488 



LACE. 



places on her knees. The threads are wound upon 

 bobbins, which are small round pieces of wood, each 

 about the aize of a pencil ; round the upper end of each, 

 a deep groove is formed so as to reduce the bobbin to 

 a thin neck, and on this part the thread is wound : a 

 separate bobbin is used for each thread. To give form 

 to the meshes, pins are stuck into the cushion, and the 

 threads are woven and twisted together around the 

 pins : a piece of parchment is first fixed down upon 

 the cushion, which has been previously pierced with 

 small pin-holes, to shew the proper places for the pins, 

 and on this parchment the design for the gimp, or thick 

 thread, is also traced, to guide the woman in placing 

 the gimp, so that it will be woven in between the fine 

 threads which form the net-work. The work is begun 

 at the upper part of the cushion, by tying the threads 

 together in pairs, and each pair is, attached to a pin, 

 which is stuck through the parchment into the cushion. 

 The round form of the cushion allows the bobbins to 

 hang down by their threads, on different sides of the 

 cushion ; and on whatever side the bobbins are placed 

 they will continue. At the commencement of the work, 

 all the bobbins are put on one side of the cushion, and 

 are brought to the front side, four bobbins, or two 

 pairs at a time, to be twisted together. The woman 

 takes one pair in each hand, and, with the finger and 

 thumb, twists the bobbins over each other three times; 

 the effect of this is to twist the threads of each pair to- 

 gether, or round each other, and this is done by both 

 hands at the same time. When the twisting, which 

 forms the sides of the mesh, is thus completed, the ad- 

 jacent bobbins of each pair are interchanged, in order 

 to cross the threads of those bobbins over each other, 

 and make the bottom of the mesh. To render this 

 clear, suppose the four bobbins numbered : No. 1 is 

 twisted round, 2 and 3 is twisted round 4. Then, in 

 order to cross, 2 and 3 are interchanged, so that 1 and 

 3 come together, and 2 and 4 ; and the next time that 

 the twisting operation is performed, these pairs of 

 threads will be combined together. 



When a mesh, or half mesh is made, it must be secu- 

 red by putting a pin into the cushion ; and, in order to 

 draw the twist work close, the pin is introduced be- 

 tween the recently crossed threads, and carried up to- 

 wards the top of the pillow, so as to drive the twists 

 and cross before it, and concentrate or draw the twists 

 into a small compass ; the pin is then inserted into its 

 proper hole in the parchment, and will prevent the 

 threads from returning. These four bobbins are now 

 done with for the present, and are put to one side of 

 the cushion ; then two other pairs are brought forward 

 into the front of the cushion, and are twisted and cros- 

 sed in the same way ; and, in this manner, the work 

 proceeds, till a row of meshes is formed all across the 

 breadth of the intended piece of lace, and then the same 

 bobbins are worked over again to make"another row. In 

 general, the number of bobbins and of threads is equal 

 to 48 or 60 to every inch of breadth. 



The work-people perform these operations with great 

 dexterity ; but the work nevertheless proceeds very 

 slowly, as it requires so many meshes to make a small 

 piece of lace, and only one mesh is made at a time. 

 Taking the threads at 50 per inch, if the piece of lace 

 is one inch wide, it will have 25 meshes in the breadth, 

 or 625 meshes in each square inch of length, or 22,000 

 meshes in a yard. The price of a yard of lace of this 

 description is seldom more than 18 pence. 



The point net frame is, as before stated, a variety of 

 frame. the stocking frame, which was invented by Mr. John 



Point net 



Morris of Nottingham, in 1764 ; but it was not used to 

 make lace in the first instant 1 *, being intended to make 

 oilet holes for the cloaks, or ancle part, of stockings. 

 The machine is an addition to a stocking'"rrame, and 

 operates on the thread in the same way as in stocking 

 weaving, for a great part of the process. An additional 

 row ef needles is placed in front of the frame, which 

 are called points ; these are fixed in a row upon a 

 moveable bar, which is mounted in a frame, so as to be 

 capable of being applied to the row of needles of the 

 frame, or removed from them at pleasure ; but it will 

 always preserve its parallelism to the row of needles. 

 The lace in this machine is formed of one continued 

 thread, which is laid across the row of needles, and, 

 by the action of the jacks and sinkers, is formed into 

 loops, in the same manner as the stocking frame ; (see 

 the article CHAIN-WO.RK, Vol. V. ) but previous to finish* 

 ing the operation of the chain- work, the row of points is 

 plied between the needles of the frame, and the points 

 being only half the number of the needles, they take 

 every other loop, and, by a particular motion, pick up 

 those loops, and cast them over the neighbouring 

 needles, so as to gather the loops two together, into 

 pairs, and leave intervals between each pair; conse- 

 quently, when the usual operations of the stocking- 

 frame are resumed, the stitches will be found worked 

 two into one. At the succeeding course, the row of 

 points is again applied ; but the points are made to en- 

 ter between those pairs of loops, which were combined 

 together in the last course, and separate them, but at the 

 same time to combine together those loops which were 

 separated the last time. These operations continued, 

 form a net work of hexagonal meshes-, which resembles 

 lace, and when stiffened with starch, to make the 

 meshes preserve their figure, has a very beautiful ap- 

 pearance. The objection to this imitation of lace is, 

 that it becomes loose and irregular, after being washed ; 

 and if the thread breaks, the work will unravel in the 

 same manner as stockings. 



The warp-frame is also a variety of the stocking- 

 frame ; but the parts are very differently arranged, be- 

 cause all the movements are adapted to be produced 

 by treadles, leaving the hands of the workman to ma- 

 nage the machine, which is a piece of mechanism ap- 

 plied in front of the row of needles of the frame. It is 

 to be understood that the needles, and sinkers, and 

 presser of the warp-frame, operate nearly in the same 

 manner as the stocking frame, except that there are no 

 jack sunkers, because the thread is supplied to the 

 needles in a different manner from the common stock- 

 ing frame ; and the operation of the sinkers is not to 

 form the thread into loops between the needles, but 

 only to move the stitches of the work backwards or for- 

 wards upon the needles ; and hence the nibs of the 

 sinkers have no catches upon them, 1 that is the name 

 given to the small projecting pieces which bear upon 

 the thread, when the sinkers drop down, and carries'the 

 thread down into loops between the needles. 



In the warp-frame, the piece of lace is not formed of 

 one continued thread, as in the point-net frame ; but 

 there are as many different threads as there are needles 

 in the frame. These threads are warped, or wound 

 upon a roller or beam, the same as a loom ; and it is 

 from this circumstance that the machine is called warp. 

 frame. The roller is placed horizontally beneath the 

 rows of needles, and the threads are carried up from 

 it, and conducted through the guides, and to the 

 needles. These guides are rows of small wires, with 

 eyes through the ends like sewing needles, and the 



7 



Warp 



