Project Gutenberg's The Scholfield Wool-Carding Machines, by Grace L. Rogers
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Title: The Scholfield Wool-Carding Machines
Author: Grace L. Rogers
Release Date: November 3, 2008 [EBook #27137]
Language: English
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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 8
THE NEWBURYPORT WOOLEN MANUFACTORY 9
THE SCHOLFIELD MACHINES 12
[Illustration: Figure 1.--AN ORIGINAL SCHOLFIELD WOOL-CARDING MACHINE,
built by Arthur Scholfield or under his immediate direction between 1803
and 1814, as exhibited in the hall of textiles of the U.S. National
Museum (_cat. no._ T11100). The exhibits in this hall are part of those
being prepared for the enlarged hall of textiles in the new Museum of
History and Technology now under construction. (_Smithsonian photo_
45396.)]
By Grace L. Rogers
THE SCHOLFIELD WOOL-CARDING MACHINES
_First to appear among the inventions that sparked the industrial
revolution in textile making was the flying shuttle, then various
devices to spin thread and yarn, and lastly machines to card the
raw fibers so they could be spun and woven. Carding is thus the
important first step. For processing short-length wool fibers its
mechanization proved most difficult 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 infant 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 which individual short
fibers of wool or cotton are separated and cleaned of foreign materials
so they can be spun into yarn. The thoroughness of the carding
determines the quality of the yarn, while the position in which the
carded fibers are laid determines its type. The fibers are laid parallel
in order to spin a smooth compact yarn, or they are crossed and
intermingled to produce a soft bulky yarn.
Primitive Carding
The earliest method of carding wool was probably one in which, by use of
the fingers alone, the tufts were pulled apart, the foreign particles
loosened and extracted, and the fibers blended. Fuller's teasels
(thistles with hooked points, _Dispasacus fullonum_), now better known
for raising the nap on woven woolens, were also used at a very early
date for carding. The 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 about 8 inches by 5
inches, in which card clothing (wire teeth embedded in leather) was
mounted on a board with the wire teeth bent and angled toward the
handle. The wool was placed on one card and a second card was dragged
across it, the two hands pulling away from each other. This action
separated the fibers and laid them parallel to the handle, in a thin
film. After the fibers had been carded in this way several 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.[1] Until the mid-18th century hand cards were the only type of
implement available for carding.
[Illustration: Figure 2.--HAND CARDS "USED ON PLANTATION OF MARY C.
PURVIS," NELSON COUNTY, VIRGINIA, during early 1800's and now in U.S.
National Museum (_cat. no._ T2848; _Smithsonian photo_ 37258).]
[Illustration: Figure 3.--THE FIRST MACHINE IN LEWIS PAUL'S BRITISH
PATENT 636, ISSUED AUGUST 30, 1748. The treadle moved the card-covered
board _B1_, in a horizontal direction as necessary to perform the
carding operation. With the aid of the needlestick the fibers were
removed separately from each of the 16 cards _N_. 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 _I_,
at the right.]
First Mechanical Cards
The earliest mechanical device for carding fibers was invented by Lewis
Paul in England in 1738 but not patented until August 30, 1748. The
patent described two machines. The first, and less important, 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 needlelike metal
teeth. Though his machine was far from perfect. Lewis Paul had invented
the carding cylinder working with stationary cards and the stripping
comb.
[Illustration: 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.]
[Illustration: Figure 5.--ILLUSTRATIONS FROM BRITISH PATENT 628, ISSUED
JANUARY 20, 1748, to Daniel Bourn for a roller card machine.]
[Illustration: Figure 6.--THE MOST IMPORTANT SINGLE FEATURE Illustrated
in Richard Arkwright's British patent 1111 of December 16, 1775,
provided "a crank and a frame of iron with teeth" to remove the carded
fibers from the cylinder.]
