Lace machine

Lace machines took over the commercial manual production of lace.

At first part laces like Honiton and Brussels profited to a certain degree from mechanisations, as one could collect affordable motives to mount on machine made net after a while. Also new types emerged based on net, such as Carrickmacross and Tambour lace. Until by 1870 virtually every type of hand-made lace had its machine-made copy. It became increasingly difficult for lacemakers to make a living from their work. In England most of the handmade lace industry had disappeared by 1900. Until the late 1960s few were interested in tracing and curating old laces and few courses where available to keep the technique alive.

Time line

• 1768 – Josiah Crane invents the hand-operated warp knitting machine.
• 1791 – The Englishman Dawson solves the mechanization of the warp knitting machine.
• 1801 – Joseph Marie Jacquard invents the Jacquard punched card loom.
• 1808 – John Heathcoat patented the bobbin net machine
• 1835 – general application of pierced bars and the Jacquard apparatus
• 1846 – John Livesey adapts John Heathcoat's bobbinet machine into the curtain machine
• 1855 – Redgate combines a circular loom with a warp knitting machine
• 1859 – Wilhelm Barfuss improves on Redgates machine, called Raschel machines (named after the French actress Élisabeth Félice Rachel).
• 1890s – Development of the Barmen machine

See also: Timeline of clothing and textiles technology

Major types of machine lace

Bobbinet

Main article: Bobbinet

The bobbinet machine, invented by John Heathcoat in Loughborough, Leicestershire, in 1808, makes a perfect copy of Lille or East Midlands net (fond simple, a six-sided net with four sides twisted, two crossed). The machine uses flat round bobbins in carriages to pass through and round vertical threads.

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Leavers lace machines

Leavers

John Levers adapted Heathcoat's machine in Nottingham in 1813. The name of the machine was the Leavers machine (the 'a' was added to aid pronunciation in France). The original machine made net but it was discovered that the Jacquard apparatus (invented in France for weaving looms by J M Jacquard in about 1800) could be adapted to it. From 1841 lace complete with pattern, net and outline could be made on the Leavers machine. The Leavers machine is probably the most versatile of all machines for making patterned lace.

Curtain Machine

The lace curtain machine, invented by John Livesey in Nottingham in 1846 was another adaptation of John Heathcoat's bobbinet machine. It made the miles of curtaining which screened Victorian and later windows.

Barmen

Main article: Barmen lace machine

The Barmen machine was developed in the 1890s in Germany from a braiding machine. Its bobbins imitate the movements of the bobbins of the hand-made lace maker and it makes perfect copies of Torchon and the simpler hand-made laces. It can only make one width at a time, and has a maximum width of about 120 threads.

Pusher

In 1812 Samual Clark and James Mart 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. The machine was modified by J. Synyer in 1829 and by others before. Production had its heydays in the 1860s and ceased around 1870-1880.