BILTMORE INDUSTRIES
WOOL CLOTH PRODUCTION
  
As described by Richard Parham and Harold Capps

The process for turning raw sheep wool into the World's Finest Woolen Cloth

Most of the wool was ordered and imported from New Zealand or Australia.  It arrived at the seaports and was brought by train to Asheville and by truck to Biltmore Industries.  

The wool was placed into the Wool Room and planned production was weighed and handled from there.  

The first step was to run the wool through a machine called the Picker.

This machine cleaned the wool of foreign material such as burrs, dung, mud and whatever was normal for the sheep to have embedded in its coat. 

The Duster was used next to further clean the wool of dust and pollens. 

The proper planned dyes were mixed in the Cypress Dye Vats and the loose wool was colored with constant stirring for uniformity. 

The wool was then sent through the Shredder  which separated and straightened the fibers. 

The Mixer and Oiling Machine was used to mix the wool fibers into uniform color and oil it for the carding process. 

At the Carding Machine, the wool was double-carded.  The first time it was re-mixed after carding to affirm the color would be true.  After the second carding, the wool was ready to spin.  At the Scale Stands, the carded material was constantly weighed in grams to make sure the threads would be uniform. 

The rolls of carded wool were then taken to the Mule-Spinner  to be spun into threads and wound on bobbins.  When the bobbins were full, they were spot-checked on the Thread Length Counter. 

The bobbins were used for making Warp and Weft for weaving.  1068 bobbins were placed on a rack and hand threaded through eyelets to make warp.  These threads were rolled neatly by the Warp-Rollers. Usually 104 yards of thread were rolled onto the warp.  The other bobbins from this batch of  wool, were used as weft by the weaver. 

The warp was now ready to place on the looms and hand-threaded in preparation for the weaving.  This was a tedious chore.  Each thread had to be placed in the correct position for the loom to operate efficiently.  

After the cloth was woven, then came inspection and repair.  Each inch of cloth was inspected for flaws and broken threads.  When found, these were repaired by hand. 

Being found satisfactory, the cloth was washed for hours in liquid soap and hot water to pre-shrink and soften.  The water temperature had to be controlled exactly for proper results. 

After washing and being placed in the Extractor to remove excess moisture, the cloth was hung outside on tenter hook fences to air dry. 

When dry, the cloth was trimmed on the Decating or Shearing Machine. 

Another machine removed nap and lint from the cloth. 

The cloth was then steam-pressed and folded or rolled into the finished product.  Ready to be sold or used ………