Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/373

Rh NET 359 rope ; the foot is the opposite or lower margin, which carries the foot-rope, on which in many cases leaden plummets are made fast. The meshes are the squares composing the net. The width of a net is expressed by the term &quot; over&quot;; e.g., a day-net is three fathoms long and one over or wide. The lever is the first row of a net. There are also accrues, false meshes, or quarterings, which are loops inserted in any given row, by which the number of meshes is increased. To bread or breathe a net is to make a net. Dead netting is a piece without either accrues or stole (stolen) meshes, which last means that a mesh is taken away by netting into two meshes of the preceding row at once. Hand-Netting. Net-making as a handicraft is a simple and easily acquired art ; the labour is not hard ; and the implements and materials are easily obtained and inexpen- A sive, while a little practice in meshing is sufficient to develop wonderful dexterity of movement. The tools used in netting are the needle, an instrument for holding and netting the material ; it is made with an eye E, a tongue T, and a fork F (fig. 1). The twine is wound on it by being passed alternately between the fork and round the tongue, so that the turns of the string lie parallel to the length of the needle, and are kept on by the tongue and fork. A spool or mesh-pin is a piece of wood on which the loops are formed (round, as in fig. 2, or flat, as in fig. 3), the circumference or the spool determin ing the size of the loops. Each loop con tains two sides of the square mesh ; there fore, supposing that it be required to. .. make a mesh 1 inch square, that is, measuring 1 inch from knot to knot, a spool 2 cumference must be used, the twine two or more inches in cir- Large meshes may be formed by giving b turns round the spool, as occasionmayrequire; or the spool may be made flat, and of a sufficient width, having a portion cut away to admit the finger and thumb to grasp it con veniently (fig. 3). The method of making the hand-knot in nets known /-r as the fisher- ( I h man sknotis ^ more easily acquired by example than described in writing. Fig. 4 shows the course of the twine in forming a single knot. From the last-formed knot the twine passes over the front of the mesh-pin h, and is caught behind by the little finger of the left hand, forming the loop s, thence it passes to the front and is caught at d by the left thumb, then through the loops s and TO as indicated, after which the twine is released by the thumb and the knot is drawn taut &quot; or tight. Fig. 5 shows the form of the fisherman s knot, and fig. 6 is a bend knot used for uniting two ends of twine. Machine- Netting. So long ago as 1778 a netting-machine was patented by William Horton, William Ross, Thomas Davies, and John Golby. From that time till the end of the 18th century several other patents for similar machines were secured in Great Britain, but there is no evidence that any of them was practically successful. In 1802 the French Govern ment, through the Societe d Encouragement pour 1 In- dustrie Rationale, offered a reward of 10,000 francs ** 5 - to the person who should invent an automatic machine for net making. The reward attracted the attention of Jacquard, who submitted a model of a machine which was brought under the Fig. 4. notice of Xapoleon I. and Carnot. Jacquard was summoned to Paris by the emperor, who, with forcible if profane point, asked of the inventor &quot;Are you the man who pretends to do what God Almighty cannot tie a knot in a stretched string ? &quot; Jacquard s model, which is incomplete, was deposited in the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers ; it was awarded a prize, and he himself received an appointment in the Conservatoire, where he was not long in perfecting his famous Jacquard attachment to the common loom. In 1806 M. Buron of Bourgtheroulde (Eure) submitted to the Societe d Encouragement a model of a netting-machine for which he was awarded a gold medal. His model is also deposited in the Conser vatoire. Meantime attention continued to be given to the problem in the United Kingdom, and the first to succeed practically in inventing an efficient machine and in establishing the industry of machine net-making was Mr James Paterson of Musselburgh. Paterson, originally a cooper, served in the army through the Peninsular war, and was discharged after the battle of Waterloo. From his early days he had devoted his mind to the invention of a net-making machine, and on his retirement from the army he set himself to carry out his purpose. After much labour he succeeded, and established a machine net factory in Musselburgh about 1820. The early form of machine was, however, imperfect, the knots it formed slipped readily, and, there being much prejudice against machine nets, the demand for his manufactures was small. Mr Walter Putchie, a native of Musselburgh, devised a method for forming the ordinary hand-knot on the machine nets, and the machine, so improved, and patented in July 1835, became the foundation of an extensive and flourishing industry. Paterson s factory about 1849 passed into the hands of Messrs J. & W. Stuart, by whom the machine and processes have been still further developed and perfected. The mechanism of the Paterson net-loom or machine is complex, and not to be understood without elaborate diagrams or actual inspection. It consists of an arrangement of hooks, needles, ami sinkers, one of each being required for every mesh in the breadth being made. The needles hold the meshes, while the hooks seize the lower part of each and twist it into a loop. Through the series of loops so formed a steel wire is shot, carrying with it twine for the next range of loops. This twine the sinkers successively catch and depress sufficiently to form the two sides and loop of the next mesh to be formed. The knot formed by threading the loops is now tightened up, the last formed mesh is freed from the sinkers and transferred to the hooks, and the process of looping, threading, and knotting thus continues. Another form of efficient net-loom, working on a principle dis tinct from that of Paterson, was invented and patented in France by M. Onesiphore Pecqueur in 1840, and again in France and in the United Kingdom in 1849. The machine of Pec queur was improved on by many subsequent inventors ; and especially the additions made by MM. Baudouin and Jouannin, patented in the United Kingdom in 1861, greatly perfected its principle. In this machine separate threads or cords running longi tudinally for each division of the mesh are employed, as will be seen from fig. 7, which represents a section of the net with the knots loose to show their structure. It will also be observed that the alternate Fig. 7. threads a and b are differently disposed the a series being drawn into simple loops over and through which the threads of the b series have to pass. On the machine the a series of threads are arranged vertically, while the b series are placed horizontally in thin lenticular spools. Over the horizontal b series is a range of hooks equal in number with the threads, and set so that they seize the b threads, raise them, and give them a double twist, thus forming a row of open loops. The loops are then depressed, and, seizing the vertical a threads, draw them crotchet-like through the b loops into loops sufficiently long and open to pass right over the spools containing the b threads (fig. 8), after which it only remains to tighten the threads and the mesh is complete. The machines work well with steam-power; and each requires only one female attendant. Bobbin Net, which is the foundation of machine-made lace, is made by the intertwisting not knotting of contiguous threads (see LACE, vol. xiv. p. 185). D 5