LACE, 



489 



threads pass through the eyes. Two rows of guides are 

 ' used ; each row containing one half as many as the 

 number of needles in the frame ; and as each guide has 

 a thread, the two rows of guides together contain as 

 many threads as there are needles. The machine, 

 which is the frame containing the two bars on which 

 the rows of guides are fixed, is so poised upon centres, 

 that the guides are capable of advancing to the needles 

 when they are required, to lap the threads upon the 

 needles ; or, when the thread is supplied, the guides can 

 be drawn away from the needles, to leave them free for 

 the operations of the sinkers and presser. When the 

 guides are first applied to the needles, they lie beneath 

 the row of needles ; but the guides can be raised up, 

 ao as to ascend in the spaces between the needles ; and 

 when the guides are thus raised clear above the row 

 of needle*, they are moved so much sideways, that when 

 they are depressed again, they will not return between 

 the same needles, but between the adjacent needles. It 

 is plain that this action will loop the thread, which each 

 guide contains, round the needle, and that this is done 

 in the whole row of needles at the same time. The 

 treatment of the loops thus formed is the same as in the 

 former machine ; the guide* are so arranged, that those 

 of the upper row fall immediately over those of the low- 

 er, and therefore two guides will pass between the 

 same needles. By this means the working of the frame 

 combines two adjacent threads together, in a series of 

 looping, or chain-work; but at the next course, the 

 guides are interchanged by moving them sidewise, so 

 that those guides which were ever each other in the 

 former instance, and therefore passed between the came 

 needle*, will be separated from each other, and those 

 which were separated in the former instance will be 

 brought together. 



The warp-lace is more permanent than the point- 

 net, because the side* of the meshe* are made of two 

 or three loop* of chain- work drawn through each other, 

 which is not so liable to unravel a* the point-net when 

 a thread break*. These loop* resemble the plaited sides 

 of the Brussels lace ; but the warp-machine U capable 

 nf making several different patterns. In both the point 

 and warp frames, the net is woven in very considerable 

 breadth*, even a* great as a yard and a half; but it i* 

 afterwards divided into piece* of the breadth required, 

 a row of wide meshes being formed at the intended line 

 of division ; but before the piece is divided, it is extend- 

 ed in a frame like that used for tambour work, and the 

 gimp, or thick thread, which represents flowers and or- 

 naments, U worked in by the needle ; for, it must be ob- 

 served, that the machine only weave* the plain net work. 

 The nmamnting of the lace in this manner, takes more 

 time than the weaving : It is performed by women and 

 children. They have an enlarged drawing of the flow- 

 er, or figure, they are to work ; and tl.is they are ena- 

 bled to copy with great exactness, by observing the 

 course the thread is to take amongst the meshes of the 

 act-work. 



The Nottingham lace trade was very considerable 

 some years ago, but is at present in a state of stagna- 

 tion. The lace, when well made, is exceedingly beau- 

 tiful and regular ; and hence it was much esteemed at 

 fat, particularly the large piece* for making veils and 

 dresee*; but, when the want of durability was detect- 

 ed, it lost its value: Still, as the manufacturers were 

 able to make it at a very cheap rate, they sold immense 

 quantities for some years. 



It ha* long been an object, of research with mecha- 

 nic*, to -produce a machine capable of weaving the real 



VOL. XII. r.\RT II. 



twisted lace, like that which is made on the pillow : 

 and no less than tixteea patents were obtained for this 



object before it was effected. The nearest approach to T?" 

 . J . . dungs. 



it was by John Moms, who invented the point frame 



in 1781. 



The difficulties attending this species of machinery, 

 are principally owing to the fineness of the meshes of 

 lace ; and it is essential to any machine for making 

 lace, in which the threads are twisted together, that 

 the ends of the threads, or the bobbins on which they 

 are wound, should be capable of passing one over the 

 other, as before described in making lace on the pil- 

 low : Hence the bobbins must be detached ; and it is 

 very difficult to make and also to operate upon so many 

 small bobbins as a moderate breadth of lace requires. 



Mr. Morris attempted to avoid this difficulty, by By Morrit. 

 stretching all the threads in a parallel direction in a 

 horizontal frame, and operating by machinery upon the 

 middle part of the threads, to pass each one over its 

 neighbour ; which, being repeated several times, pro- 

 duced a twisting of the threads round each other, at 

 each end of the frame, so as to make two pieces of lace 

 at the same time. The crossing, which completes the 

 meshes, was effected by interchanging the pairs of 

 threads which were to be twisted together. But this 

 process could not produce the real lace ; because, though 

 the threads actually twisted round each other, yet all 

 the threads employed in the fabric proceeded in the 

 direction of the length of the piece, and the meshes 

 had a tendency to flatten themselves, or close up late- 

 rally. 



A piece of bobbin- lace is composed of two systems Lace his 

 of threads, like the warp and weft used in weaving both W "P 

 cloth. The warp threads proceed, in a zig-zag direc- w 

 tion, longitudinally through the piece; and the others, 

 which are called diagonal threads, traverse across the 

 breadth, not at right angles to the warp threads, as the 

 weft in cloth, but they proceed in an oblique, or dia- 

 gonal direction, from one edge or selvage of the piece 

 to the other, and then return in an opposite direction. 

 It is the intersections, or crossings of these diagonal 

 threads over each other, which form the upper and 

 lower sides of the hexagonal meshes, as before men- 

 tioned ; whilst the twisted sides are formed by the union 

 of the longitudinal and diagonal threads. 



Mr. John Heathcoat, in 1808, invented a machine Heathcoaf* 

 for making this kind of lace, which answered the pur- tlTf< - '"- 

 pose very effectually. The ground-work of the inven- dline * 

 tion, is to extend those threads which form the warp of 

 the lace in parallel lines, and dispose the diagonal 

 threads upon small bobbins, which are detached, and 

 are capable of passing round the extended warp threads, 

 to a* to twist with them. By this means, the number 

 of bobbins is reduced to one-half. In this machine 

 lliere are two horizontal beams, or rollers ; one to con- 

 tain the thread, and another to receive the lace ; also a 

 number of small bobbins to contain the thread. 



One roller is placed in the under part of the machine, 

 and the other in the upper pan, but both in the same 

 perpendicular plane. The threads intended to form 

 the warp, or longitudinal threads, in the piece of lace, 

 are wound upon the lower roller, and ascend to the 

 upper rollers, to which they are separately attached. 



Those threads which are intended to traverse the 

 piece of lace, (and are thence denominated diagonal 

 threads,) are wound each upon a small separate bob- 

 bin. The bobbins resemble the pirns used in a wea- 

 ver's shuttle, but they are made very small. Each bob- 

 bin is a wire pin, round which the thread is lapped, in 

 39 



