Floor Coverings
Carpets
Carpeting is relatively new in Europe, carpets were originally developed in the East where they were made by knotting threads round small tufts of material. Woven carpets were also developed in the East and when the Saracens invaded Spain in AD 711 they brought some basic knowledge of the technique of carpet weaving with them. It was several hundred years before an 'industry' in the modern sense appeared. France and Belgium had a traditional hand woven carpet industry by the seventeenth century and in the 1680's the French Huguenots seeking refuge from persecution settled in England bringing with them these skills. The Huguenots settled in small communities, notably at Wilton in Wiltshire and at Kidderminster and a rivalry soon developed prompting innovation but carpeting remained expensive.
Carpets were woven by hand (the most expensive rugs still are) but this limited the size of the carpet, and the patern required a lot of skill on the part of the weaver.
Fig ___ Hand weaving a carpet
In the nineteenth century carpet making looms were set up in Yorkshire and Scotland, taking advantage of local supplies of wool but Kidderminster dominated the production. Joseph Jaquard (1752-1834) developed a loom of 1801 which used punched cards to control the colours being woven into the carpet, it was 1825 before the Jaquard loom appeared in Britain.
The power driven loom was invented in 1813 by William Horrocks (1776-1849) and by the 1840's years steam power was being used to drive the equipment (the first recorded use of steam power for carpet weaving was in the USA in 1840).
Carpets are divided into two main types, the flat or 'round wire' type which are flat corded or ribbed, and 'pile carpets' which have a soft velvety finish. Flat carpets were the first type produced in Britain and were called Brussels carpets. These are formed of loops of material (usually wool) with a stiff fabric backing (originally cotton, later a mix of cotton and hessian). To make the loops the threads of wool are pulled round a series of wires,once the row was complete the wires are withdrawn to leave the loops. The most common kind of loop pile carpeting was called Brussels.
In Wilton someone invented a 'cut pile' in which the iron wires used to form the loops had a sharp edge which cut the loops as it was withdrawn. This gave a more luxurious feel to the carpet which is today called Wilton Carpeting.
The other common carpet type is called Axminster, named after the town in Devon where it was developed. Axminster carpets are closer to the original oriental type of carpeting, made from tufts of wool pushed between the 'warp' threads and binding these in place with the 'weft' threads.
In 1831 Messirs Templeton & Quigley of Glasgow invented Chenille Axminster carpeting in which the tufts of wool are treated to make them soft and furry and in 1831 Mr. Whytock of Edinburgh developed a way of printing pile yarn to produce a variation on Brussels carpet called 'Tapestry Carpet'. By the 1840's Halifax in West Yorkshire had become the main centre for Tapestry carpeting but production declined rapidly in the 1930's. The last carpet factory in Halifax closed in 2009 as a result of the economic downturn.
In 1876 an American firm based in New York invented the Royal Axminster loom enabling an unlimited range of colours to be used, this technology arrived in Britain in 1878. In 1890 Brintons Ltd of Kidderminster invented a new variation called Gripper Axminster. Decent quality modern carpets are typically 80 percent wool mixed with 20 percent synthetic material.
Traditional woven carpets of the Axminster and Wilton type were expected to last for twenty to thirty years in the home and this type of carpeting is still widely used where longevity is a major concern, for example in hotels. On these traditional carpets the backing (usually hessian or jute) is woven as the carpet is made but in 1949 the Americans invented tufted carpeting, which uses a pre-made backing through which the pile material is threaded, a secondary backing (usually woven jute) is then bonded to the underside to protect the tufts from wear and snagging. The range of colours was initially limited and patterns were at first not practical but tufted carpets soon became popular, by the end of the 1960's 70% of American carpets and 30% of British carpets were of the tufted type. Tufted carpet feels pleasant and is available to suit a range of budgets and now offers a range of options regarding patterning. To prolong the life of a non-fitted carpet there is often (on decent quality types) a secondary backing as well, usually woven from jute or a hard wearing synthetic yarn, sewn to the outer edges of the carpet but sometimes a sheet of rubber (with a woven core) is used to provide a non-slip backing for polished floors.
