Before computers: chain-driven roll and scroll pattern attachments on broadloom tufting machines

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Research notes

Broadloom tufting machines made patterns by controlling how much yarn each needle got. Roll and scroll pattern attachments do this with sets of yarn-feed rolls; a scroll attachment sends yarns to the needles through a tube bank, and Tuftco's later patents say scroll attachments typically have 36–120 sets of rolls. Those same patents describe the earlier limit: the yarn-feed pattern devices were driven by chains or other mechanical linkage from the main drive shaft, so only two or three stitch heights, in fixed ratios to the shaft, could be used in a whole pattern. A Bandy Heritage Center photo record shows a Cobble Brothers 216-inch loop-pile machine with a scroll-type pattern attachment and an 18-inch pattern repeat (undated). A trade blog (Mannington Commercial) says pattern attachments were among the foremost tufting inventions of the 1950s, but gives no dates. The scroll and roll mechanism is the background to every later computer-controlled patterning system. Dates: the 1950s start is from the trade blog, and the mechanical-drive limit comes from Tuftco's 1996–97 patents looking back. No dated first scroll attachment was found. See also the Card pattern-control patents of 1955–58 (pat-us2862465a, pat-us2935037a). Sources: https://bandyheritagecenter.pastperfectonline.com/photo/8CAB4598-A255-467E-8C6F-442640452218 · https://patents.google.com/patent/US6244203 · https://blog.manningtoncommercial.com/what-is-carpet-tufting Research note (Oct 2026): from search results; pages not opened.