Interesting Links for 15-04-2013

[andrewducker]

• Jacquard Looms! I didn't know there were still working ones!
  (tags: history computers clothing )
• Towards psychohistory - the limits of harnessing data to predict the future of society.
  (tags: thefuture predictions society )
• Things I Won't Work With: Dioxygen Difluoride.
  (tags: chemistry dangerous )
• Be careful on your birthday
  (tags: birthday

Comments

[makyo]

Jacquard Looms! I didn't know there were still working ones!
They have one in the Industrial Museum at Wollaton Hall, Nottingham (which you might recognise as Wayne Manor in the most recent Batman film), but as far as I know it's not operational. On the other hand, they do have a working beam engine that a group of volunteers runs one Sunday afternoon a month.

[sigmonster]

A company in Chilwell, a few miles out of Nottingham, still runs 200-year-old stocking frames. (And much newer looms as well, of course, but they do still produce things on the hand frames.)

[makyo]

Interesting - thanks for this. I should have known that, actually - I grew up in Chilwell, a bit further along the High Road, and would have walked, cycled or bussed past G H Hurt a few times a week for several years. Alas, I wasn't always the most attentive of people at that age.

[sigmonster]

I grew up on Dovecote Lane in Beeston and in due course went to Chilwell Comp, but I didn't know of the company either until I bought a scarf in the lace museum a few years back!

[nancylebov]

Bizarrely, chasing the Paradise Mills links didn't give me a chance to see any Jacquard cloth. Don't people know what's important?

Google images to the rescue!

I've been expecting small-scale custom-woven cloth for a long time, but it hasn't happened. I don't know whether no one's thought of it or if there isn't enough of a market.