For low cost hard wearing applications, such as pubs, libraries and other public buildings, 'fibre bonded' carpet is widely used. This consists of a backing (either a sheet of material such as rubber or a woven cloth) onto which the fibres are bonded. The more hard wearing types are made using a bitumen coated backing, typically in the form of 'floor tiles' so that small areas can be easily replaced when required. This stuff used to contain a mix of hogs hair and wool fibres, the former have since been replaced by synthetic fibres. One special case is Karvel, the carpeting used for motor cars. It was originally manufactured by John Crossley & Sons of Halifax (one of the older carpet making firms), it does not fray and has a distinctive 'ridged' appearance, known as cornrows. It was widely used in motor car carpeting, I am not certain when it was introduced, I believe it was used in some pre-world war two era cars but certainly became the de facto standard for post war motor carpeting. Crossley's stopped making it in the later 1960s but other firms have continued production (mainly aimed at the old car market) and the name Karvel remains in use. For 'astroturf' fake grass they use nylon, polypropylene or (more recently) polyethylene yarns woven onto a (usually) polypropylene backing.
Up to the 1940's carpets were produced in standard sizes, so if modelling an older factory the rolled carpets would all be in these standard sizes. The most common carpets (technically called Standard Carpets) are rectangular, the standard sizes (in feet) being 1 X 2, 2 X 3, 2 X 4, 3 X 5, 4 X 6, 5 X 8, 6 X 9, 7 X 10, 8 X 10, 9 X 12, 10 X 14. The 9x12 size was apparently very common as it suited the room sizes in many houses. These were shipped individually rolled up and covered with hessian cloth, they were (I believe) always rolled on their longer side (producing a long thin rather than a short fat roll).
Runners are long narrow carpets, often used to lay along a hallway or up a flight of stairs. They also came in standard sizes, typically 2.5 to 3 feet wide and 6 to 20 feet long (some are even longer).
Smaller rugs were shipped bound flat in bundles
Fitted carpets required wide rolls of carpeting made up into long lengths for which a wide loom, called a broad loom, was required. Broad-loom carpeting began to appear in the 1940's but it was the 1960's before it became cheap enough to compete with the traditional fixed size of carpet.
Prior to about 1970 there was virtually no imported carpet sold in the UK, since then there has been increasing competition from cheap imports and from the early 1990s there was a big move toward fake wooden flooring. This remained 'popular' (although not with neighbours who had to suffer the noise) for several years, not least because of the efforts of a Swedish flooring maker who funded a group in the UK to promote 'scare stories' regarding carpets, suggesting that the fake flooring was 'healthier'. Several of these stories made it into the press, who didn't bother to check if they were true. No one at the time seems to have noticed that Lino is a lot safer than any other floor covering as it has a natural antibacterial action. In practice the fake wooden flooring and lino share a serious problem in that they are both slippery and dangerous to walk on when wet. British carpeting is still regarded as the best in the world, it was used for the new Hong Kong airport, it has been used in the Kremlin in the post Soviet era and has been specified for the posh bits of several new cruise ships.
Major centres for carpet making were all old woollen towns, Axminster in Devon, Wilton in Wiltshire, Loughborough near Newcastle, Bradford, Hartlepool, Gwent, XXX
Modelling a Carpet Factory
As shown above the carpet looms required long halls in which to operate, however by the time the railways arrived the problems of building factories with large floors had been solved and buildings resembling cotton mills were set up, typically three of four stories tall. Over time the design of factories changed, carpet factories tended to migrate away from the built up areas as public transport improved, and new builds tended to be large single storey structures by the 1930s. As with many factories the design of the facade was typically ornate, to suggest solidity and reliability in the firm. If you go round the back however (where the railway siding was likely to be) the walls were usually unadorned plain stock brick.
If you search the internet for pictures of a carpet factory you will get a lot of hits on a large example in Glasgow, no longer a factory but a pleasing building. The example shown below (an actual carpet factory) is suitable for a smaller firm on the outskirts of a town. Such a factory might be rail connected (although many were not). The tall building at the rear can be reduced to three stories if required and would still look right. The building in the right foreground could have the railway siding run alongside it and the centre section can be reduced in size or eliminated to reduce the depth as required.
Fig ___ Typical in-town carpet factory
As a Yorkshire mill owner once remarked 'God's light is best, and cheapest!', so all factories had lots of windows. If you can see inside the building it might be worth adding a repeating set of 'looms' to be visible through the windows. These do not need to be detailed, a row of typical Victorian belt driven looms are illustrated below, these remained in use at some locations into the 1970s (possibly later, but I doubt it).
Fig ___ Belt drive carpet looms
Simple scraps of wooden strip or plastic rod and tube with paper clips set above them to form the arches and brown painted paper 'drive belts' glued to the ends would serve (the paint will make the paper stiff enough to stay upright, you don't need to model the drive shafts on the ceiling as these are not visible).
For a more modern works you can get away with plain rectangular blocks as the equipment is all covered with safety guards. The example shown is from an advertisement (it is actually a smoothing machine not a loom), many seem to be painted a mid grey colour these days.
