CHAPTER XIV.

FIGURED TEXTILES COLOURED IN THE WARP.

222. Methods of Colouring Figured Fabrics--223. Special Elements of Ornamental Woven Design--224. Art and Technique-- 225. Styles of Figured Fabrics Coloured in the Warp--226. Cotton Quilting Fabrics--227. Ornamental Characteristics of Quilting Designs--228. Attributes of Plush Fabrics--229. Origin of Velvet Weaving--230. Velvets, Compound in Structure--231. Two Classes of Plush Fabrics--232. Warp Plushes--233. Methods of securing the Pile--234. Analysis of the Process of Velvet or Warp Plush Weaving--235. Colouring of Warp Plushes and Figured Velvets--236. Brussels and Tapestry Carpets compared--237. How the Pattern is developed in Brussels--238. Structure of Pile Carpets.

222. _Methods of Colouring Figured Fabrics._--There are three distinct systems of colouring figured textiles--namely, colouring in the warp, colouring in the weft, and colouring in both warp and weft. According to the first method, the fancy shades are introduced into the warp only--the weft being of one colour throughout the texture. This scheme of colouring is practised in various types of mantlings and dress fabrics, also pile textures of a figured velvet and plush class, and Brussels, tapestry, and velvet pile carpets. Each additional colour in these styles of woven productions may involve the use of a separate set of warp yarns, which, as will be indicated, materially increases the complications of manufacture. Turning to the second system of colouring named, which also obtains in certain descriptions of dress textiles, and in vestings, rugs, and matelasses, it necessitates the employment of several groups of weft threads of different colours. On comparing these two distinct schemes, it may be observed that while the former relates to the utilization of various warp shades--which multiplies the difficulties of weaving in two ways, first, by requiring a Jacquard of large figuring capacity; and, second, by increasing the diversity of the warp colouring--the latter relates to the employment of various groups of weft yarns, which add to the complexity of production by increasing the number of cards necessary in the construction of the design, and by making the use of a number of shuttles a necessity. Lastly, the third method is a combination of the arrangements just considered, and is applicable to similar fabrics. It is, for obvious reasons, the most complex system of colouring, and is only feasible in looms specially constructed and mounted for the weaving of figured fabrics, comprising both warp and weft colouring in a considerable diversity of shades.

223. _Special Elements of Ornamental Woven Design._--Woven design requires distinct treatment from other species of decoration; it is not simply surface ornamentation, for it also relates to the production of a suitable fabric for developing the details of the pattern. Every description of textile designing has, in a word, a two-fold relation, for it is both utilitarian and ornamental. Primarily, it relates to the construction of a texture uniform in surface and of the requisite quality and strength; and, secondly, it relates to the decoration of the fabric. Ornament in woven structures is inseparable from the weave which produces it. Consequently, it cannot be applied with the same facility to a textile surface as to paper-hangings, porcelain, etc. In these instances, the designer’s work consists in the embellishment of an article obtained by a distinct process of manufacture; whereas, in textiles, warp and weft are the elements out of which both the pattern and the fabric are evolved. Design or ornament and texture have by these agents to be developed simultaneously. Instead of manipulating straight and curved lines in the formation of the pattern, threads of warp and weft have to be interlaced on such methods as to constitute the design required. In order to develop the integral parts of woven design, by imparting appropriate prominence to certain sections and subordinating others, a knowledge of the structure of textile fabrics in general is indispensable. Elaborate textile designing is only perfect so far as the various figures and details of the ornament are clearly defined in weaving. The correct delineation of the objects, and evenly-balanced grouping and distribution of figure, chiefly affect the artistic phases of the subject. Textile pattern is too frequently marred by defective and faulty development. Either the materials used are unsuitable for displaying the characteristics of the style, or the designer has only partially understood the work. With the form and general conception of the design there is no fault to be found, but with the manner in which it has been executed.

