Bulletin 218: Contributions from the Museum of History and Technology — 1
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Contributions from The Museum of History and Technology: Paper 1 The Scholfield Wool-Carding Machines Grace L. Rogers PRIMITIVE CARDING 3 THE FIRST MECHANICAL CARDS 5 JOHN AND ARTHUR SCHOLFIELD S THE NEV^'BURYPORT WOOLEN MANUFACTORY 9 THE SCHOLFIELD NL-\CHINES U — By Grace L. Rogers THE SCHOLFIELD WOOL-CARDING MACHINES First to appear among the inventions that sparked the industrial revolution in textile making ivas the flying shuttle, then various devices to spin thread and yarn, and lastly machines to card the raiv fibers so they could be spun and woven. Carding is thus the im- portant first step. For processing short-length wool fibers its mechanization proved most dijficult to achieve. To the United States in 1793 came John and Arthur Scholfield, bringing with them the knowledge of how to build a successful wool- carding machine. From this contribution to the technology of our then itifatit country developed another new industry. The Author: Grace L. Rogers is curator of textiles. Museum of History and Technology!, in the Smithsonian Institution' s United States National Museum. CARDING IS THE NECESSARY preliminary step by Primitive Carding which individual short fiiacrs of wool or cotton The earliest method of carding wool was probably are separated and cleaned of foreign materials so they one in which, by use of the fingers alone, the tufts were can be spun into yarn. The thoroughness of the card- |)ulled apart, the foreign particles loosened and ex- ing determines the quality of the yarn, while the posi- tracted, and the fibers blended. Fuller's teasels tion in which the carded fibers are laid determines its (thistles with hooked points, Dispasactis fullomtm). now type. The fibers are laid parallel in order to spin a better known for raising the nap on woven woolens, smooth compact yarn, or they arc crossed and inter- were also used at a very early date for carding. The mingled to produce a soft bulky yarn. teasels were mounted on a pair of small rectangular frames with handles; and from this device developed the familiar small hand card (see fig. 2), measuring . i .\n Scholfifxd Wooi.-Card- Figure Origi.nal about 8 inches by 5 inches, in which card clothing INO Machink, built by .Arthur Scholfield or under (wire teeth embedded in leather) was mounted on a his immediate direction between 1803 and 1814, as board with the wire teeili bent and angled toward the exhibited in the hall of textiles of the U. S. National handle. The wool was placed on one card and a sec- Museum {cat. no. Tiiroo). The exhibits in this ond card was dragged acro.ss it, the two hands pulling hall are part of those being prepared for the enlarged away from each other. This action separated the hall of textiles in the new Museum of History and Technology now under construction. (Smilhsoiiian fibers and laid them parallel to the handle, in a thin in this sev- /i/iolo 45396.) film. After the fibers had been carded wav P.VPF.R 1 : SCHOLFIELD WOOL-CARDLNG M.ACHINES 4712 -50- — Figure 2. Hand Cards "Used on Plantation or Marv C. Purvis," Nelson County, Vir- ginia, during early i8oo's and now in U. S. National Museum {cat. no. T2848; Smitluonian photo 37258). Figure 3. -The First Machine in Lewis Paul's British Patent 636, Issued August 30, 1748. The treadle moved the card-covered board B\ , in a horizontal direction as necessary to perform the carding operation. With the aid of the needlcslick the fibers were removed separately from each of the 16 cards .V. The carded fibers were placed on a narrow cloth band, which unrolled from the small cylinder G, on the left, and was rolled up with the fibers on the cylinder /, at the right. .Miif.r I. 'V I'AI IS SrncniAimN inny oitiit lilt fyti/ulf/ (i FIC I III The uffitr (mil / II., ,,„,tl..l ,1 r,.t ,.. ,..