Holdsworth Family History

Holdsworth's Cyclopaedia & Glossary: Events, People, Terms

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D

The Pile yarn, is used to form the tufts in a carpet or Moquette. When woven using the Wilton weaving principle any yarn which is not lifted in the design by the Jacquard is called Dead Yarn, because it lies buried in the back of the fabric, thus hidden from view. It can also be called "Running Dead".

A system for measuring the weight per unit length of a yarn or filament. See Tex Count

A system for measuring the weight per unit length of a yarn or filament. It is the mass in grammes of 9000 metres. It is mostly used for very fine filaments. See Count

The unit of a Reed comprising a reed wire and a space between adjacent wires. Analogous to a tooth in a comb.

Design Team, 1950 Design Team c.a. 1950
Jack, Albert and Evelyn

The Design Department, previously known as the drawing office, was located on the top floor of the main office building at Shaw Lodge Mills. In June 1992 it relocated into rooms which had previously been let out, and a year later expanded into newly refurbished accommodation.
Computer Assisted Designing was installed in the late 1980s. This was replaced in 1995 with more advanced CAD/CAM and Simulation system from Nedgraphics.

Head designers include Edmund (Eddie) Chapman, Isaac Jennings, Jack Thompson, Rodney Hirst and David Hallgarth.
Other design staff included Alan Titterington (from 1958-1962), Albert Wood, Evelyn Wood, Norman Tidswell, Keith Wells, Susan Jowett (nee Wilson), Amanda Settle, Jeremy Lovelady, Fiona McBean, Samantha Beeley (neé Oldroyd), Colin Bickerdyke, Sophie Carter, and Janina Crook.
Alan Titterington and Rodney Hirst each attended Heath School in Halifax, then they both attended Bradford College of Art, at the same time as David Hockney.

In addition to the work carried out by the company's own team of designers, design consultants and external designers were sometimes commissioned, or offered their services to support Holdsworth's in their business, including Christopher Dresser one of the most influential British designers. Dresser (1834-1904) is widely known as Britain's first professional and independent industrial designer.

The temperature at which condensation takes place, i.e. wet bulb and dry bulb temperatures are equal, and Relative Humidity is 100%.

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External Link to Dictionaries of Textile Terms and Definintions.
Click on the link to open a series of useful links in a new window.
Note that there are sites which offer translations of textile terms included.

Exploiting the characteristics of similar or modified fibres to take-up dyes differently from one another. This is particularly useful in piece-dyed fabrics, where stock is held of patterned fabric in the undyed or Gray, Grey, Greige state, and then coloured up to customers' requirements on demand.

The resistance of a fabric to changes in dimensions under different conditions, (stretch, shrink, Shear) and its ability to recover its original dimensions afterwards.

A mechanism attached to a loom for controlling the movement of the heald shafts. A dobby is required when the number of heald shafts or the length of the repeat are beyond the capacity of tappet shedding (cam-box shedding). Traditionally these were controlled by chains which linked lags, each Lag controlling the position of each of the heald shafts for one or two picks. Just as with Jacquards, modern dobbies have electronic controls and are programmable by computer, often integrating with the CAD/CAM System.

A Dobby Loom, or Shaft Loom is one which uses only a Dobby to make the pattern, i.e. without a Jacquard.

A Dobby Fabric, or Shaft Fabric is one which uses only a Dobby to make the pattern, i.e. without a Jacquard.

A straight blade, usually metal, used to remove excess material from a moving surface, such as in back-coating.

A Doffer is a person who or device which removes the completed yarn packages from a yarn manufacturing machine.

Doffing is the removal of completed yarn packages from a yarn manufacturing machine, whether manual or automatic.

See Face-to-Face Loom.

Downey, Thomas P

Thomas Downey local solicitor with Eaton Smith and Downey of Huddersfield.

Became a director of John Holdsworth & Company on 1 April 1949.
In 1972 he retired from the board in October at the age of 80 after 15 years as chairman.

1. The amount of drawing-out in any of the spinning processes. (Increasing the draft will produce a thinner product.)
2. The plan of how the threads are drawn through the Heald shafts and Jacquard during Looming-up.

Dresser, Christopher

Christopher Dresser designed some fabrics for John Holdsworth & Company from his studio in London.
He was the son of a tax collector, born in Glasgow in 1834, the same year as William Morris.
He attended the Government School of Design at the exceptionally early age of thirteen where he studied both design and botany, following a system of art education set up to train designers for industry.

Dresser was seventeen at the time of The Great Exhibition. He visited and was particularly impressed by the Indian exhibits which were a great contrast to the moribund pastiches displayed by British and European Industry. The exhibition was a resounding financial success and reflected the technological confidence of the age.

Dresser originally specialised in botany, receiving a doctorate from the University of Jena, but in 1860 decided to concentrate on his design career and set up his studio. His mentors, Pugin, Cole and Owen Jones forged a modern style, their particular concern being fitness for purpose. Dresser himself was to invent a language of design inspired by his study of botany and cultures beyond the confines of the West, exploiting the modern industrial production methods and materials. He became one of the most successful designers of his time, his studio designing for more than 50 manufacturers including Wedgwood, Minton and Coalbrookdale. From the mid 1870s onwards, most of his designs bore his signature, establishing his name as a brand and assuring consumers they were buying 'good taste'.

Towards the end of his career Dresser opened his store The Art Furnishers Alliance. Everything needed for the home was for sale, and approved by Dresser, but unfortunately this was a financial failure and soon closed. Dresser never regained his former celebrity but he continued his design practice for another 20 years. He died in 1904 in Mulhouse, France, while visiting a client.

The operation of assembling yarns on a Beam prior to Weaving. See Warp.

Drop Wires (or Droppers) are small metal strips which are used to detect an end break during weaving. They are placed over individual threads in a sheet of yarn, onto Dropper Rails. If the thread breaks, or tension is too low, the dropper makes an alectrical contact which stops the loom.

The temperature as shown by a thermometer in equilibrium with its surroundings. See Dew Point.

The process of removing grease, oil and dirt from fabrics with an organic solvent. Originally known as French Cleaning.

Dryclough Dryclough Junction from Haig Lane
Halifax, Summer 1964

See Holdsworth Bridge and Dryclough Junction

Dye is the substance used to Colour materials.
Dyeing is the process of imparting colours to a textile material in loose fibre, yarn, cloth or garment form by treatment with a dye.
In order to remove natural or unwanted colour from material, the opposite process of bleaching is carried out. If things go wrong in the dyeing process the dyer may be forced to remove the dye already applied by a process that normally known as stripping; the safest option where possible is to dye the material to a darker shade.

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