[Illustration: Plate XXXIII 1. VESTING 2. REVERSIBLE GOLF CLOAKING]

224. _Art and Technique._--It will be obvious from the preceding paragraph that technical dexterity in textile designing is the power of developing, with appropriate emphasis, all types of ornamental effects, whether in relation to form or colour, with the construction of a fabric uniform in texture and soundly built. Technology relates primarily to weaving, but in an ampler sense to the invention and combination of schemes of crossings calculated to add novelty and uniqueness to woven design. Technical or weave patterns provide, however, infinite diversity of texture. It may be ribbed, furrowed, twilled, diagonalled, or covered with pile. Weave design is the feature of the ornamentation of some types of silk patterns (see Fig. 232). Of course it is materially enhanced by artistic elements of form and colour, for technique and art are, in these fabrics, essential to each other. In all woven decoration, art is the natural and requisite associate of technique. Technique determines the strength and fineness of the fabric; art determines its ornamental force and symmetry of the design. Technique regulates the distribution of materials; art appoints the forms, groups the figures, and blends the colours.

225. _Styles of Figured Fabrics Coloured in the Warp._--The simplest type of figured textures coloured on the warp principle is essentially single in construction. There is no duplicate series of yarns for colouring purposes, but a special set of threads used in certain sections of the ground warp of the fabric. Pattern 1 on Plate XXXIV. illustrates this scheme of colouring. From this example and the section supplied of the design in its production--Fig. 206--it is apparent that the texture is constructed on the single-weave principle, the only irregularity consisting in a number of threads--white in the pattern--being flushed or floated on the surface of the fabric to form the figure in stripes _A_, _B_, _C_, and _D_. The weft effect is therefore concealed in these sections of the texture. In warp matelasses, the same principles of weaving and colouring obtain--the weft yarns acting as binding agents, and not appearing on the face in the figuring, unless a special set of weft yarns is employed, as in some styles of matelasse vestings, spotted with bright colours. This description of warp effect is, however, a compound fabric, possessing two warps and two wefts, and may be arranged two threads of figuring to one thread of ground in the warp, but one-and-one in the weft. The ground warp is invariably cotton, but the figuring warp is worsted, silk, or mohair. One weft is thick cotton or wool, and is used for wadding or for giving fulness and clearness to the design, and the other is fine cotton, worsted, or silk, according to the quality of fabric produced. Not infrequently, an additional woollen weft is employed for backing.

[Illustration: Part 4 of Pattern 1, Plate XXXIV. ▨ ◼ = warp.

FIG. 206.]

[Illustration: Marks = warp. FIG. 207.]

[Illustration: First 16 threads of Fig. 207. FIG. 207A.]

Quite a distinct scheme of warp colouring is practised in some classes of dress and plush textures from that just alluded to. These fabrics are, in those sections in which several colours run m the same line of the design, two-, three-, and fourfold in structure, according to the number of colours used. In Pattern 2 on Plate XXXIV. a fabric coloured on this principle is given. It is a vesting style of the quilting character, but is illustrative of the common methods of colouring by extra series of warp yarns. On analysis, it is found to be composed of three tints--a white ground, and brown and tan figuring. These are introduced in the warp. Now in such textures there is invariably a ground warp or chain which runs through the fabric, and forms, conjointly with the weft, a firm fabric to which the figuring yarns are secured. This ground warp, usually of one colour, is drawn on to a set of shafts, and is worked plain, twill, mat, and other simple crossings. The method of combining the figuring yarns is shown in Figs. 207 and 207A. In the former, the effects are arranged as they are seen in the texture, the blank spaces representing the ground of the fabric, the greys the tan spotting, and the solid blacks the brown figuring. Fig. 207A shows how the figuring threads succeed each other in the harness. Between each two threads of figuring there is one ground end. When three or four colours are employed in figuring, there is one ground end for each group of threads. The different series of fancy yarns, working on distinct systems with the weft, have to be run on to separate beams--an arrangement which adds to the cost of manufacture. Moreover, the principle of construction minimizes the weaving capacity of the machine. If a design, for example, requiring a 192 Jacquard to produce it when developed in one colour, had to be modified to be woven in three colours, each of which formed some part of the figure, it could not be produced in a machine possessing a less capacity than 576 wires. In addition to this machine, the ground of the texture would be obtained by shafts or heddles. The same design, if coloured in the weft, would be weavable in a 192 Jacquard, but would require 576 cards for developing the figure and 192 cards for producing the ground of the fabric. Hence, while the warp method of colouring is the most economical in respect of cards, weaving, and card stamping, the weft method does not necessitate the employment of a Jacquard of such large figuring capacity.

