214 TEXTILE FIBRES. 



The alpaca sheep or goat belongs to the Llama tribe. The fibres 

 are used in the same way as mohair for the spinning of weft yarns. 

 These are intersected with strong twist yarns of about 2/80s. counts ; 

 the latter forms the warp, and is spun from Brown Egyptian cottons 

 of good staple. The twofold yarn is chiefly spun in Lancashire, and 

 is known in the trade generally as Bradford or ball warps. The warp 

 yarn should be as level as possible, as any failure in the strength of 

 the warp, or the presence of bearded motes, tends to deteriorate the 

 character of the woven alpaca fabric. 



Fig. 138 shows an alpaca woven fabric, the thick vertical twisted 

 yarns with white tufts at the top are the twofold cotton warps, and the 

 transversely arranged open fibres of yarns form the alpaca weft. The 



Fig. 138. Alpaca fabric (magn.). 



cloth is woven in the leno style, or the warp threads cross after each 

 pick of weft. Such a cloth gains an additional strength owing to 

 the extra twisting of the twofold warp threads after each pick of the 

 alpaca fibrous weft. The two loose threads standing out from the 

 fabric across the photograph represent the alpaca weft. 



The alpaca cloth will be long and honourably associated with the 

 memory of the late Sir Titus Salt and family. The village of Saltaire, 

 situated in a lovely district between Bradford and Keighley, in Yorkshire, 

 was founded and developed by the Salt family. Sir Titus not only 

 benefited the industrial population of the village that commemorates 

 his name, but his successful treatment of the alpaca gave an impetus to 

 a section of the Bradford trade in general. 



