788 



UPHOLSTERY. 



at present imported, is now contemplated in 

 New York and Philadelphia. 



Trimmings. Fringes, gimps, cords, and tas- 

 sels for draperies, are made of silk and wool, 

 and several large mills are employed in their 

 production in New York, Philadelphia, and 

 New England. Fringe-works at Chicago have 

 recently begun business. Furniture- gimps, of 

 silk, cotton, and worsted, are made in New 

 York city and Philadelphia, in ample supply. 



Mohair Plashes. The vigilance of French and 

 German weavers of mohair plushes has for a 

 long period kept confined to those countries 

 the methods proper to their production. Their 

 great durability and beauty have secured for 

 them a world-wide demand among upholster- 

 ers. So jealous, indeed, have been the plush- 

 weavers, that few even of their own nationality 

 have disQovered the art, and in consequence 

 the one town of Amiens, France, has, until 

 recently, defied all competition, and compelled 

 the most remote buyers to come there for 

 plushes. German plushes first approached the 

 French in excellence, - but they lacked that 

 subtile and pleasing finish imparted by the 

 French manufacturers. English upholstery- 

 men have repeatedly failed to make at home, 

 even with imported help, a mohair plush that 

 should sell along with that of the French. The 

 explanation of this failure is the familiar one 

 concerning French artisans that the most 

 skillful of them do not emigrate, and that, 

 when working in the mills of other lands, they 

 do not produce like results ; in short, that 

 French goods can only be made in France. 

 This was seemingly verified in the experiment 

 in 1876 of the New York Plush and Braid Com- 

 pany, which attempted plushes with the help 

 of a Frenchman well trained in their weaving. 

 They rapidly lost the capital invested, and made 

 unmarketable goods. Subsequent events, how- 

 ever, have fully exploded all the superstition 

 and glamour that attached to plush-weaving. 



Plush-Weaving in America. The recent death, 

 in the prime of life (in 1885), of John H. 

 Tingue, of Seymour, Conn., lends a melancholy 

 interest to the annals of American plush-mak- 

 ers ; for to him and to the Tingue Manufactur- 

 ing Company, and to Charles Coupland, of 

 their motive department, belong the honor of 

 first introducing American mohair plushes, and 

 of perfecting machinery for weaving them. We 

 do not ignore the numerous and creditable 

 experiments made prior to those of the Tingue 

 company. These (beginning in 1864-'65) were 

 conducted mainly around New York city and in 

 New Jersey, but in each instance, down to that 

 of the New York Plush and Braid Company, 

 the product was found so far below foreign 

 Standards that merchants would not handle it. 

 tn 1881 the Tingue Company, after long and 

 careful tests, surprised the trade by submitting, 

 for inspection and sale, genuine, merchantable 

 mohair plush woven wholly by original methods 

 at their factory in the Connecticut hills. Up- 

 holsterers pronounced favorably on the Tingue 



plushes, and their rapid distribution over the 

 country followed. The company proceeded to 

 enlarge their plant, and thus it was demon- 

 strated that plush could be made in America. 

 The carpet firm of J. & J. Dobson, of Phila- 

 delphia, made experiments in plush-making, 

 which took definite shape about the same time 

 as did those of the Tingue Company, and they 

 rapidly followed with mohair plushes of equal 

 excellence. They were the first in this coun- 

 try to manufacture high-grade silk plushes. 

 To make a mohair plush that would be ac- 

 cepted by railways for the seatings of passen- 

 ger-coaches has been from the first one of the 

 chief aims of the mills. The first firm to claim 

 entire success in car-plushes was L. C. Chase 

 & Co., of Boston, whose factory in Maine has 

 of late yielded very superior grades, especially 

 in fine plain goods (as distinguished from the 

 popular embossed plushes) not before attempt- 

 ed. This firm claim, also, machinery of their 

 own invention and construction superior to 

 the French, and further, that their plushes 

 stand the "sun-tests " better than the imported. 

 At Providence, R. L, one firm, D. Goff & Son, 

 large makers of cords and braids for uphol- 

 stery, have recently begun making high-grade 

 mohair plushes. Plushes of ordinary worsted, 

 closely resembling .real mohair, are made in 

 Philadelphia and in Passaic, N. J. It is spe- 

 cially significant that American plush-weavers 

 have started mainly with home-made machin- 

 ery, and that, within the brief existence of the 

 industry, in our inventions in looms, in finish- 

 ing-machines, and notably in embossing-ma- 

 chines and machines for the final accurate 

 cutting of the pile, we have far surpassed all 

 former inventions. 



Window-Shades. An important and growing 

 branch of upholstery is that of window-shades 

 and shade-cloth, made of ordinary bleached 

 cotton- muslin, which, after passing through 

 various processes of sizing and coloring, is 

 sold in long pieces, or cut up into pairs of va- 

 rious widths and lengths, and decorated. The 

 first seamless, plain oil shadings for wide store- 

 windows were made in Buffalo, N. Y., about 

 the year 1867. In his efforts to perfect a ma- 

 chine for wide shadings, the owner of the fac- 

 tory sunk his fortune, and their subsequent 

 manufacture has been conducted in New York 

 city. Plain window " holland " (a cotton fabric 

 finished somewhat like linen) was long import- 

 ed from Scotland ; but within the past ten 

 years American hollands have supplanted 

 them. The largest window-shade factories 

 are in and around New York city. The two 

 best-equipped factories on plain oil shadings 

 are at Oswego, N. Y. 



Threads and Tacks. In the minor essentials of 

 tacks and threads for upholstery uses American 

 makers leave nothing to be desired. Several 

 extensive upholstery tack- works exist in New 

 England, and a number have been successfully 

 planted in the Western States, notably in Illi- 

 nois. The Central Manufacturing Company is 



