168 [Assembly 



Island; so much so, that in a circuit of country extending around 

 the town of Leicester, Mass., (then as now the centre of that branch 

 of business,) for a distance of one hundred miles, it had become a 

 general occupation for that class of individuals. This slow process, 

 had it been continued without improvement until now, woufd have 

 required the labor of several hundred thousands of women and child- 

 ren of this country to suppl}' our increasing want of that article. 



The invention of the card-setting machine, when rightly viewed, 

 was an event of great and surpassing importance; it is a machine 

 associated with the power-loom and other kindred machines of Ame- 

 rican invention, which have together effected an entire change in 

 the mode and means of cloth making in this and other countries. A 

 large share of the credit of this change must be attributed to the 

 invention of the machine in question, by Aaron Whittemore, then a 

 citizen of Cambridge, in the State of Massachusetts. 



It should in justice, be observed, that Pliny Earle, of Leicester, 

 •was at the period named, the principal maker of cards, and that the 

 name of Earle has ever been prominent in that branch of business, 

 and has been stamped on more sheets of cards than all others put 

 together. 



These little, but vast labor saving machines, are the representa- 

 tives of more than a million of hands in this country and Europe, 

 but without the aid of cam motions, Ihis immensely useful machine 

 would be a cypher — a nonentity. 



Two admirable specimens of the card-setting machine were on ex- 

 hibition at the Fair, and received the deserved honors of the Insti- 

 tute. 



Before leaving this head of our subject, cloth making, it may be 

 remarked, that nearly as ancient as the loom, wheel and distaff, is 

 the art of knitting; but to which art nothing was contributed in the 

 form of a machine, until about sixty years since, when the celebra- 

 ted stocking-loom of England, was invented; which discovery and 

 invention has been marked with astonishing results in a pecuniary 

 point of view to that country. 



It has been estimated by an Englishman of the highest standing, 

 that since that discovery, England has made hosiery sufficient to cover 

 the entire land surface of the globe; and that the gain to that coun- 



