Brussels carpet: looped wool pile raised over steel wires on the loom

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Research notes

Britannica: a machine-made carpet with uncut loops, 'thought to have originated in or near Brussels', fashionable in the first half of the 19th century. The 1842 Encyclopaedia Britannica: Brussels and Wilton are woven 'in looms of the same construction' and named after the places where they were invented; long steel wires are inserted between linen and worsted warps, looping up the worsted pile. The NPS adds that Brussels was woven in strips on a 27-inch loom. Why it matters: this is the step from knotting pile by hand to forming pile mechanically on a loom, the technique that power-loom Brussels and Wilton later scaled up and that tufting eventually replaced. Gap: no source found ties the technique to Tournai specifically, except the Kidderminster legend that John Broom fetched it from 'Brussels, Tournai, or Wilton'. Dictionary.com dates the term 'Brussels carpet' to 1790–1800. Sources: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Brussels-carpet · https://jimclifford.ca/early_encyclopedia_britannica/articles/1842/eb_7th_1842_004597.html · https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/inde/anderson/chap2.htm Research note (Oct 2026): from search results; pages not opened.