Bobbinet

a kind of machine-made netting, woven with six-cornered meshes. In making bobbinet the warp threads, 700 to 1,200 to a yard, are stretched from a roller. The weft threads are wound upon bobbins, as many as 1,200 being used sometimes. One set of these bobbins moves diagonally from right to left. Another set moves diagonally from left to right. Each diagonal thread makes a turn, about each warp thread, forming thus the six-cornered meshes. The best machines can produce 30,000 meshes a minute. The manufacture of bobbinet was the first step in the making of machine laces. Up to the early part of the nineteenth century all lace was produced by hand work. One variety called Brussels lace showed open spaces in which the threads were twisted and knotted into a regular mesh. In attempting to imitate this lace an effort was made first to produce this open mesh as a ground for the pattern. The first successful machine was invented in 1809 by an Englishman, John Heathcoat. It was suggested to him by machinery employed in making fish nets. Bobbinet takes its name from the bobbins on which the oblique threads are wound in the manufacture. See Lace; Netting