Antibiotics such as (cephalexin, cloxacillin and erythromycin diminish the inflammatory process but do not affect hair tufting. Unfortunately none have a promising outcome.

This first "tufting" industry enabled many Dalton area families to survive the Depression, and as the bedspreads grew in popularity, Dalton became known as the Bedspread Capital of the World.

Regal makes its shapes on table-top tufting machines both in the U.S.

Machine-made rugs fall principally into the categories of tufting or weaving.

The company has made a $4.5 million investment in sophisticated computer-patterning tufting equipment, according to its president, Scott Fletcher.

-- Tufted rugs are getting more space in major retail stores, judging by a recent shopping trip to Wal-Mart, Kmart, Home Depot and Lowe's units in Dalton, Ga., the epicenter of American tufting.

Intricate designs in unlimited colors are produced by an artisan who fills in a stencilled pattern with a single-needle, electrically-powered tufting gun.

Hand-tufted rugs are created by substituting the time-consuming craft of hand-knotting with the faster method of looping yarn through a canvas-type backing with a hand-held tufting gun.

"I am thrilled that CYP technology has started to gain acceptance into the Dalton community, the carpet capital of the world, as indicated by the machine sale to Graphics Tufting Center," says Larry Pierce, president and chief executive officer of Tapistron.

has acquired Matrix Tufting, a Chatsworth, Ga.-based producer of cotton and olefin tufted rugs.