- Related Topics:
- gill net
- plankton net
- trap net
- bag net
- lift net
net
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What is a mesh or net?
A net or mesh is an open fabric made of threads, cords, yarns, or ropes that intersect to form a geometric mesh or open space. The intersections are knotted or looped. Net fabrics can be produced through netting, weaving, knitting, or crocheting and can be machine-made.
Nets are used in apparel, home furnishings, industry, sports, and horticulture, but are primarily used for fishing. There are different kinds of nets for fishing, including drift nets, surrounding nets, and trap nets. Synonyms for nets include nettings, meshes, and networks.
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How are meshes or nets made?
Net and mesh fabrics are constructed by interlacing cords, threads, yarns, or ropes, creating geometrically shaped meshes or open spaces. These intersections are knotted or looped. Modern net fabrics are typically machine-made through weaving, knitting, or crocheting.
Nets can be made from vegetable fibers like cotton, hemp, and flax or from man-made fibers like nylon, polyester, and polyethylene. Machine-made laces often feature geometrically shaped nets as backgrounds and can be made from synthetic fiber yarns. Popular types include bobbinet, with its hexagonal mesh used for gowns and veils, and tulle, a fine net with similar applications.
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What are some common materials used to create mesh or net?
Net and mesh fabrics can be constructed using cords, threads, yarns, or ropes that intersect to form a mesh with geometrically shaped open spaces. These materials can be knotted or looped at their intersections.
Modern mesh fabrics are made via weaving, knitting, and crocheting, and are usually machine-made. Meshes come in different shapes and sizes, ranging from fine to coarse. Tulle and bobbinet are fine, soft nets with hexagonal meshes. Nets with square corners and knots in each corner are often used in fishing and for curtains.
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What are some everyday uses of nets or mesh?
Nets and meshes, characterized by their looped or knotted intersections forming open spaces, have diverse everyday applications.
Beyond fishing and sports, nets and meshes see use in agriculture and industry. They can also be found in apparel and home furnishings such as veils, curtains, and dresses. Nets and meshes are utilized for land capture of animals, including birds and butterflies.
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How does the size of the holes in a mesh or net affect what it can be used for?
The size of the holes in a mesh or net determines the size of particles or objects it can capture or filter. Nets with smaller holes are used to capture smaller items, while larger holes are suitable for bigger objects.
In fishing, different nets are designed with specific mesh sizes to target certain species; gill nets, for instance, entangle fish when their heads penetrate the mesh. Similarly, in filtration, uniform pore sizes allow for sensitive separation of particles based on size, with a stack of sieves with varying hole sizes used to sort particles by diameter.
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What is the difference between a woven mesh and a knitted mesh, and where might each be used?
Both woven and knitted meshes are net fabrics, but they differ in construction and use. Woven mesh involves interlacing strands, while knitted mesh consists of interlocked loops.
Woven Mesh: Created through weaving, this mesh often features stronger, smoother yarns, crucial for withstanding stress. It is commonly found in apparel, home furnishings like curtains, and industrial applications such as fishing and cargo nets.
Knitted Mesh: Produced through knitting, this mesh uses loosely twisted yarns, prioritizing softness. It is used in apparel, tulle for formal gowns and veils, and bobbinet for durable hosiery.
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net, an open fabric of thread, cord, or wire, the intersections of which are looped or knotted so as to form a mesh. Nets are primarily used for fishing.
The early stages in the manufacture and use of nets are difficult to trace because materials were perishable and tools simple, but there is strong evidence that nets were employed by the hunter-gatherers of southern Europe from Upper Paleolithic times. Primitive netting was fabricated with thread or cord made from a wide range of vegetable fibres (bark, bast, leaves, roots, and stems) and animal tissues (hide, sinew, hair, intestine, and baleen). Modern nets, generally machine-made, are composed either of vegetable fibres (such as cotton, hemp, flax, manila, and sisal) or of man-made fibres (such as nylon, polyester, polypropylene, and polyethylene). The man-made fibres are inherently rotproof, whereas vegetable fibres must be treated against rot with substances such as tar.
The primary types of net used for fishing are drift nets, surrounding (encircling, or encompassing) nets, and trap nets. Drift nets—which include gill and trammel nets used at the surface and bottom-set nets used on the seabed—capture fish by entangling them. Gill and trammel nets are used principally to catch herring and salmon and are the most common drift nets. In commercial fishing, a long fleet of drift nets, often several miles in length, is suspended vertically with a line of corks or other floats at the top and a line of lead weights at the bottom. Adjustable floats maintain the net at the desired depth, and lighted marker buoys are placed at intervals. These nets are dropped from a ship at sunset because they can be seen by the fish if dropped during daylight. After the boat anchors, the net drifts all night. As a fish attempts to swim through a gill net, its head penetrates the mesh, and a section of twine slips under its gill cover, entangling it. The trammel net, on the other hand, is composed of two outer panels of large-mesh netting enclosing an inner panel of finer netting. It entangles the fish in pockets formed by the passing of the inner net through the mesh of the outer net.
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Surrounding nets are fine, heavy nets that capture fish by encircling them. Seine nets, trawls, dredges, and long lines are all varieties of surrounding nets. Of these, the most widely used are the seine and the trawl. Beach, or drag, seines can be hauled onto a beach with their contents; others, called purse seines, are operated from boats in deep water far from the shore. A steel cable that runs through rings at the bottom of the purse seine is pulled up to close the net. Seine nets (also known as ring, or round, nets) are used to catch sardines, herring, pilchards, salmon, and tuna. The other principal form of surrounding net is the trawl, a bag-shaped net that is dragged by a specialized vessel (trawler) along the bottom of the sea or in midwater. Trawls are used to catch cod, haddock, plaice, and sole, which are trapped in the net when it is pulled to the surface.
Trap nets are stationary nets that are staked to the shore or in estuaries. They form a labyrinth-like chamber into which fish can easily enter, and from which they cannot easily escape. Salmon, trout, and eels are the principal catch.
Although nets are primarily used in commercial fishing, they also are used in land capture of animals (birds, butterflies, and much larger animals), and they have many uses in industry, sports, and horticulture.