Fig ___ Equipment for inside a modern carpet factory
The carpets ready to be loaded would be rolled up, for modelling purposes lengths of suitable diameter rod (about 4mm for British N) wrapped in paper 'masking tape' would serve well enough, add a rectangular white label glued on from cigarette paper. See the standard sizes above for suitable lengths (for example in British N 16.5mm represents an 8 foot carpet and 20.5mm represents 10 foot).
Textilose
Textilose was a yarn made of spun paper (with I believe some cotton fibres added), the paper used was a particular form of 'kraft' (hard wearing) paper, imported from Canada and Scandinavia. It was developed before World War One and was widely used for carpet backing as an alternative to hessian or jute. The paper arrived in standard rolls and was then cut into long thin strips or 'slivers' before being spun into yarn.
Fig___ Typical paper rolls
The machines used were mainly purpose built but the Germans in World War One also used existing textile machinery originally built for spinning jute.
There was a variation called Textilit, using paper strip spun with jute or flax waste, but that does not seem to have caught on in the UK (the patents for both were owned by the German Jute cartel prior to World War One). During that war the Germans used a paper based yarn to make cordage, belting, tent and sail canvas, sacks, tapestry, carpets, workmen's clothing, aprons, sporting attire, and surgical bandages.
There were several firms in the UK producing Textilose yarn, one of which had a large works in Trafford Park (Manchester), the road the factory was on is still called Textilose Road. This factory was large, rail connected and later re branded as Trafford Carpets, so I suspect they not only spun the Textilose but then used it to make carpets. I have not so far managed to confirm the size of the paper rolls used to make this stuff but Philip Holmes was able to advise that the main building, seen from the road, was unremarkable, just a very long single story building with a corrugated asbestos roof.
These days probably the most common alternative to jute is stuff called 'actionbac' (a Trademark name of the Amoco Fabrics Company), which is a hard secondary backing made from polypropylene. Polypropylene is very hard wearing, it has its drawbacks however as when wet or damp the backing and carpet will tend to stretch and form 'rucks' and lumps. The damp retained in the floor can keep it in this state for some time so it is best to remove it and dry the carpet separately whilst allowing the floor itself to dry out (dodgy 'carpet cleaners' have been known to stretch and cut back the damp carpet to make it flat, but this can cause the carpet to split at the seams or pull away from the walls as it, and the floor underneath, dries out).
Linoleum
Invented and named by Fred Walton in about 1860 linoleum was developed to replace expensive 'oilcloth' (carpeting or cloth soaked in linseed oil) as a floor covering. Linoleum is actually rather similar to oilcloth but includes a quantity of cork and sawdust. The linseed oil is heated to oxidise it, then mixed with gum and mixed again in a heated mixer with cork, sawdust and colouring materials (one example being ground chalk or 'whiting'). The mix that emerges is dry and left for a few days to harden. It is then ground and rolled into thin sheets which are laid onto backing sheets of canvass or hessian (made from Jute) and passed through heated rollers called 'callendars' which melt the mix and press it into the cloth. The resulting sheets are then hung in tall heated buildings to dry out and harden. There are two types, plain and patterned, it was Walton himself who invented the patterning process (called straight line inlay) in about 1900. The industry was noted for its pungent smell.
Major centres of production in the UK were at Staines in Middlesex, Lancaster and Wigan (both in Lancashire), and east Scotland (notably the large works at Kirkaldy near Edinburgh).
Lino was (slightly) cheaper than carpet, it was hard wearing, reduced noise, did not produce dust and could be cleaned easily with a mop and bucket. It soon became the flooring of choice for offices and shops and acceptance for homes followed. It was largely displaced by cheaper vinyl floor coverings in the 1980's but in the mid 1990's the possibility of using cut lino to produce complex floor patterns and its inherent antiseptic qualities have seen a resurgence of interest in the material for the home.
Modelling a Lino Factory
There do not seem to have been any 'small' lino factories, so this is probably going to be placed against the backscene. The buildings seem to have been typical large industrial structures, reflecting the style of their times. The rolls of finished lino were wrapped in hessian with extra padding added at the ends
The railways actually built a small number of wagons to carry rolls of the stuff, these had raised curved ends to support the tarpaulin covering and prevent it crushing the ends of the rolls. The North British Railway operated some 6 wheeled wagons for this traffic, fitted with raised ends and a timber 'tarpaulin rail', and the GWR had some 9 foot wheelbase five plank 10 ton capacity open lino wagons with raised ends three planks tall, the upper corners of which were rounded.
