An extract from Essential Publishing, Essential Guide for Carpets.
For the Carpet Connoisseur to increase their carpet-IQ
Carpet chronicles
Archaeologists found evidence of goats and sheep being sheared for wool and their hair then spun and woven around 6000BC.
Legend has it that Queen Cleopatra wrapped herself in a carpet to secretly gain access to Julius Caesar's bedroom and seduce the Roman leader.
Carpets used to be far too expensive to be trodden on. Originally, only the rich could afford them, and then only to hang on the walls or spread over the beds.
In 1655 the first carpet factory in the UK was built at Wilton.
In 1970, matching ceilings to carpets was all the rage.
Case for carpets
Against popular rumour, carpets don't harbour dust mites! They need a temperature of 25oC and a humidity of 80% to survive, and since the average UK carpet humidity is between 50-68%, it is unlikely that dust mites are able to thrive. Any allergens on carpet get trapped in the pile and await vacuuming, whilst allergens which fall on hard floors become airborne with activity in the room. Bedding is a far more appropriate place for dust mites to thrive.
In Sweden, the use of carpet was banned in public buildings and schools. Between 1975 and 1990 carpet sales fell from 40% to just 2% of the market, but in the same period asthma cases increased by 300%.
Conquering carpets
We know carpet's good, but fancy paying £1,596,500 for it! The most expensive carpet ever was a 16th century medallion carpet which sold at Christie's, London in 1999.
The earliest known fragment of carpet dates from 400BC and was discovered in a frozen tomb in Siberia.
Imagine vacuuming the world's largest carpet! Aaargh! There is 88,000ft2 (2 acres!) of maroon carpeting in the Coliseum exhibition hall, in New York.
The world's grandest carpet was made for the audience hall of the Sassanian palace in Iraq of silk and gold thread, encrusted with emeralds and measured around 650m2, but it met a dismembered end at the scissors of a Persian army in 635AD who thought it would serve better as booty!
Carpet tongue
'Sweep under the carpet', 'carpet bagger', 'carpet bombing' and 'on the carpet' are just some of the ways carpet has pervaded our phrasebooks.
In crime lingo, 'carpet' is a meeting of at least two Mafia families for the purposes of settling a dispute.
The phrase 'to give someone the red carpet treatment' arose because of a luxury train. The 20th Century Limited, which debuted in 1902 and ran from New York to Chicago, who rolled out a red carpet to welcome their guests.
The word carpet derives from the Latin 'carpere' meaning 'to pluck', as originally, a 'carpeta' was a course fabric made from rags pulled to pieces.