Another important British patent was granted in 1748 to Daniel Bourn,
who invented a machine with four carding rollers set close together, the
first of the roller-card type (see fig. 5). To produce a practical
carding machine, however, several additional mechanical improvements
were necessary. The first of these did not appear until more than two
decades later, in 1772, when John Lees of Manchester is reported to have
invented a machine featuring "a perpetual revolving cloth, called a
feeder," that fed the fibers into the machine.[2] Shortly afterward, the
stripper rollers[3] and the doffer comb[4] (a mechanical utilization of
Paul's hand device) were added. Both James Hargreaves and Richard
Arkwright claimed to be the inventor of these improvements, but it was
Arkwright who, in 1775, first patented these ideas. His comb and crank
(see fig. 6) provided a mechanical means by which the carded fibers
could be removed from the cylinder. With this, the cylinder card became
a practical machine. Arkwright continued the modification of the doffing
end by drawing the carded fibers through a funnel and then passing them
through two rollers. This produced a continuous sliver, a narrow ribbon
of fibers ready to be spun into yarn. However, it was soon realized that
the bulk characteristic desired in woolen yarns (but not desired in the
compact types such as worsted yarns or cotton yarns) required that the
wool be carded in a machine that would help produce this.
[Illustration: Figure 7.--NEWBURYPORT, MASSACHUSETTS, in 1796, AN
ENGRAVING FROM JOHN J. CURRIER'S _History of Newburyport,
Massachusetts_, 1764-1909, vol. 2, Newburyport, 1906-09.]
In carding wool it was found more effective to omit the flat stationary
cards and to use only rollers to work the fibers. The method of
preparing the sliver also had to be changed. Since it was necessary to
remove the wool fibers crosswise in the sliver, a fluted wooden cylinder
called a roller-bowl was used in conjunction with an under board or
shell. As a given section of the carded wool was fed between the fluted
cylinder and the board, the action of the cylinder rolled the fibers
into a sliver about the diameter of the finger and the length of the
cylinder. Although these were only 24-inch lengths as compared to the
continuous sliver produced by the Arkwright cotton-carding machine,[5]
wool could still be carded with much more speed and thoroughness than
with the small hand cards. This then was the state of mechanical wool
carding in England in the 1790's as two experienced wool manufacturers,
John and Arthur Scholfield, planned their trip to America.
John and Arthur Scholfield
The Scholfields, however, were not to be the first to introduce
mechanical wool carding into America. Several attempts had been made
prior to their arrival. In East Hartford, Connecticut, "about 1770
Elisha Pitkin had built a mill on the east side of Main Street near the
old meeting-house and Hockanum Bridge, which was run by water-power,
supplied by damming the Hockanum River. Here, beside grinding grain and
plaster, was set up the first wool-carding machine in the state, and, it
is believed, in the country."[6] Samual Mayall in Boston, about 1788 or
1789, set up a carding machine operated by horse power. In 1791 he moved
to Gray, Maine, where he operated a shop for wool carding and cloth
dressing.[7] Of the machines used at the Hartford Woolen Manufactory,
organized in 1788, a viewer reported he saw "two carding-engines,
working by water, of a very inferior construction." They were further
described as having "two large center cylinders in each, with two
doffers, and only two working cylinders, of the breadth of bare sixteen
inches, said to be invented by some person there."[8] But these were
isolated examples; most of the woolen mills of this period were like the
one built in 1792 by John Manning in Ipswich, Massachusetts, where all
the work of carding, spinning, and weaving was still performed by hand.
The Scholfields' knowledge of mechanical wool-processing was to find a
welcome reception in this young nation now struggling for economic
independence. The exact reason for their decision to embark for America
is unknown. However, it may well be that they, like Samuel Slater[9]
some three years earlier, had learned of the bounties being offered by
several state legislatures for the successful introduction of new
textile machines.
Both John and Arthur were experienced in the manufacture of woolens.
They were the sons of a clothier (during the 18th century, a person who
performed the several operations in finishing cloth) and had been
apprenticed to the trade. Arthur was 36 and a bachelor; John, a little
younger, was married and had six children. Arthur and John, with his
family, sailed from Liverpool in March 1793 and arrived in Boston some
two months later. Upon arrival, their immediate concern was to find a
dwelling place for John's family. Finally they were accommodated by
Jedediah Morse, well-known author of _Morse's geography and gazetteer_,
in a lodging in Charlestown, near Bunker Hill. In less than a month John
began to build a spinning jenny and a hand loom, and soon the
Scholfields started to produce woolen cloth. The two brothers were
joined in the venture by John Shaw, a spinner and weaver who had
migrated from England with them. Morse, being much impressed with some
of the broadcloth they produced, was especially interested to find that
John and Arthur understood the actual construction of the textile
machines. Morse immediately recommended the Scholfields to some wealthy
persons of Newburyport (see fig. 7), who were interested in sponsoring a
new textile mill.
