Development of machine-made rugs

Side by side with hand-knotted and embroidered rugs, there was growing in England and Scotland the beginnings of the modern carpet industry.

In 1701, William III granted a charter to a factory at Wilton to make woolens. It is not known that floorcoverings were made there before 1740, when the manufacture of Brussels carpet was begun.

This fabric was first made in Belgium, and apparently the secret of its construction was closely guarded.

There is an old legend that the first weaver to produce it in England, Antoine Dufossy, had to be smuggled into the country in a sugar cask.

He almost suffocated and for days he couldn't use his arms and legs.