Lancets – A Longstanding Device Now Perfected
Lancets, or gauges, are thin metal strips used on face-to-face carpet weaving looms to ensure constant pile height. Before they were introduced on face-to-face looms they had been used on loop-pile looms (Brussels carpets).
On loop-pile looms, pile loops are formed over a dummy weft resting on the lancet. Usually the dummy weft is removed afterwards.
This way of weaving loop pile was invented by Müllers & Spindler of Dülken, Germany in 1894. Instead of a lancet, a binding warp thread was used to support the dummy wefts.
Already in 1904 the use of metal lancets is described in the patent of Wilhelm Förster from Chemnitz, Germany.
Before steel that could be rolled into thin metal strips was invented early in the twentieth century, thin metal (piano) wire was used. Oth