The Pusher machine was a lace making machine, based on the bobbinet, that was invented in 1812 Samuel Clark and James Mart.
In 1812 Samuel Clark and James Mart(sic) constructed a machine that was capable of working a pattern and net at the same time. A pusher operated each bobbin and carriage independently, allowing almost unlimited designs and styles. The machine, however, was slow, delicate, costly and could produce only short "webs" of about two by four yards. [1] There is no record of the original specifications, but its origin is referenced in two patent applications made to improve it lodged in 1825, by Joseph Crowder of New Radford [2] and his associates Messrs Hall and Day. Variations on the basic machine were the Crowder and Day's improved pusher and Kendall and Morley's machine. [3]
The machine was modified by John Synyer in 1829. [4] to allow for bullet holes to be inserted in the plain twist net. A modification was made in 1831 to copy blondes, Marmaduke Miller adder a device to add loops and purls to the lace in 1827. Production had its heyday in the 1850s and ceased around 1870-1880. [5]
The warp beam was at the top, and the work roller at the bottom. There was a sley and a guide bar. The carriages with their bobbins (brass bobbins) slid on a concave comb (bolt). In the 1825 modification, the carriages were suspended from an upwardly arching comb. The carriages are propelled by individual pusher rods which strike the ears on the carriage. There was pusher bar (later there were four) but there is a fetcher bar (locker bar) which act in conjunctions with the pushers. [6] It was slow and in the early machine, 14 actions were required to form each course; in 1825 this had been reduced to ten. The bobbins were necessarily small and this restricted the length of a single piece to about 4 metres. [6] The actions were controlled by an organ barrel until the adoption of the Jacquard process in 1839. This was achieved by James Wright of Radford. [7]
The bobbinet was best producing straight net, but the Pusher was slow and could be used to imitate handlace of any complexity though could't put in liners leaving the impression of sharpness from the lace. When in William IV reign, tatting and putting on fancies became popular, the Pusher was in great demand. The pusher was particularly good at making large shawls or capes in the style of Chantilly lace. It could replicate the grille or half-stitch which defeated the Leavers machine. It could be hand lined using a Cornely machine.
Lace was dependent on fashion. In 1867 women stopped wearing shawls, and the Franco-Prussian War cut off the trade with France there was market for this lace. The redundant Pushers were scrapped. In 1920, a retailer was advertising 'Real Alençon' machine lace produced on a Pusher in Lyon, France, and in 1959 there were a 'narrow range of silk nets' being produced on Pushers in Lyon. [8]
Lace is a delicate fabric made of yarn or thread in an open weblike pattern, made by machine or by hand. Generally, lace is divided into two main categories, needlelace and bobbin lace, although there are other types of lace, such as knitted or crocheted lace. Other laces such as these are considered as a category of their specific craft. Knitted lace, therefore, is an example of knitting. This article considers both needle lace and bobbin lace.
Bobbin lace is a lace textile made by braiding and twisting lengths of thread, which are wound on bobbins to manage them. As the work progresses, the weaving is held in place with pins set in a lace pillow, the placement of the pins usually determined by a pattern or pricking pinned on the pillow.
Chantilly lace is a handmade bobbin lace named after the city of Chantilly, France, in a tradition dating from the 17th century. The famous silk laces were introduced in the 18th century. Chantilly lace, was also produced in the 19th century but this one was actually made not in Chantilly area but in the French Norman town Bayeux and in Geraardsbergen, now in Belgium.
Point de Gaze is a needle lace from Belgium named for the gauze-like appearance of the mesh ground. It was made from the early to mid 1800s to sometime bertween 1914 and the 1930s.
Textile Manufacturing or Textile Engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods such as clothing, household items, upholstery and various industrial products.
A stocking frame was a mechanical knitting machine used in the textiles industry. It was invented by William Lee of Calverton near Nottingham in 1589. Its use, known traditionally as framework knitting, was the first major stage in the mechanisation of the textile industry, and played an important part in the early history of the Industrial Revolution. It was adapted to knit cotton and to do ribbing, and by 1800 had been adapted as a lace making machine.
