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CARPETS. 



a Democratic leader, especially as a member of 

 the Committee of Ways and Means, and at- 

 tracted attention by an able speech on revenue 

 reform. This and the revival of American 

 shipping he looks upon as the important ques- 

 tions now before the country. In the speech 

 referred to he said : " In the broad and sweep- 

 ing sense which the use of the term generally 

 implies, I am not a free-trader. Of course, 

 that is understood. At least it should be. I 

 will add that in my judgment it will be years 

 yet before anything in the nature of free trade 

 would be wise or practicable for the United 

 States. When we speak of this subject we 

 refer to approximate free trade, which has no 

 idea of crippling the growth of home indus- 

 tries, but simply of scaling down the iniquities 

 of the tariff schedule, where they are utterly 

 out of proportion to the demands of that 

 growth. After we have calmly stood by and 

 allowed monopolies to grow fat, we should not 

 be askt-d to make them bloated. Our enor- 

 mous surplus revenues are illogical and op- 

 pressive. It is entirely undemocratic to con- 

 tinue these burdens on the people for years and 

 years after the requirements of protection have 

 been met and the representatives of these in- 

 dustries have become incrusted with wealth. 

 This is the general proposition on which I 

 stand." On the organization of Congress in 

 December, 1883, Mr. Carlisle received the 

 Democratic nomination for Speaker of the 

 House of Representatives, and was elected. 



CARPETS. Progress of the Industry. No bet- 

 ter carpets are made in America now than 

 were made twenty years ago. Indeed, as early 

 as 1851 an American inventor the late Eras- 

 tus B. Bigelow, of Massachusetts showed 

 English weavers (who were then making more 

 and better carpets for general use than any 

 other people) that success in weaving body- 

 Brussels carpets by power had been fully 

 achieved in America. 



Specimens of Bigelow Brussels carpets were 

 exhibited at the Great Exhibition in London 

 in 1851, but not till after the prizes had been 

 awarded. In a supplement to their report the 

 jury said : " The specimens of Brussels carpet- 

 ing exhibited by Mr. E. B. Bigelow are woven 

 by a power-loom invented and patented by 

 him, and are better and more perfectly woven 

 than any hand-loom goods that have come 

 under the notice of the jury. This, however, 

 is a very small part of their merit, or rather that 

 of Mr. Bigelow, who has completely triumphed 

 over the numerous obstacles that presented 

 themselves, and succeeded in substituting 

 steam-power for manual labor in the manu- 

 facture of five-frame Brussels carpets. Several 

 patents have been taken out by different invent- 

 ors in this country for effecting the same object ; 

 but as yet none of them have been brought into 

 successful operation ; and the honor of the 

 achievement, one of great practical difficulty 

 as well as of great commercial value, must be 

 awarded to a native of the United States." 



The Centennial Exhibition. The American Cen- 

 tennial Exhibition gave a great and lasting im- 

 petus to carpet manufacture; the exhibit of 

 foreign carpets stimulating our manufacturers, 

 color artists, and weavers to an emulation 

 which, in the brief period since elapsed, has 

 transformed a struggling industry into one of 

 the most stately proportions. This expansion 

 has been evidenced in Philadelphia especially 

 by the remodeling of old and the erection of 

 new factories, the undertaking of hitherto 

 rare and costly fabrics, and the substitution 

 on an extensive scale of power for hand 

 looms. 



Looms. English manufacturers adopted the 

 Bigelow patents, and till within a recent period 

 continued furnishing us with body-Brussels 

 carpets for which we had first provided them 

 a power-loom. At home, meanwhile, the Bige- 

 low Carpet Company held fast to their dis- 

 covery, and remained, until the lapse of their 

 patent-rights, the principal power-loom body- 

 Brussels weavers in the United States. 



It is safe, too, to assert that all looms now 

 employed in England and the United States in 

 the weaving of body-Brussels, Wiltons, and 

 tapestry-Brussels carpets may be traced, in the 

 principles of their construction, to the original 

 Bigelow loom. This is largely true, too, of in- 

 grain-weaving. Mr. Bigelow invented a loom 

 for ingrains, which produces a fabric of great 

 excellence, and is now in general use in the 

 older New England factories. Besides the 

 Bigelow Company, two manufacturing firms, 

 E. S. Higgins & Co., of New York city, and 

 John and James Dobson, of Philadelphia, are 

 entitled to the distinction of first undertaking 

 on a large scale the production of high-grade 

 power-woven carpets in America. Indeed, E. 

 B. Bigelow's patent for weaving body-Brussels 

 and tapestry carpets was first employed by 

 E. S. Higgins & Co. on tapestries only, and 

 subsequently the present Bigelow Company 

 applied the invention to Brussels and Wilton 

 fabrics. In Philadelphia, no carpets other than 

 common ingrains were made prior to 1872. 



Since Mr. Bigelow's time but one ingrain- 

 loom has been invented in the United States 

 which has proved wholly free from objection, 

 and been regularly adopted. This is known 

 as the "Murkland loom," the invention of 

 William Murkland, of Massachusetts, who died 

 a few years since. The Murkland loom is 

 noted for its fine shading qualities, for its great 

 productiveness, ease of manipulation, and gen- 

 eral adaptation to ingrain weaving, to which 

 it is confined. It is now used almost wholly 

 by new manufacturers. 



Equally ingenious, though less adapted to 

 general use, was the Duckworth ingrain-loom, 

 produced under the patronage of Messrs. E. 

 S. Higgins & Co., by John C. Duckworth, a 

 young inventor who died in 1882. 



A signal triumph, and by far the most impor- 

 tant, lately achieved in America in mechanism 

 for high-grade carpet- weaving, was the loom 