[Illustration: 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 doffer 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 plate, 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 completed it early
in 1794, the first Scholfield wool-carding machine in America. The group
was so impressed that they organized the Newburyport Woolen Manufactory.
Arthur was hired as overseer of the carding and John as overseer of the
weaving and also as company agent for the purchase of raw wool. A site
was chosen on the Parker River in Byfield Parish, Newbury, 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 machines were built by Messrs. Standring,
Armstrong, and Guppy, under the Scholfields' immediate direction. All
the machinery with the exception of the looms was run by water-power;
the weaving was done by hand. The enterprise was in full operation by
1795.
John and Arthur Scholfield (and John's 11-year-old son, James) worked at
the Byfield factory for several years. During a wool-buying trip to
Connecticut in 1798, John observed a valuable water-power site at the
mouth of the Oxoboxo River, in the town (i.e., township) 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 latter's
family left for Montville.
[Illustration: Figure 9.--IN THE COLLECTION OF THE HENRY FORD MUSEUM,
DEARBORN, MICHIGAN, IS THIS ORIGINAL SCHOLFIELD WOOL-CARDING MACHINE of
the early 19th century. (_Photo courtesy of the Henry Ford Museum._)]
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 hire 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 expense of transporting machines the hundred odd miles
to Montville. However, John Scholfield's sons reported[10] that they had
taken a carding engine with them when they moved to Connecticut in 1799
and had later transferred it to a factory in Stonington. The sons
claimed that the frame, cylinders, and lags of the machine were made of
mahogany and that it had originally been imported from England. However,
it would have been most uncommon for a textile machine, even an English
one, to have been constructed of mahogany; and having built successful
carding machines, the men at Byfield would have found it unnecessary to
attempt the virtually impossible feat of importing an English one. If it
ever existed and was taken to Connecticut, therefore, this machine was
probably not a carding machine manufactured by the Scholfields. It is
more probable that the first Scholfield carding machine remained in the
Byfield mill as the property of the Newburyport Woolen Manufactory.
[Illustration: Figure 10.--AN ORIGINAL SCHOLFIELD WOOL-CARDING MACHINE
AT OLD STURBRIDGE VILLAGE, STURBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS. It is now run by
electricity. (_Photo courtesy of Old Sturbridge Village._)]
During the next half century, this mill was held by a number of
individuals. William Bartlett and Moses Brown, two of the leading
stockholders of the company, sold it in 1804 to John Lees, the English
overseer who succeeded the Scholfields, and he continued to operate it
for about 20 years. On August 24, 1824, the mill was purchased at a
Sheriff's sale by Gorham Parsons, who sold a part interest to Paul
Moody, a machinist from the textile town of Lowell. Moody operated the
mill for the next 5 years and at his death in 1831 his heirs sold their
interest back to Parsons. In 1832 it was leased for 7 years by William
N. Cleveland and Solomon Wilde under the name of William N. Cleveland &
Co. Following the expiration of the lease in 1839, a portion of the mill
was occupied for 3 or 4 years by Enoch Pearson, believed to have been a
descendant of the John Pearson who had been a clothier in Rowley in
1643, and subsequently various industries occupied other portions and
later the entire building, which burned with all its contents on October
29, 1859.
If the first Scholfield carding machine remained a part of the property,
therefore it must have been lost in that fire. However, the Scholfields'
importance to American wool manufacture was not contingent on the
building of one successful carding machine, regardless of whether it was
the first. It was the change in the scope of their business ventures
after their move to Connecticut that synonymized the name of Scholfield
with mechanical wool carding in America.
