eral times, the cards were turned so that the handles 

 were together and once again they were pulled across 

 each other. With the wire teeth now angled in the 

 same direction, the action rolled the carded fibers 

 into a sliver (a loose roll of untwisted fibers) that was 

 the length of the hand card and about the diameter 

 of the finger. This placed the wool fibers crosswise in 

 relation to the length of the sliver, their best position 

 for spinning.' Until the mid-18th century hand cards 

 were the only type of implement available for carding. 



First Mechanical Cards 



The earliest mechanical device for carding fibers 



' The same type of hand cards were also used for cotton in 

 Colonial America, but because the cotton fibers were not laid 

 parallel in the sliver only coarse yarns could be spun. In ancient 

 Peru the fibers for spinning fine cotton yarns were prepared 

 with the fingers alone. In India the cotton fibers were combed 

 with the fine-toothed jawbone of the boalee fish before the 

 fibers were removed from the seed. (J. F. Watson, The textile 

 manufactures and the costumes of the people of India, London, 1866, 

 p. 64.) 



was invented by Lewis Paul in England in 1738 but 

 not patented until August 30, 1748. The patent de- 

 scribed two machines. The first, and less miportant, 

 machine consisted of 16 narrow cards mounted on a 

 board; a single card held in the hand performed the 

 actual carding operation (see fig. 3). The second 

 machine utilized a horizontal cylinder covered with 

 parallel rows of card clothing. Under the cylinder 

 was a concave frame lined with similar card clothing. 

 As the cylinder was turned, the cards on it worked 

 against those on the concave frame, .separating and 

 straightening the fibers (see fig. 4). After the fibers 

 were carded, the concave section was lowered and the 

 fibers were stripped off by hand with a needle stick, 

 an implement resembling a comb with very fine 

 ncedlelike metal teeth. Though his machine was far 

 from perfect. Lewis Paul had invented the carding 



Figure 4.— The Patent Description of Paul's 

 Second Machine suggested that the fibers be carded 

 by a cylinder action, but be removed in the same 

 manner as directed in the first patent. 



A I ) j: i~s . .\„.., ;i() . .w (w)r. , 



/] 



A.D. ir48.— N°C3C. 



Poiif# Machint for Carditi^ Wool, Ctdton. ^r. 



A, A. A, A, U)c frame. 



B, D, Uw cylinder. 



C, C, ibo concafc. 



D, D. the ftrbor of the concave. 

 5 E, E, the cross barr. 



F, the pnlW. 



G, the lovrr that the iirlK)r rrsts on. 

 & by which it receives it's per|>on- 

 diculnr tnotioo. 



11, the windlass for moring y iettr. 

 I. the string that coddccca the policy 



\ kvcr. 

 K. the stAoditnU that supporta «■ 



cylind'. 

 L, tho axis of the rvtindrr. 

 M, the wjndlau hy which j' rjliodcr 



U tum'd abouL 

 n. n, n, n 't, the rows of canli. 



LEWIS PALL 



LONDON: 



Printrd by r.mnoiE Kdwarp KT»r «n.) Williui Srom.<n»ooii^ 



l>hDl*n to the QuMit's noM EiopUcnt Majaty. IMS. 



PAPER 1: SCHOLFIELD WOOL-CARDING M.ACHINES 