Amongst the ornamental styles of woven goods coloured in the warp that may be analyzed, are cotton quiltings, velvets, and various classes of pile fabrics.

226. _Cotton Quilting Fabrics._--Quiltings being one of the most interesting and important of warp-coloured figured textures, may be primarily examined.

In texture and ornament, they constitute a specific type of woven fabrics. One essential in which they differ from other textures of a vesting character consists in the figure or ornamentation being produced by several colours, or rather series, of warp threads. Belonging to that class of fabrics figured by the warp and not by the weft yarns, the designs are arranged to elevate or depress any particular set of threads, according to the section of the pattern being formed. The threads which constitute the ground of the texture, compose what is termed the ground warp, while other series of yarns are “extras.” A similar arrangement of warps is employed in some classes of plush, tapestry, and carpet weaving, but in no fabric is an identical effect obtained to that which characterizes this kind of vesting.

The warps which produce the figured pattern in quiltings do not flush or float loosely on the surface, but are regularly secured to the foundation texture, making a “fast” figure, that is, a pattern which, though marked and well pronounced, is even on the surface and firm in construction.

[Illustration: Plate XXXIV

EXTRA-WARP COLOURING 1. Stripe Design 2. Quilting Texture ]

Generally, quiltings have a light or white groundwork, which is neatly ornamented with small lozenge, diaper, or other figured effects. The plan of the design (No. 2, Plate XXXIV.) is geometrical, yet there is an absence, due to the floral details, of that rigid appearance which is frequently associated with patterns constructed on this base. Weave, or the system of interlacing adopted, is the factor which imparts a variety of tone and effect to the style. The texture is woven in three colours--brown, tan, and white. The floral and sprig combinations are formed of the first colour, the raised or diamond portions of white, and the indentions of tan. The quantity of white or tan in any particular part of the fabric is due to the structure of the design employed. The groundwork of the fabric is neat and effective. It consists of a fine texture of white, slightly raised above the indented border surrounding the figures. The small diamond effects are produced by the lifting of the figuring warp, which imparts an indented appearance to the cloth. On this groundwork, two rectangular objects are placed in such a way that the inverted figures they contain oppose each other. Treating of the rectangular objects first, they are separated by the diamond groundwork, and also by the narrow border of dotted effect, in which, in the fabric, the tan colour is the most prominent. The space between this edging and the central figures on which the floral and sprig work are delineated, consists of rib or rep. Here the white and tan are equally balanced. The sprig ornamentation is characteristic of this style of vestings. It has not been produced, nor can it be applied with such facility, to other types of woven fabrics. The fineness of the texture, and smallness of the threads employed, make it possible to develop the most minute figuring quite distinctly. A neat and interesting contrast is obtained by having the sprig effect in one figure faintly marked, while in the other the floral work is both bolder in form and more compact in arrangement.