John and Arthur had built their woolen mill at Uncasville, a village in
the town of Montville, and there Arthur remained with his brother until
1801, when he married, sold his interest to John, and moved to
Pittsfield, Massachusetts. John and his sons continued to operate the
mill until 1806, when difficulties over water privileges spurred him to
purchase property in Stonington, Connecticut, where he built a new mill
containing two double-cylinder carding machines.[11] In 1813, leaving
one son in charge at Stonington, John returned to Montville and
purchased another factory and water privileges. He continued in the
woolen manufacture until his death in 1820.
Arthur, soon after arriving in Pittsfield, constructed a carding machine
and opened a Pittsfield mill. The following advertisement appeared in
the _Pittsfield Sun_, November 2, 1801:
Arthur Scholfield respectfully informs the inhabitants of
Pittsfield and the neighboring towns, that he has a carding-machine
half a mile west of the meeting-house, where they may have their
wool carded into rolls for 12-1/2 cents per pound; mixed 15-1/2
cents per pound. If they find the grease, and pick and grease it,
it will be 10 cents per pound, and 12-1/2 cents mixed. They are
requested to send their wool in sheets as they will serve to bind
up the rolls when done. Also a small amount of woolens for sale.
The people around Pittsfield soon realized that the mechanically carded
wool was not only much easier to spin but enabled them to produce twice
as much yarn from the same amount of wool. Although many brought their
wool to be carded at his factory, Arthur was not without problems. These
were evident in his advertisement of May 1802, in which he stated that
if the wool was not properly "sorted, clipped, and cleansed" he would
charge an extra penny per pound. He also added that he would issue no
credit. Shortly after this, recognizing the need for additional carding
machines in other localities, Arthur Scholfield undertook the work of
manufacturing such machines for sale. Through this venture he was to
spread his knowledge of mechanical wool carding throughout the country.
The Scholfield Machines
The first record of Arthur's sale of carding machines appeared in the
_Pittsfield Sun_ in September 1803. The next year, in May 1804, his
advertisement informed the readers that A. Scholfield continued to card
wool, and also that:
He has carding-machines for sale, built under his immediate
inspection, upon a new and improved plan, which he is determined to
sell on the most liberal terms, and will give drafts and other
instructions to those who wish to build for themselves; and
cautions all whom it may concern to beware how they are imposed
upon by uninformed speculating companies, who demand more than
twice as much for machines as they are really worth.
Scholfield must have felt that some of his competitors were charging
much more for their carding machines than they were worth. Also, others
were producing inferior machines that did not card the wool properly.
Both factors encouraged Arthur to continue the commercial production of
wool-carding machines. In April 1805 he again advertised:
Good news for farmers, only eight cents per pound for picking,
greasing, and carding white wool, and twelve and a half cents for
mixed. For sale, Double Carding-machines, upon a new and improved
plan, good and cheap.
And in 1806:
Double carding machines, made and sold by A. Scholfield for $253
each, without the cards, or $400 including the cards. Picking
machines at $30 each. Wool carded on the same terms as last year,
viz.: eight cents per pound for white, and twelve and a half cents
for mixed, no credit given.
With both carpenters and machinists working under his direction, he soon
abandoned completely the carding of wool and devoted his full time to
producing carding machines. An advertisement in the _Pittsfield Sun_
shows Alexander and Elisha Ely providing carding service there with a
Scholfield machine in 1806. Scholfield machines were also set up in
Massachusetts at Bethuel Baker, Jr., & Co. in Lanesborough in 1805, at
Walker & Worthington in Lenox, at Curtis's Mills in Stockbridge, at
Reuben Judd & Co. in Williamstown, in Lee at the falls near the forge,
at Bairds' Mills in Bethlehem in 1806, and by John Hart in Cheshire in
1807. Subsequently many more Scholfield machines were set up in many
other places as far away as Manchester, New Hampshire, in 1809 and Mason
Village, New Hampshire, in about 1810.
One of the difficulties that Arthur encountered in building these early
machines was in cutting the comb plates that freed the carded fleece
from the cylinder. These plates had to be prepared by hand, the teeth
being cut and filed one by one. In 1814 James Standring, an old friend
and co-worker, smuggled into this country a "teeth-cutting machine,"
which he had procured on a trip to England.[12] Standring kept the
machine closely guarded, permitting only Scholfield and one other
friend to see it. Standring used his machine to make new saws of all
descriptions and to re-cut old ones as well as to prepare comb plates
for the carding machines. But in spite of this new simplified method of
producing comb plates Scholfield's business did not flourish, for the
tremendous influx of foreign fabrics after the War of 1812 greatly
damaged the domestic textile industries, including the manufacture of
carding machines.
