Carpet Technology

Carpet Technology. . , Most people identify Dalton, Georgia, an the Carpet Capital of the World. However many are not aware of the inventions, inventors, designers, and machinists who built the mechanical backbone for today's carpet industry, obtaining hundreds of patents from 1950 to the present., As the bedspread industry evolved into the tutted carpet industry, individual mechanics and companies like Cabin Craft and Manly Jail Works made amazing machinery breakthroughs. Cabin Craft valued research and development and sought to be a technological trend setter. Patents assigned to Cabin Crafts were: a mending machine for tufted rugs patented by Clifford Bryant, Robert Hackney, and Roger McNamara in 1958; a carpet-wear test machine invented by James Fesperman and Robert Hackney which gauged the durability of carpet by simulating a person walking; Clifford Bryant and Otis Payne's patent automated the process for cutting exclusive designs into piled fabrics (carpet); and a patented machine which produced cut and uncut pile fabric in the same pass., Dalton area machinists increasingly shifted to fabricating for the carpet manufacturers and suppliers to the industry. In the 1940s, Manly Jail Works (Manly Steel) started manufacturing cow horn creels, roll-up machines, buggies, racks, ovens, and inspection frames. Judson Manly Jr. even patented a yarn-processing machine and a swinging creel assembly for ring twisters., James Feighery and Ollie Caylor patented a top feed mechanism for sewing machines for feeding more densely-gauged textile goods past the needle. Feighery also patented a carpet sewing machine, a carpet roll-up mechanism, and a carpet roll-forming apparatus and method. Aud Franks' patent was a pattern control for tufting machines, automating the control of the tufting needles. Frank and Harold Hawkins's mechanism allowed for changing tuft height within a given row., Dyeing technological innovations expanded color possibilities. Gerard O'Mahony and James G.T. Paterson hold patents for dyeing multicolored yarns in vats. Jon M. Bluemnaus created a method for print-dyeing (assigned in 1970 to World Carpet). West Point Pepperell had several dyeing-related patents for continuous carpet dyeing and multi-dye processes., Patents related to carpet backing and other specialty areas included Caswell Huff's patent for coating a textile substrate with latex, making carpets more durable. Henry G. Patterson created a stable, synthetic backing. Other specialty patents included those by Jack Zbar, Douglas McElhinney, Henry G. Patterson, Stanley A. Shemchek, Robert G. Doone, and Henry B. Christopher, Charles I. Howell, and James K. Jennnings, Terry L. Lamb, and Phillip L. Wing., Francis C. Callahan's padding material process provided substrates to increase the comfort and durability of carpet. One of many patents for synthetic turf, Mack. W. Moore Jr.'s artificial grass surface and lower cost method of installation was patented in 1981., During the 1990s, a greater emphasis was placed on environmental sustainability by the carpet industry as they also worked to diminish energy usage. One of the early patents was a process to recover a high value polymer from carpet salvage waste by Mike Babb, then serving as Chairman of the Whitfield County Board of Commissioners. In 2002, Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE), developed a goal of recycling used carpet for composite lumber, roofing shingles, automotive parts, carpet cushion, and as an energy source. Manufacturers are working toward zero waste to landfill manufacturing., With the new millennium came new ventures into manufacturing floor covering options other than carpet, including hardwood flooring, luxury vinyl tile, laminate, and vinyl flooring. These additional offerings beautifully meet the demands of the ever-changing floor covering consumer market., Photographs courtesy of Whitfield-Murray Historical Society, Bandy Heritage Center, Carpet and Rug Institute and Georgia Archives