In spite of the expense and loss of production involved, the device proved on the whole a real boon both to the maker and consumer of carpets, and was sooner or later adopted by practically all manufacturers employing 3-4 wide looms. It placed those who utilised it in a better position to compete with Eastern carpets, and it has thereby contributed in no small degree to the artistic development of the carpet trade. Indeed, it may almost be said to have saved the life of the narrow loom, in view of the remarkable evolution and consequent competition of the wide loom, to which further reference will be made later.
In recent years it has been turned to a notable development in the art of carpet making; the production of medallion breadth squares. This involves the exercise of the greatest ingenuity and skill on the part of the designer, heavy expense in respect of card-cutting, and the greatest care in weaving and finishing. When completed, a medallion square is a triumph of technique. The number of sizes available is obviously limited; but a carpet of each size is absolutely perfect in design, matching everywhere, as well as if made laboriously by hand, instead of being the product of machinery and brains.
Coming back once more to the final stages of finishing, though the roll of carpeting, body, border, or stair, is complete and ready for the market when it is rolled and papered, this is not the case with the breadth square, which has so far been treated in the same way. The square, or series of squares, which are still in a continuous roll, are cut up into their proper lengths, matched, and sorted. They are then passed to the sewing room, to be made up into complete carpets. Hand sewing has been superseded in most factories by mechanical sewing, by hand or electric power, for which Messrs. Singer supply a very efficient machine. In the larger power machine made by this house, the breadths to be sewn together are clipped face to face with flush edges, and stretched in the frame of the machine in such a way that the moving part of the mechanism runs along over the two edges and sews them together. The ends of the carpet, top and bottom, are then turned over and hemmed by hand or machine. The carpet is then fastened to the floor, face downwards, and the seams are damped and then pressed with a heavy heated iron. If these operations have been properly performed, and if the edges of the breadths are good, the seams of the carpet will be barely visible. The carpet is then finished, though some manufacturers prefer to stretch their carpets by attaching them tightly to a frame, and leaving them for some hours.