CARPET

A carpet is any loom-woven, felted textile or grass floor covering.
The term was also used for table and wall coverings, as carpets were not
commonly used on the floor in European interiors until the 18th century. The
hand-knotted pile carpet probably originated in
Central
Asia between the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC. Carpet-making was introduced to
Spain in 10th century by the Moors. The Crusades brought

Turkish carpets to all of Europe, where they were primarily hung on walls or
used on tables. Only with the opening of trade routes in the 17th century were
significant numbers of
Persian
rugs introduced to Western Europe.

Some use the words carpet and rug interchangeably. Historically,
however, some have distinguished between carpet and rug based on size (the
former being larger) or use (carpets on floors, rugs on beds or on the hearth).
For the sake of clarity, some textile scholars also differentiate between
carpets and carpeting. In this usage, the latter are wall-to-wall and are
often woven or tufted as "roll goods", most often in 12 foot widths but
sometimes in up to 15 foot widths. In the real estate and home improvement
industries a distinction is made between carpet (or carpeting) and rug. The
former indicates a covering that is affixed to a floor and the latter a floor
covering that is loose-laid, most often for decorative purposes.

Typical machine used to cut and re-roll carpet lengths for installation
delive

Carpet types

Swatches of machine-made carpet

The global carpet market for domestic and industrial end use is dominated by
three manufacturing processes:

Woven: The carpet is produced on a loom similar to woven cloth and is
a cut pile. Normally many coloured yarns are used and this process is capable of
producing intricate patterns from pre-determined designs. These carpets are
normally the most expensive.

Tufted: The carpet is produced on a tufting machine using a
single-colored or sometimes non-colored yarn. If non-colored yarn is used the
carpet will later be dyed or printed with a design. Tufted carpets can be either
cut pile, loop pile or a combination of both. Tufting machines produce many more
metres of carpet per hour than weaving does, and tufted carpets are usually low-
to medium-priced.

Modern tufting technology allows basic geometric patterns to be produced in
addition to solid color. The fibers used to create the patterns are twisted into
yarns and then "tufted" into carpet. Because tufting machines work like enormous
sewing machines with multiple needles, tufted carpet can be produced quickly.
For this reason, most of the carpet manufactured today is tufted rather than
woven.

A ColorTEC carpet is manufactured on a tufting machine but is capable
of producing a design that is close to that of a woven carpet. ColorTec
carpet can have a design up to 20 yards (18m) in length and allows the whole
floorscape to be produced rather than small patterns being repeated.

Needlefelt: These carpets are more technologically advanced.
Needlefelts are produced by electrostatic attraction of individual synthetic
fibers forming an extremely durable carpet. These carpets are normally found in
the contract market such as hotels etc. where there is a lot of traffic.

A flatweave carpet is created by interlocking

warp (vertical) and
weft (horizontal) threads. Types of oriental flatwoven carpet include
kilim,

soumak,
plain
weave, and

tapestry weave. Types of European flatwoven carpets include Venetian, Dutch,
damask, list,
haircloth,
and

ingrain (aka double cloth, two-ply, triple cloth, or three-ply).

A hooked rug is a simple type of rug handmade by pulling strips of
cloth such as wool or cotton through the meshes of a sturdy fabric such as
burlap. This type of rug is now generally made as a
handicraft.

On a knotted pile carpet (formally, a supplementary weft cut-loop
pile carpet), the structural weft threads alternate with a supplementary
weft that rises at right angles to the surface of the weave. This supplementary
weft is attached to the warp by one of three knot types (see below) to form the
pile or nap of the carpet.

In the late 19th century moquette came to mean

wall-to-wall carpeting. However, historically it meant a supplementary
warp-cut or uncut loop pile made on a

draw loom (aka Velour d'Utrecht, Brussels, Wilton,
bouclé, and Frisé). These textiles have a low pile and are thinner
than hand knotted pile carpets. This form of carpeting, made as early as the
16th century, is constructed on a mechanized loom like
velvet: the
supplementary warps loop under the weft and are attached without forming a knot.
Because of the loom structure only five colors can be used to create the design.
Moquette is woven in relatively narrow panels (usually 27" or 36"). Larger works
are composed of several stripes sewn together. Moquette carpets have been used
on floors and tables, and as furniture upholstery and wall coverings. Production
was improved with the application of the Jacquard mechanism (see

Jacquard loom) in 1812 in France and c. 1825 in England, and by the
introduction of steam power in the mid-19th century.

Swatches of Berber carpet

Unlike woven carpets,
embroidery
carpets are not formed on a loom. Their pattern is established by the
application of
stitches to a
cloth (often
linen) base. The tent stitch and the cross stitch are two of the most
common. Embroidered carpets were traditionally made by royal and aristocratic
women in the home, but there has been some commercial manufacture since steel
needles were introduced (earlier needles were made of bone) and linen weaving
improved in the 16th century.
Mary
Stewart Queen of Scots is known to have been an avid embroiderer. 16th
century designs usually involve scrolling vines and regional flowers (for
example, the

Bradford carpet). They often incorporate animal heraldry and the
coat of
arms of the maker. Production continued through the 19th century.

Victorian embroidered carpet compositions include highly illusionistic,
3-dimensional flowers. Patterns for tiled carpets made of a number of squares,
called

Berlin wool work, were introduced in Germany in 1804, and became extremely
popular in England in the 1830s.

Production of knotted pile carpet

Both flat and pile carpets are woven on a
loom. Both vertical
and horizontal looms have been used in the production of European and Oriental
carpets.

The warp threads
are set up on the frame of the loom before weaving begins. A number of weavers
may work together on the same carpet. A row of knots is completed and cut. The
knots are secured with (usually 1 to 4) rows of
weft.

There are several styles of knotting, but the two main types of knot are the
symmetrical (also called Turkish or Ghiordes) and asymmetrical
(also called Persian or Senna).

Flag of Turkmenistan

Contemporary centers of oriental carpet production are:
Iran,
Pakistan,
India,
Turkey,

Northern Africa, the
Caucasus,
Nepal,
Spain,

Turkmenistan, and
Tibet.

The importance of carpets in the culture of Turkmenistan is such that

the national flag features a vertical red stripe near the hoist side,
containing five carpet guls (designs used in producing rugs).

Child labour has often been used in Asia. The
Rugmark
labelling scheme used throughout
Europe and
North
America assures that child labour has not been used: importers pay for the
labels, and the revenue collected is used to monitor centres of production and
educate previously exploited children.