227. _Ornamental Characteristics of Quilting Designs._--The ornament applied to this make of fabric is so unique that it deserves to be briefly noted. It is typical of the texture in which it is developed, being, so to speak, part of its construction. No other build of fabric admits of the production of such fine, line-like, and detailed figured effects as are obtainable by this principle of weaving. The most minute decoration is here delineated with a precision that it would be difficult to surpass with the pencil. All the figures employed are graceful and delicate in appearance, due mainly to the absence of floats of warp or weft from their composition. Elaborate designs, crowded with combinations of form, are thus produced by a neat, tasteful method. Some patterns which would appear coarse in other makes of fabric, possess in these textures clearness, combined with an effective arrangement. The examples supplied in Pattern 2 on Plate XXXIV., and Pattern 1, Plate XXXV., are illustrations of the minute character of the ornamental forms developed in these fabrics. Whatever the class of figuring practised, it is full of small twig and floral effects and clear and precise details.

228. _Attributes of Plush Fabrics._--Another description of woven production coloured in the warp is plushes, including imitation astrakhans, the figured velvet, and several classes of carpets, for example, Eastern, tufted, and Axminster. The distinguishing quality of all plush fabrics is the soft shag or pile with which they are so covered that one of the essential features of a woven texture--namely, the crossing of warp and weft threads--is entirely concealed. The pile is of two kinds: in some fabrics it consists of a uniform mass of cut short filaments, while in others it is in the form of minute curls or loops compactly clustered together; but in both cases, it projects from the surface of an ordinary texture. The fineness of the fibre and density of the plush both combine to conceal the foundation on which it is produced. The characteristic appearance of velvet, as well as its quality of softness, which distinguishes it from all other loom products, are due to the pile alone. The beauty of the fabric is dependent upon the compactness and uniform evenness of the pile, any inequality in the length of the fibres of which it is composed producing an irregular and defective appearance in the texture. In plush weaving, one series of threads forms a species of curl or loop on the ground of the fabric; or such threads, after having been secured to the foundation of the texture, are cut into short filaments, causing them to be erect on the surface of the texture: hence a plush or velvet fabric is an ordinary texture overspread with a compact, dense pile.

229. _Origin of Velvet Weaving._--Velvets are said to have been originally produced in Asia. The Chinese claim to have been the makers of a fabric of this description at a comparatively early date. Velvet manufacture, for a considerable period after its introduction into Europe, was confined to Italy, where, in the weaving establishments of Venice, Milan, Florence, and Genoa, it was extensively carried on with marked success. Two Genoese manufacturers, Etienne Turquetti and Barthélemy Narri, under the patronage of Francis I., in 1536, are reported to have commenced velvet weaving in Lyons, at which place it has down to the present day remained an important industry. The productions of the French looms speedily surpassed those of Italy, both in fineness of texture and in soft, lustrous appearance. Rather more than a century after velvet manufacture had been established in France, it was introduced into England by the refugees of that nation when compelled, by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685, to leave their country, who, coming over to England, settled in Spitalfields, the ancient seat of the English silk industry, and there domesticated this important textile art.

230. _Velvets, Compound in Structure._--All velvets are what may be termed compound in construction--that is to say, one series of threads is appropriated to the production of the _ground_ of the texture, while a second series is employed in the formation of the _pile_; in other words, there are distinct warps or wefts necessary to produce the plush and foundation of the fabric respectively. As to the ground, it may be formed of the plain make or of a fine twill. The threads used in the production of the pile may be of various colours, and treated in such a manner as to yield a shag or plush of several lengths. When the pile is obtained in the warp it may be either cut or uncut; that is, the plush may be formed of small, curl-like loops, or of merely the ends of threads projecting from the body of the cloth. In figured plushes, the various parts of the pattern are developed by resorting to these two modes of producing effects, some sections of the pile being cut, and others remaining uncut, while to further enhance the character of the design an ottoman rib effect may also ornament specific portions of the fabric.

231. _Two Classes of Plush Fabrics._--Technically, plushes are divisible into two great classes: (1) Weft plushes, or fabrics in which the pile is formed of flushes of extra weft yarns distinct from those producing the ground of the fabric. (2) Warp plushes, or fabrics in which the pile results from the use of extra warp yarns distinct from and independent of the warp utilized in forming the foundation of the texture proper.

