The Scholfield Wool-Carding Machines

Contributions from The Museum of History and Technology: Paper 1 The Scholfield Wool-Carding Machines
Grace L. Rogers
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
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.
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).
Figure 3.—The First Machine in Lewis Paul's British Patent 636, Issued August 30, 1748. The treadle move the card-covered board B 1 , 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.