By 1818 Scholfield's friends had persuaded him to apply to Congress for
relief. To his brother John on April 20, 1818, he wrote:
... I have been advised by my friends to apply to Congress by a
petition as we were the first that introduced the woolen Business
by Machinery in this country and should that plan be adopted I have
but little hopes of success but they say if it does no good it wont
doo any harm but at any rate I should like your opinion and advice
about it....
Apparently John felt the plan would not succeed, for on the following
December 17 Arthur wrote him again:
... With regard to applying to Congress I have given that up for I
am of your opinion that it won't succeed what gave me some hopes I
was advis'd to it by a member of the Senet who is a very
influential man in Congress but he is now out and I think tis best
to drop it....
Arthur never applied to Congress for the recognition his contemporaries
felt he deserved.[13]
Several changes in the construction of wool-carding machines took place
during this period. As early as 1816 John Scholfield, Jr., was reported
to have in his mill in Jewett City, Connecticut, a double-cylinder
carding machine 3 feet wide. And in 1822 a Worcester, Massachusetts,
machine maker advertised that he was "constructing carding machines
entirely of iron."[14] Although a few of these iron carding machines
were sold, they did not become common until 50 years later.[15]
There is no record that Arthur Scholfield manufactured carding machines
of a width greater than 24 inches, or entirely of iron. However, little
is known of his last business years except that he remained in
Pittsfield until his death, March 27, 1827.
Only three wool-carding machines attributed to the hands of the
Scholfields are known to exist today. All are 24-inch, single-cylinder
carding machines of the same general description (see fig. 8). They
differ only in minor respects that probably result from subsequent
changes and additions. One (fig. 9), now located in the Plymouth Carding
House, at Greenfield Village, Dearborn, Michigan, was discovered in
Ware, Massachusetts. Another (fig. 10), now at Old Sturbridge Village,
Sturbridge, Massachusetts,[16] was uncovered in a barn in northern New
Hampshire. The third (fig. 1), is in the U.S. National Museum in the
collection of the Division of Textiles.
Both it and the Dearborn machine have in former times been described as
"the original Scholfield woolen card." It is a romantic but
unsubstantiated idea that either of these is the first Scholfield
carding machine set up in the Byfield factory in 1794. The author's
opinion is that all three were built by Arthur Scholfield during his
years in the Pittsfield factory. Examination of the National Museum
machine supports this opinion. The woods used are all native to the New
England region. The frame, the large cylinder and the roller called the
fancy are constructed of eastern white pine (the Sturbridge machine is
also constructed principally of pine). The joints of the main frame are
mortised and tenoned. At the doffing end the main frame and cross
supports are numbered and matched, I to IIII, and at the feed end they
are numbered V to VIII but were mis-matched in the original assembly.
Further rigidity is achieved by means of hand-forged lag screws. The
arch of the frame is birch and the arch arm maple. The 14-inch doffer
roller is made of chestnut.[17] The iron shafts are square and turned
down at the bearings. The worker rollers are fitted with sprockets and
turned by a hand-forged chain. The comb plate, stamped "Standring," is
hand filed, and is undoubtedly one of those made before the
"teeth-cutting machine" was smuggled from England, for although
one-third of the plate is quite regular, the size and pitch of the teeth
in the remaining two-thirds are irregular. Part of this irregularity
might be explained as having been caused by the hand-sharpening of a
plate originally cut by machine, but the teeth in one 2-inch span not
only vary in size but have a pitch that would have been impossible to
produce after the original plate had been made.[18]
There is no doubt that this carding machine was made by Arthur
Scholfield, or under his immediate supervision, sometime between 1803
and 1814. It may well be one of the machines sent to southern New
Hampshire in 1809 or 1810, as it is known to have been run in Nashua and
Jeffrey, New Hampshire, in the 1820's and 1830's, after which it was run
by James Townsend in Marlboro, New Hampshire, from 1837 until 1890, when
it was exhibited at the Mechanics Fair in Boston. Mr. Rufus S. Frost
purchased the machine and owned it until his death in 1897. When the
Frost estate was settled, the old Scholfield wool-carding machine was
purchased by the Davis & Furber Machine Co., by which in 1954 it was
presented to the National Museum.