The richest effects are producible on the latter principle, which is probably the original method of plush weaving. Weft plushes comprise, however, a considerable variety of textures, including velveteens, corded velveteens, corduroys, astrakhans, and feather trimmings.

232. _Warp Plushes._--In the first place, let it be understood that for whatever purpose the fabric is intended, at least two warps are essential in its production. Though wound on to separate beams and subjected to different tensions, yet they are so combined by the weft yarn, that they both, when amalgamated, become important factors in the same texture. The weave used in the construction of a warp plush is essentially of a two-fold character, consisting of a ground crossing, and of a flush arrangement for producing the pile effect. Plain, mat, rib, and twill weaves are applied to the ground, according to the fineness and characteristics of the required texture. As to the pile, it may be either cut or uncut, of one or several colours, and also of such variable lengths as are requisite to the development of the forms contained in the pattern. Whatever the character of the plush, it is due to the employment of wires which are inserted between the threads of the pile warp. Thus the wires are introduced when the series of threads in the ground warp is depressed, and such threads elevated in the pile warp as are in accordance with the formation of the design. In some velvets the whole of the pile warp is lifted for the insertion of each wire. Fig. 208 illustrates the system on which the wires are employed, as well as the manner in which they produce the pile. Only nine warp threads, six picks of weft, and three wires are represented. The threads lettered _A_ form the pile, and those lettered _G_ the ground warp. In this diagram the wires are shown entering the warp when threads _G_ are depressed and threads _A_ elevated.

[Illustration: FIG. 208.]

233. _Methods of securing the Pile._--Fastening the pile is an important feature of the weaving process. Unless a sufficient number of ground picks is inserted between the wires, and unless they form such interlacings with the pile warp as to secure the threads it contains to the ground of the texture, whether the plush is looped or cut, it will draw out, and the result will be a defective fabric. A point, therefore, that should have careful attention is that of securing the pile in such a manner that it will remain erect after the withdrawal of the wires. The usual method of effecting this consists in arranging for the ground picks to float over the pile threads, both immediately before and after the insertion of the wires, as illustrated in Fig. 208. This plan is adopted, because it has not only a tendency to force the wires into position, but to keep them there. It is not, however, the only system; in fact, there are two other useful methods of forming a “bed” or foundation for the wires. One feature of this arrangement is common to all systems, namely, the pile warp is depressed after the insertion of each wire; consequently any difference existing between this and other modes of fastening the plush will be found in the plan of interlacing the picks _preceding_ the wire. For example, in making tapestry carpets, the pile warp is not down, but up, in the shed before that formed for the wire; while in a third system, the pile threads float over two ground picks and the wire in succession. Both these systems are better adapted for the insertion of a large number of wires to the inch of the fabric than the first method described.

234. _Analysis of the Process of Velvet or Warp Plush Weaving._--The The weaver, having interlaced the requisite series of ground shoots between the threads of the combined warps, proceeds to form a division in the threads, by depressing the whole of the ground warp, and in some cases the half of the pile warp, for the admission of the wire. This shed remains formed until the wire has been passed from side to side of the warp and with the grooved edge towards the sley of the going part. On the wire having thus been fixed, the reed is brought against the texture already woven, carrying the wire along with it, which it causes to rest on its lower edge. In this upright position it is maintained by keeping the going part in contact with it, till a new division of the threads (obtained by depressing all the threads covering the wire and elevating a portion of those floating under it) is secured, when the sley or reed is removed from the fell of the cloth and a ground pick introduced to be driven into contact with the ground shoot which preceded the wire. On this principle the wires are bound to the ground of the fabric, for the threads covering them are not only securely woven into the texture by the shoots preceding, but also by those following their insertion. After the proper complement of ground picks has been added, the process of inserting the wires is repeated, several wires always being retained in the fabric. The necessity for this is obvious; thus, if the weaver, before he has introduced a sufficient number of wires, passes his knife within the groove of the first wire, and so cuts the loops covering it, the pile ends would, when tension was put on the warp in the formation of the next shed, draw out, and thus the plush would be destroyed. This is descriptive of the hand method, by which some of the finest decorative silk pile fabrics are produced. In ordinary velvets and carpet weaving, whether Brussels (loop pile) or Axminster (cut pile), the wires are inserted and withdrawn by automatic mechanism. In cut pile carpet weaving, at the end of each wire is a short blade tapering to the end of the wire, so that, when the wire is withdrawn, the threads of pile warp covering its upper edge are cut.