Cork is a natural and renewable product produced by the Cork Oak tree (Quercus Suber). Because of its unique properties (elasticity, lightweight, impermeability, insulation and resistance to vibration) cork has many uses. The bark renews itself every few years (an odd trait for any tree), the first three 'peelings' cannot be used for wine corks and this materials is used for jobs such as sound-proofing wall tiles and cork flooring including lino production as well as (mixed with rubber) for gaskets and the like. The British imported cork from North Africa, Southern Spain, southern France and particularly Portugal (with whom Britain had a long trading history).
The major supplier of jute was the Ganges basin in India and it was imported through London, Liverpool and Dundee. Jute was also used for making paper, string, fishing nets, ropes and sail-cloth and these industries were all associated with the ports mentioned. Linseed was imported from India and crushed in the UK prior to the Second World War, by 1950 the main supplier was Argentina and the crushing was done there.
Linoleum Manufacturers
In the 1950s there were nine large firms producing linoleum in the UK:
Staines Linoleum Company by Frederick Walton in the 1850s and later renamed Linoleum Manufacturing Co. Ltd., at Staines in Middlesex. Staines Linoleum Company stayed in the town up until the 1970s when the popularity of vinyl floor covering in preference to Linoleum forced the company to move their production to Scotland.
Jas. Williamson & Son, Ltd., Lancaster. This company was founded in 1844 for the manufacture of table oilcloth made by hand-troweling a stiff mixture of linseed oil and china clay on to a sailcloth backing then running this through rollers. The company later applied similar methods to the manufacture of floorcloth. When Walton's patents expired, Williamson began to make linoleum, specialising at first in printed linoleum. This company went into decline in the 1950's and 60's, with the remains of the once great company being run under the names or ownership of Nairn Williamson Ltd, then Nairn Coated Products Ltd, followed by Forbo Kingfisher Ltd and finally Forbo Lancaster Ltd.
Thomas Witter & Co. Ltd., Appley Bridge, Nr. Wigan. Formed in
1898 for the manufacture of floorcloth and linoleum. In 1924 all the shares
were bought by nominees of Rylands & Sons Ltd. of Manchester. In 1932
an agreement was made between Rylands and the S.A. des Papeteries de
Genval, Belgium, manufacturers of felt base floor coverings, under which
each took an equal holding in Witter, and a paper mill and felt base factory
were opened in addition to the existing linoleum works. In 1953 Rylands
sold all but 5 per cent, of its interest to the Belgian concern, and the balance
to the British directors of Witter. Linoleum (which accounted for less than 10 per cent of the company's total output of floor coverings in the 1950s), was made at its factory at Appley Bridge. Felt base, in which the company is chiefly interested, was manufactured in factories at Heapey and Chorley. By 1950 Witter had two wholly owned subsidiaries, Walls & Floors Ltd., incorporated in 1934, and British Hydroflex Ltd., acquired from Rylands in 1935.
Barry, Ostlere & Shepherd, Ltd., Kirkcaldy, Fife. As I understand it this firm did not actually operate any factories in the UK (they did own and operate factories in other countries). William
Philip & Son (Kirkcaldy) Ltd. which makes machinery for linoleum and other purposes, was a wholly owned subsidiary and much of its business was with Barry and L.M. Co., but it undertakes general contract and jobbing work for other firms.
The Dundee Linoleum Co. Ltd., Dundee. incorporated in 1901 as the
Dundee Floorcloth & Linoleum Co. Ltd.; the name was changed in 1947. It owns one subsidiary, the Stirling Floorcloth Co. Ltd., which manufactures felt base.
Michael Nairn & Co. Ltd., Kirkcaldy, Fife. Established in the 1840s and still operating into the 1980s (possibly still working today). In 1920 Nairn also acquired a 50 per cent, holding in the Grangemouth Wood Flour Milling Company Ltd., a Scottish private company, whose production Nairn uses in its manufacturing process.
North British Linoleum Co. Ltd., Dundee. Registered in 1927 this firm ceased operating due to war constraints in 1941 and resumed work in 1947
The Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society Ltd., St. John's Works,
Falkland, Fife. SCWS began manufacturing floorcloth in 1919, a new section
equipped with modern machinery for making linoleum was opened in 1934.
The Tayside Floorcloth Co. Ltd., Newburgh, Fife, was founded in 1891
Other earlier firms include the Greenwich Inlaid Linoleum (Frederick Walton's New Patents) Co. Ltd. The Greenwich company ceased to manufacture and went into voluntary liquidation in 1934.
Miles Sykes & Son Ltd.Had two factories, one at Northallerton and another at Sowerby Bridge. In 1938 this firm went bankrupt and was bought out by Barry, Nairn and Williamson.
^
Go to top of page