On the first floor, braided ropes were also made using nineteenth-century French machines. The variety of braiding machines facilitated the production of a wide variety of flat or round braids.

Flat braids:

In order to make a flat braid, an odd number of bobbins is required.
On these braiding machines, the bobbins do not follow a complete circle. They go back and forth, from the right to the left of the machine, crossing each other to create selvedges for manufacturing flat braids.

Round braids:

The spools are positioned on spindles on a tray. Half of the spindles turn in one direction and the other half turn in the opposite direction, crossing each other.
A hole in the centre of the tray enables the insertion of a strand around which the threads are braided.
The braiding machines were installed in rows of ten, positioned facing each other, and were connected to the drive shafts placed on the ground. Workers could therefore monitor two rows of machines at a time.
At this stage, there were braiding machines with 12, 16, 20 and 32 spindles producing braids that were between 5mm and 22mm. These braids were used as lighter wicks, petroleum lamp wicks and transmission belts. As for the flat braids, they were used for lace, lighter wicks and trimmings.