[Illustration: Plate XXXV

COLOURING OF FIGURED FABRICS IN THE WARP 1. Old Vesting Style (Quilting) 2. Cut and uncut Pile Pattern]

235. _Colouring of Warp Plushes and Figured Velvets._--Plushes made in imitation of animal skins may be composed of several colours, and also of different lengths of pile. Fig. 209 is a weave for a plush of this order. Threads _B_ are grey pile, and threads _T_ are white pile. The ground of the texture is formed by threads and picks _G_. The two sets of pile yarns are wound on to separate beams. As the marks in this case indicate threads lifted, it will be noticed that on the first wire only one pile thread is up, namely, _B_¹, both the white and the ground ends being depressed. The second wire elevates _T_¹, the third wire _B_², and the fourth wire _T_²; so that in each repeat of the design all the pile yarns are up once. This is one method of colouring plush fabrics, and is practised in the production of fancy effects in which no figure or ornamental design is required. When colour is introduced into styles of a figured class for robes and mantlings, it is accomplished on other systems. Pattern 2, Plate XXXV., and Pattern 1, Plate XXXVI., are illustrations of two types of plush or velvet colouring.

[Illustration: FIG. 209.]

Pattern 2 on Plate XXXV. is a velvet pile colouring. Several warps have been employed in its construction, white silk for ground, pale sage green for the principal figure, and variously coloured warps for the minor parts of the pattern. To produce elaborate textiles of this description a complicated form of loom mounting is necessary. First, the ground warp, which is run off a special beam, is passed through a set of shafts hung before the harness and worked by the Jacquard or a dobbie machine. Second, one section of the harness receives the green warp, and other sections the various hues composing the remaining warps. These figuring warps are also mounted on separate beams or run off bobbins or miniature beams, each thread being tensioned separately. The designs have to be so prepared that all the effects which are intended to be of one colour will fall exactly in the same line or occupy the same threads in design.

This is also illustrated in Plate XXXVI., a pattern with silk sateen ground, and with the figuring developed as follows:--

Green leaves and stems in loop and cut pile. Tinted-rose flowers in loop and cut pile. Underneath or subdued design in terry or loop pile.

An effective contrast, which is characteristic of pile colouring, is seen in the tone of the cut and loop pile in the green and tinted rose. The difference is so marked as to appear the result of colours of dissimilar qualities. The cut pile imparts a soft, full colour, and the terry, an apparently lighter colour, but of the same hue. This technicality relates specially to pile-fabric colouring. By using the same colour of yarn, _e.g._ green or salmon pink, two tones of green and two tones of pink are acquired. This design element is used in the development of ornamental details; shading in either leaves or flowers being rendered feasible with one colour of yarn.

Another contrast to be noted is that between the sateen ground and the terry pile figuring. The terry is deeper in quality, and, if produced in cut pile, would be still fuller in depth of tone. In construction or loom mounting, the sateen warp would be on one beam, the ground or foundation warp on a second beam, and the pale green, dark green, and salmon-pink warps on bobbins, being individually tensioned, as in Axminster or Brussels carpet weaving.