The disappearance of the original Scholfield carding machine is
regrettable, but fortunately the Scholfields' importance to the American
woolen industry does not depend on their having produced this one
machine. These brothers, arriving here at a critical time in our
nation's history, made important contributions to our economic and to
our technological progress--John by his mill operations, Arthur by his
ultimate work of constructing wool-carding machines for sale. Of these
two aspects, it is the contribution of Arthur that has had the more
far-reaching effect, for he spread his expert knowledge of mechanical
wool carding, in the form of machines, throughout the New England woolen
centers. His machines now stand as monuments to the work of both.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] 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.)
[2] Edward Baines, _History of the cotton manufacture in Great Britain_,
London, 1835, p. 176.
[3] The wire points of the worker roller pick up the fibers from the
faster moving main cylinder, carding the fibers on contact. A stripping
action takes place when the wires of the worker roller meet the points
of the stripper roller in a "point to back" action. This arrangement is
used to remove the wool from the worker and put it back on the wire
teeth of the main cylinder. Illustrated in W. Van Bergen and H.R.
Mauersberger, _American wool handbook_, New York, 1948, p. 451.
[4] The doffer comb, a serrated metal plate the length of the rollers,
removes the carded fibers from the last roller or doffer.
[5] This was no great disadvantage at this time, as wool was still being
spun on the spinning wheel. The mechanical spinning of woolen yarns was
an obstinate problem that was not solved until 1815-1820. It then was
necessary to piece these 24-inch slivers together before they could be
spun until 1826, when a device for the doffing of carded wool in a
continuous sliver was perfected by an American, John Goulding, and
patented by him.
[6] A.P. Pitkin, _The Pitkin family of America_, Hartford, 1887, p. 75.
[7] From a letter written in 1889 by Mayall's son; A.H. Cole, _The
American wool manufacture_, vol. 1, Cambridge, 1926, p. 90.
[8] From a report of the visit of Henry Wansey in 1794, cited by W.R.
Bagnall, _The textile industries of the United States_, Cambridge, 1893,
p. 107.
[9] Slater introduced the Arkwright system of carding and spinning
cotton into America in 1790. Bringing neither plans nor models with him
from which to build the machines, he relied instead on his detailed
knowledge of their construction. England prohibited the export of
textile machines, models, and plans, and even attempted to prevent
skilled artisans from leaving the country. George S. White, _Memoir of
Samuel Slater_, Philadelphia, 1836, pp. 37 and 71.
[10] R.C. Taft, _Some notes upon the introduction of the woolen
manufacture into the United States_, Providence, 1882, pp. 17-18. The
Scholfield sons, of whom three were still living in the 1880's, were
quite elderly at the time Taft talked to them; only James, aged 98,
would have been able to remember the Connecticut move.
[11] There is no record of the carding machine made of mahogany which
John's sons reported had been transferred to the Stonington mill.
[12] This is probably the machine that gave rise to stories of a carding
machine having been smuggled from England during the early Byfield days.
J.E.A. Smith, _The history of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, from the year
1800 to the year 1876_, Springfield, 1876, p. 167.
[13] U.S. 15th Congress, 1st and 2nd sessions, _The debates and
proceedings in the Congress_, vols. for 1817-1819 (2).
[14] _Worcester Spy_, July 10, 1822.
[15] A natural delay. Although the cylinders and the card clothing wore
out and had to be replaced, the heavy wooden frames of the early
machines remained long in serviceable condition.
[16] Once again in use, it is now powered by electricity. A pound of
slivers from it (about 260) may be purchased for $3.00.
[17] The author is indebted to William N. Watkins, U.S. National Museum
Curator of Agriculture and Wood Products, Smithsonian Institution, for
the identification of the woods in the specimen.
[18] The author is indebted to Mr. Don Berkebile of the Smithsonian's
U.S. National Museum staff for his examination of the metal teeth on the
comb plate of this machine.
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