</rA ,,/-/../ , eral times, the cards were turned so that the handles was invented by Lewis Paul in England in 1738 but were together and once again they were pulled across not patented until August 30, 1748. The patent de- each other. With the wire teeth now angled in the scribed two machines. The first, and less miportant, same direction, the action rolled the carded fibers machine consisted of 16 narrow cards mounted on a into a sliver (a loose roll of untwisted fibers) that was board; a single card held in the hand performed the the length of the hand card and about the diameter actual carding operation (see fig. 3). The second of the finger. This placed the wool fibers crosswise in machine utilized a horizontal cylinder covered with relation to the length of the sliver, their best position parallel rows of card clothing. Under the cylinder for spinning.' Until the mid-18th century hand cards was a concave frame lined with similar card clothing. were the only type of implement available for carding. As the cylinder was turned, the cards on it worked against those on the concave frame, .separating and First Mechanical Cards straightening the fibers (see fig. 4). After the fibers The earliest mechanical device for carding fibers were carded, the concave section was lowered and the fibers were stripped off by hand with a needle stick, ' The same type of hand cards were also used for cotton in Colonial America, but because the cotton fibers were not laid an implement resembling a comb with very fine parallel in the sliver only coarse yarns could be spun. In ancient ncedlelike metal teeth. Though his machine was far Peru the fibers for spinning fine cotton yarns were prepared from perfect. Lewis Paul had invented the carding with the fingers alone. In India the cotton fibers were combed Figure 4.—The Patent Description of Paul's with the fine-toothed jawbone of the boalee fish before the Second Machine suggested that the fibers be carded fibers were removed from the seed. (J. F. Watson, The textile manufactures and the costumes of the people of India, London, 1866, by a cylinder action, but be removed in the same p. 64.) 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. 11, the windlass for moring y iettr. B, D, Uw cylinder. I. the string that coddccca the policy C, C, ibo concafc. \ kvcr. D, D. the ftrbor of the concave. K. the stAoditnU that supporta « 5 E, E, the cross barr. cylind'. F, the pnlW. L, tho axis of the rvtindrr. lovrr G, the that the iirlK)r rrsts on. M, the wjndlau hy which j' rjliodcr & by which it receives it's per|>on- U tum'd abouL diculnr tnotioo. 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 — . A I) 114^1 III. ;o >"(.:•> '^t.af^.... \ •-"^.. .ki.. A i'hm It tht Miuhtiu trrf.uihn., cf ItW S- tUfnt Ihi/nt I fUnrii ////.» fttf ffiptittta fy- wAuh tht.\ Mn//itnt li Itinhnif ihlhtf fhm "//r rf/ii/ milfu rn,ii/„,f. u,-riitfd „i, i^ui.i rj//i f/i,u ih, t.nilf .in i-iit ,if,rn fyhndat. it Itiih/^ •iml that th(M art .iqaituJ mfh rtltirfyif ftnutttr riii\ 'im ,i>i,l thitt tiu\ miiyh mi; <l iilliti hyhiiml n t(\- n wiiia wlutl h mayh ft\f4t\rti that not- 1* fftxti tnuyU/mt in ii iniifhinr thnii ktir t\iiiidf/> t/initfii Ihtit tuiiiitvi . ti^ind trtf mi.-l $hc^wi Vir fitrd* nrt ytniffiffi rrmiut tht Cyiitiilrrs tt/nr/i fy ihar iilar iiwtiat: ofii/ iit/ thr Itnn tbfirit^iiui iifim i t ifiwt/ur i.ini llu \M\4lii (i-ttrn ,v.// finentlf- tint ^ Sf'uiintf A Pu iiltt., nhrrr iftf ifttl MlHtotaKr i-4T tht wt\i i* ntUn. tfhrn K Ih^ttui. tnmie.^ Mi4i4fi/iif tt' tafh fy/iiider ,,initH ,n tyhndtrNTI. It Sltdmp fJate^, Ic trhtfh' tarh fyhndrr ttnme u fuctU, and tymeanji U Ahuifi vnrntfn fniint ufxrt- **4u€h uH' thf- wyk' if- ti^fii cfwhith ihfy "lay/v ••••tliU iiny iliMaiue- fh)m- rath- cthtr. ( -In tiin fminr .^nttifii frthf iir»»/ rnii Al Wlicth thai turn tht ufnght shaJts irn/itry.and .v ntmuntfOit Tiir .n/lr lint* U- nhuh thr mri httT »/r jtftrtvcti. whuh- Krtfi the inctu-n If etuh Cylindtr CyfindffS at a [irij>tr tfi^ttduuc- fr^ftl rath cthtr. N Tt*vvt'furlf Mith (niid.^ that lylfttxMTtvds drawthtsttxnd and F. Thf nAirMud inn hnn that art jirttMtd' to the side trorui itxtrthi Cyltndfr te i/i/ sidtJtng and ^ a nuitai , iiiavttrtcthfprryf F 7hf fi/it. Cylinder irllcUrr the wvcl tr (otttwi tiptaliy nrr the. faide: (I ( i /V Mtaid C^Undfr trKctler Tite md cl'the shah (r ativr thall^-it umd/aAf tr Miirr •t/irr/ «ft%r.i II thelhinlfybtulera-HMrr. riirfuvt tt^the tvhcU' ttuwi' 1 Pu tCMilh fytinder (w ll^Ufi JV.B. A frame tf there (yhndert is the Mt^f mth thtf mede/ when the (purih Cylinder w taken' away Du/ueJ litm/it Figure 5. Illustrations From British Patent 628, Issued January 20, 1748, to Daniel Bourn for a roller card machine. BULLETIN 218: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY — 1 perpetual revolving cloth, called a feeder," that fed the fibers into the machine.- Shortly afterward, the stripper rollers ^ and the doffer comb * (a mechanical utilization of Paul's hand device) were added.