WORK E RS 



STRI PPERS 



UNCARDEO WOOL 





APRON FEED 



TAKER IN 



ANGLE STRIPPER 



WOODEN COVER 

 ■► FANCY 



COMB PLATE 



FLUTED 

 , WOODEN 

 CVl IN DER 



Figure 8. — Cross-Section of a Scholfield Wool-Carding Machine. The wool was fed 

 into the machine from a moving apron, locked in by a pair of rollers, and passed from the 

 taker-in roller to the angle stripper. This latter roller transferred the wool on to the main 

 cylinder and acted as a stripper for the first worker roller. After passing through two more 

 workers and strippers, the wool was prepared for leaving the main cylinder by the fancy, a 

 roller with longer wire teeth set to reach into the card clothing of the large cylinder. Then 

 the doflTer roller picked up the carded fibers from the main cylinder in 4-inch widths the length 

 of the roller. These sections were freed by the comb plale, passed between the fluted wooden 

 cylinder and an under board, where they were converted into slivers, and deposited into a 

 small wooden trough. 



The Newburyport Woolen Manufactory 



A Newburyport philanthropist, Timothy Dexter, 

 contributed the use of his stable. There, beginning in 

 December 1793, the Scholfields built a 24-inch, single- 

 cylinder, wool-carding machine. They coinplcted it 

 early in 1794, the first Scholfield wool-carding 

 machine in America. The group was so impressed 

 that they organized the Newburyport Woolen Manu- 

 factory. .\rthur was hired as over.scer of the carding 

 and John as overseer of the weaving and also as com- 

 pany agent for the purchase of raw wool. A site was 

 chosen on the Parker River in Byfield Parish, New- 

 bury, where a building 100 feet long, about half as 

 wide, and three stories high was constructed. To the 

 new factory were moved the first carding machine, 

 two double-carding machines, as well as spinning, 

 weaving and fulling machines. The carding ma- 

 chines were built by Messrs. Standring, Armstrong, 

 and Guppy, under the Scholfields' immediate direc- 

 tion. All the machinery with the exception of the 

 looms was run l^y waterpower; the weaving was done 



by hand. The enterprise was in full operation 

 by 1795. 



John and Arthur Scholfield (and John's ll-year-old 

 son, James) worked at the Byfield factory for several 

 y-ears. During a wool-buying trip to Connecticut in 

 1798, John observed a valuable waterpower site at the 

 mouth of the Oxoboxo River, in the town (i. e., town- 

 ship) of Montville, Connecticut. Here, the brothers 

 decided, would be a good place to set up their own 

 mill, and on April 19, 1799, they signed a 14-year 

 lease for the water site, a dwelling house, a shop, and 

 17 acres of land. As soon as arrangements could be 

 completed, Arthur, John, and the lattcr's family left 

 for Montville. 



The Scholfields quite probably did not take any of 

 the textile machinery from the Byfield factory with 

 them to Connecticut — first because the machines were 

 built while the brothers were under liirc and so were 

 the property of the sponsors, and second because their 

 knowledge of how to build the machines would have 

 made it unnecessary to incur the inconvenience and 



PAPER 1: SCHOLFIELD WOOL-CARDING MACHINES 



