Carpet+Manufacturing+in+Philadelphia

Type in the content of your new page here. **__ Carpet Manufacturing in Philadelphia: __** I Introduction of Carpet in Philadelphia:
 * Name: PUNEET BAHL**
 * Subject: History 285**
 * Topic: Proposal (Carpet Manufacturing in Philadelphia)**

The carpet to us is understand by “block of thick woolen fabric which can be used for the covering the floors”. The development of Carpets in United States was a two phase process. The first phase was handlooms on which the carpets were manufactured. And then the phase came which completely revolutionized the carpet manufacturing was the introduction of power loom. It was the year 1791 when the carpets were first introduced to the U.S markets. It was the efforts of William Sprague, who started the first woven carpet mill in Philadelphia in Northern Liberty, which was producing the carpets on a large scale. This made Philadelphia a center of attraction for World trading of carpets. II Different Phases of Carpet Manufacturing:
 * 1) It was during late 1700 and early 1800, when Philadelphia saw one of the biggest changes in their Textile Industries. It was the introduction of Carpets to the market. This massive turn over in Textile industries was due to the immigration of British Cloth workers with their families to this area. They introduced and followed almost a similar way of weaving the carpet as they used to follow back in their country. As females were producing the wheel- spurn yarn and males used to weave on their own looms and used to work on the spinning mules. Getting these immigrants to work on hand looms proved to be very cheap for the industries during early 1800. By that time they were producing almost all the fringes and carpet’s in Philadelphia. During the phase of handlooms these industries were developing in contrast with the other cotton mills which provided them with the yarn for there industries. There were seventeen firms (in the city) which used to manufacture cotton. The urban mills were producing both yarn and cloth and there excess production were given to the weavers who owned there own looms.
 * 2) By 1820 there were only six textile mills in Chester County which were just manufacturing yarn. But on the other hand in urban Philadelphia there were just four spinning mills out of twenty nine total mills. This showed us that during that time there was more need of yarn in county as compared to city. But Almy and Brown from Rhode Island were producing enough yarn for their mills and were also exporting there extra yarns to the counties in Philadelphia. This trade of yarn helped the Philadelphia to improve there yarn production.
 * 3) There different kinds of carpets that were manufactured using the handloom technique. The pioneer in carpet industry William Sprague started manufacturing Axminster carpets. These carpets are made from wool and have bright colors. During that time the introduction of these carpets were not only unique in itself but also were so popular among the people due to their distinctive colors and design. One of the carpets shown below in figure 1 is a unique example of Axminster carpets. By looking at the picture below we can see that these carpets were handmade with stiff backing made from linen with soft wool.

Figure 1: Axminster carpet, late 18th or early 19th century. The Hali Archive D. After the introduction of Axminster carpets then came the Ingrain Carpets in early 1800’s. An Ingrain carpet is a flat, woven, reversible wool carpet made of yarn dyed before weaving. These carpets were more popular in the middle class families as these carpets were not that expensive. Figure 2: An Ingrain Carpet made by using hand loom technique E. After the introduction of Ingrain Carpets then came the new phase... Power Loom Phase. In the year 1841 the Carpet industry has gone through big change in the way of manufacturing the carpets. Now they started using machines to weave the carpets for them. There were several pioneers in the invention of power loom phase. Erastus B. Bigelow, a medical student from Boston who not only introduced power looming (for Ingrain Carpets) but with his innovating ideas and research he cut down the cost of manufacturing the carpets by a very huge margin (cost from $0.22 per yard to $0.03 per yard), which at that time was big achievement in itself. He not only reduced the cost of manufacturing but also increased the production from 8 yards a day to 27 yards a day. He is also a patent holder of power loom for weaving Jacquard Brussels, Wilton and tapestry carpets. His biggest achievement was still to come as he started his own company called Bigelow Carpet Company. F. Some of the other inventions that took during that time were the invention of Tapestry Brussels and velvet carpeting. The Tapestry Brussels and velvet carpeting were first introduced in U. S by a British name John Johnson of Halifax, England. With the help of technologies invented by Erastus B. Bigelow, John Johnson was able to increase the production from 5 yards per day to 60-60 yards per day which was later bought by Roxbury Carpet Industry. G. It was in 1856 when a mechanic name Haleyon Skinner (a worker from Alexander Smith), worked on to improve the Power loom technique of its own. It was in 1877 when Skinner invented his power loom and his work started to recognized and patent. Similar hard work was carried out by his son who led to a huge increase in the production. There total production came to 15,000,000 yards a year on 1000 power looms and with a total number of employees of around 5000. H. Another biggest achievement that completely over shadowed all other inventions was the process of printing Tapestry carpeting in the cloth, which was introduced by James Dunlap of Philadelphia. This invention was rated on top as compared to other inventions because of the coloring of the matter was completely done to the roots of the pile and were extended entirely through the fabric. So these were some of the inventions that were made in the field of Carpet industry in U.S. III Conclusion: Carpet Industry in United States of America has its roots originated in Philadelphia and still Philadelphia is considered the major city for the production of carpets in United States. The factories located in Philadelphia and its suburbs hold about 3/8 of the capital invested and producing about one half of the total output. There are roughly 4696 looms in operations out of which 3737 looms are located in Pennsylvania (Philadelphia and its suburbs). There are 537 tapestries (total number = 1831) in Philadelphia and its surrounding regions of Pennsylvania. With huge industries working in Philadelphia the production (number of yards of carpet) has increased with an enormous rate. The value of the carpet used in 1800 to 1905 was increased by a roughly 1040% and the material costing has been increased by roughly by 1164%. The total number of yards produced per year from 1800 to 1900 has been increased by roughly 760,917 yards per year. Carpet industry which started from small towns (homes) with just couple of employees making the production has now reached to level where big companies are making fortunes of money by not only making the carpets better but also introducing new designs. Today the carpet industry has made an achievement to that level where a common man can easily have its own desired carpets for his home or office. Carpet industry has not only made Philadelphia a city of inventions but also has created thousands of jobs for the people of Philadelphia. With a spam of 100 years carpet industry has made remarkable inventions in its field and has also made the city (City of Brotherly love.. Philadelphia) a place for tourists to come and see the great heritage of its country.

**__ Bibliography: __** 3. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-an-axminster-carpet.htm __ 4. [] ( for the figure of carpets) __ __ 5. http://www.familyheirloomweavers.com/ __
 * 1.http://books.google.com/books?id=9U0WAAAAYAAJ&pg=PT618&lpg=PT618&dq=history+of+carpet+manufacturing+in+philadelphia&source=web&ots=HjEvXLuZZd&sig=towyGedsDYmQPhnFLSrzGVhvi8k&hl=en&ei=GTGLSfPmLZ6DtweSyomTBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result#PPT618,M1. **
 * 2. http://books.google.com/books?id=ROf9Y41R1dQC&pg=PA146&dq=handloom+phase+in+philadelphia#PPA148,M1 **