The spinning mule is a machine used to spin cotton and other fibres. They were used extensively from the late 18th to the early 20th century in the mills of Lancashire and elsewhere. Mules were worked in pairs by a minder, with the help of two boys: the little piecer and the big or side piecer. The carriage carried up to 1,320 spindles and could be 150 feet (46 m) long, and would move forward and back a distance of 5 feet (1.5 m) four times a minute. It was invented between 1775 and 1779 by Samuel Crompton. The self-acting (automatic) mule was patented by Richard Roberts in 1825. At its peak there were 50,000,000 mule spindles in Lancashire alone. Modern versions are still in niche production and are used to spin woollen yarns from noble fibres such as cashmere, ultra-fine merino and alpaca for the knitware market.
A knitting machine is a device used to create knitted fabrics in a semi or fully automated fashion. There are numerous types of knitting machines, ranging from simple spool or board templates with no moving parts to highly complex mechanisms controlled by electronics. All, however, produce various types of knitted fabrics, usually either flat or tubular, and of varying degrees of complexity. Pattern stitches can be selected by hand manipulation of the needles, push-buttons and dials, mechanical punch cards, or electronic pattern reading devices and computers.
Warp knitting is defined as a loop-forming process in which the yarn is fed into the knitting zone, parallel to the fabric selvage. It forms vertical loops in one course and then moves diagonally to knit the next course. Thus the yarns zigzag from side to side along the length of the fabric. Each stitch in a course is made by many different yarns. Each stitch in one wale is made by several different yarns.
Bobbinet tulle or genuine tulle is a specific type of tulle which has been made in the United Kingdom since the invention of the bobbinet machine. John Heathcoat coined the term "bobbin net", or bobbinet as it is spelled today, to distinguish this machine-made tulle from the handmade "pillow lace", produced using a lace pillow to create bobbin lace. Machines based on his original designs are still in operation today producing fabrics in Perry Street, Chard, Somerset, UK.
Brussels lace is a type of pillow lace that originated in and around Brussels. The term "Brussels lace" has been broadly used for any lace from Brussels; however, strictly interpreted, the term refers to bobbin lace, in which the pattern is made first, and the ground, or réseau added, also using bobbin lace. Brussels lace is not to be confused with Brussels point, which is a type of needle lace, though sometimes also called "Brussels lace".
Bradford Industrial Museum, established 1974 in Moorside Mills, Eccleshill, Bradford, United Kingdom, specializes in relics of local industry, especially printing and textile machinery, kept in working condition for regular demonstrations to the public. There is a Horse Emporium in the old canteen block plus a shop in the mill, and entry is free of charge.
Bedfordshire lace is a style of bobbin lace originating from Bedfordshire in the 19th century, and made in the English Midlands lacemaking area. It was worked as a continuous width on a bolster pillow. It is a guipure style of lace.
Lace machines took over the commercial manufacture of lace during the nineteenth century.
The Barmen lace machine makes perfect copies of torchon lace and the simpler hand-made bobbin lace. Its bobbins imitate the movements of the bobbins of the hand-made lace maker.
John Gravener Henson, was a workers' leader from Nottingham, England, and a historian of the framework knitters. E. P. Thompson saw him as one of three outstanding figures in the early English working-class movement.
The Leavers machine is a lacemaking machine that John Levers adapted from Heathcoat's Old Loughborough machine. It was made in Nottingham in 1813. The name of the machine was the Leavers machine. The original machine made net but it was discovered that the Jacquard apparatus could be adapted to it. From 1841 lace complete with pattern, net and outline could be made on the Leavers machine.
The lace curtain machine is a lace machine invented by John Livesey in Nottingham in 1846. It was an adaptation of John Heathcoat's bobbinet machine. It made the miles of curtaining which screened Victorian and later windows.
Ipswich lace is a historical fashion accessory, the only known American hand-made bobbin lace to be commercially produced. Centered in the coastal town of Ipswich, Massachusetts north of Boston, a community of lacemaking arose in the 18th century. Puritan settlers to the area likely made and wore lace as early as 1634, because Sumptuary laws from the early colonial records indicate this activity. Earliest known records of the commercial production indicate that lace produced by local women was used to barter for goods in the 1760s, as denoted by ledger account books belonging to local merchants. These laces were sold in the region from Boston to Maine.
Alfred Joseph Lowe J.P. was a horticulturalist, meteorologist and astronomer based in Nottingham.