom. Every flower has a definite plan of construction. The leaves and colors vary, but the plan for a perfect flower is always there. The petals which are generally colored are called the _crown_. When you pluck off the petals you see a number of green leaves at the bottom where the petals were attached. These form what is called the _calyx_, and help to hold the petals in place. Inside the flower are little stems which grow to the petals. These are called _stamens_. Every one of these little stems is hollow, and if you split one open you will discover a _fine powder_. This powder is called _pollen_, and is the “father” nature of the plant. In the calyx, the part we had left after we plucked off the petals, is the “mother” nature of the plant. The main part of the mother nature is the stem of the flower called the _ovary_, and this is where the seeds grow. These seeds in the ovary, however, will not become perfect seeds unless some of the pollen from the “father” nature of the plant touches them and fertilizes them.

At the proper age of the flower some of this pollen powder passes into the ovary and fertilizes the seeds and makes them good seeds. This is only one kind of flower, however. In this kind the father and mother natures are in the same flower. In other kinds of plants the father and mother natures are found on different parts of the same plant.

Why Does an Ear of Corn Have Silk?

The corn plant is one of this kind. You know what it looks like--a tall plant, generally six or seven feet high. The ears of corn grow out of the side of the corn stalk. The ear is covered with husks and out of the end of the ear hangs a bunch of brown silk threads which we term corn silk. Up at the top of the plant you will see the tassel, but you may not have known that this is the flower of the corn plant. The tassel or flower in this case contains the “father nature” of the corn plant, and the ear of corn contains the “mother nature.” The husks on the outside of the ear of corn protect the grains of corn on the ear inside and keep them tender. The ear of corn is really the ovary of the corn plant, because that is where the seeds grow. You will guess, of course, that the grains of corn on the ear are but seeds of the plant. Were you to examine one of these ears of corn on the plant when it had just started to form you would find no kernels on the cob, but only little marks which indicated where the grains of corn are expected to grow, but if you want to know, then, how many grains of corn were expected to grow on the ear, you could easily tell by counting the little silk threads which you see on the cob and which stick out over the end. There will be a thread of silk for each grain of corn that is expected to grow.

Every grain of corn must receive some of the pollen powder from the tassel or father nature at the top of the corn plant or it will not develop into a nice large, juicy kernel.

How Does the Pollen Touch the Grain of Corn?

Before the kernels of corn grow the tassel is in bloom. The wind blows and shakes the pollen powder off of the tassel and the powder falls on the ends of the silk which stick out of the little ear of corn to be. Each thread of silk then carries a little of the powder down to the spot on the ear where it is attached and thus the grain of corn receives the fertilizing necessary to develop it into a ripe seed. If you leave the ear of corn alone the kernel will eventually become yellow and hard and can then be planted and will produce other corn plants. Man, however, finds the ear of corn a delightful food, if taken at a time when the seeds are fully grown but not yet ripened into perfect seeds. At this stage the grains of corn would not grow up again if planted, because they have not yet become perfect seeds.

Do Father and Mother Plants Always Live Together?

We come now to the kinds of plants on which the “father” and “mother” natures are on different plants of the same kind. At times they will grow side by side, at other times they will be in the same field, but very often they grow at quite a distance from each other. In some instances the nearest father tree will be even miles away from the mother tree of the same kind. But in any event the pollen from the father nature must reach the mother nature of the plant or tree before a perfect seed can be produced. In cases of this kind the father nature will be on one tree or plant and the ovary or mother nature on another. The wind helps out nature in some of these cases by blowing the pollen of the father plant to the ovary of the mother plant. In many other instances the bees and insects help.

Why Do Flowers Have Smells?