236. _Brussels and Tapestry Carpets compared._--Brussels and tapestry carpets are so similar in appearance that they might be regarded as fabrics of the same structure. But, when the principles on which the pattern is obtained in the respective carpets are examined, it is at once evident that in the Brussels the design is purely a woven effect, in the tapestry it is a print. The technical differences between these manufactures being understood, there are causes apparent for the superior wearing qualities of the Brussels. First, in point of colouring it possesses a distinct advantage over the tapestry, for all the shades used in its composition are supposed to be “fast,” the yarns being hank dyed and not coloured in the warp. Second, the pile is fuller and made of better materials, while the thickness and substance of the fabric are not due to strengthening threads, like the “body” of the tapestry, but to the worsted yarns used in the formation of the pile. Third, the pattern is more smartly defined, its various parts being clearly and distinctly developed; whereas the figure in tapestry carpets is more or less indistinct, arising from the system on which the pattern is produced.

237. _How the Pattern is developed in Brussels Carpets._--The weaving of this carpet possesses some characteristic features. The pile warp, for instance, instead of running off ordinary yarn beams, is wound, as stated, on bobbins, or miniature beams, fixed in frames, or a large creel, placed behind the loom. Each colour requires what is technically called a separate frame. A five-frame Brussels is a carpet with this number of colours succeeding each other in the same line of the fabric. The manner in which the various colours are controlled--in other words, in which they are concealed from, or brought into, view--is an important factor in the manufacture of this article. On examining a Brussels carpet, it will be observed that the individual threads forming the pile seem either to be composed of several colours, or to be substituted by yarns of other shades, according to the section of the pattern being formed. For instance, in the same line of the design, looking at the fabric lengthways, apparently in the same thread, as many as from three to five colours, such as brown, green, fawn, scarlet, and blue, form the pile in succession. If these effects are not due to a printed yarn, they result from the employment of five distinct threads, each of which is so controlled that it only appears in the pile when assisting to develop the design. The question occurs, How are the threads concealed when not appearing on the face of the fabric? An important principle of weaving is implied in the production of results of this character. Whatever the colour of the warp yarn in a single cloth, the pattern is, throughout the piece, continuously tinged with that shade, excepting in such positions as it is crossed with the weft thread. In a double cloth two colours of warp yarns may be applied to one line of the fabric; that is to say, supposing the shades selected were black and white, the pattern produced might be composed of these colours alternately, while in a triple-make fabric three shades could be brought on to the surface of the texture in succession. Effects of this order are due to changing the positions of the threads of the respective warps by reversing the weaves. The several shades of a Brussels carpet are manipulated on this compound-weave principle of intertexture. To obtain a three-frame pattern composed, say, of green, scarlet, and olive, at least three separate weaves are necessary--one for each shade. Thus the weave used in forming the shed in the warp for the green pile is so arranged as to depress the scarlet and olive, while that for giving the scarlet pile conceals the green and olive threads, and lastly, that for producing the olive pile conceals the green and scarlet ends; so that, by an appropriate application of these respective weaves to the design, the colours are brought up in the figure where required.

[Illustration: FIG. 210.]

238. _Structure of Pile Carpets._--Fig. 210 is a sketch of the interlacing of the threads in a section of this class of carpet, and is a three-frame structure. The positions the threads occupy when not covering the wires, will be evident on examining the illustration. Thus it is clear that when a thread of pile yarn is not active in the formation of the figure, it is covered or concealed by the wire and ground shoots of weft. Take thread _b_, for instance, which, having covered the first two wires shown, floats underneath the succeeding wires; a similar arrangement obtains in the interlacings of thread _c_, which floats under wires 1 and 2, and over wires 3 and 4, while thread _a_ is covered by the first four, but flushes over the last two wires; hence each class of pile threads interweaves with the ground weft on the same system, producing a carpet of uniform strength, and one in which every species of pile is equally permanent.

[Illustration: Plate XXXVI

FIGURED PILE SPECIMEN, SATEEN GROUND]