A MACHINE FOR CARDING OF WOOL AND COTTON, &c.
Year: 1748

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, LEWIS
PAUL, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Second, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the
Thirtieth day of August, in the twenty-second year of His reign, did give and
grant unto me, the said Lewis Paul, His especial licence that I, the said Lewis
Paul, during the term of years therein expressed, might make, use, exercise,
and vend my Invention of "A MACHINE FOR CARDING OF WOOL AND COTTON, &c.;"
in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the
said Lewis Paul, by a writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular
description of the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within four calendar months after the date of the said Letters Patent, as in
and by the same (relation being thereunto had) may more at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Lewis Paul, do hereby declare that the said Machine for Carding of Wool
and Cotton, &c. does consist, and is to be performed, in the manner following;
to wit:-
"The card is made up of a number of paralell cards, with intervening
spaces between each; and the matter being carded thereon, is afterwards

page_text: took off each card seperately, and the several rows or filliments of wool or cotton
so took off are connected into one entire roll. A further explanation of the
carding engine, and the manner of working, is sett forth in the Planns and
Drafts and explanation thereof hereunto annexed.
AND BE IT REMEMBRED; that on the said Sixteenth day of December,
the aforesaid Lewis Paul came before our Lord the King in His Chan-
cery, and acknowledged the Writing aforesaid, and every thing therein con-
tained and specified, in form above said. And the said Writing was stamped
according to. the Act of Parliament made in the sixth year of the reign of
the late King William and Queen Mary, and so forth.
Figure 1:-A, A, A, A, the frame of the machine, to which the necessary
apparatus is fix'd; B, B, B, B, a board on which the card is nail'd. The length
& breadth of the card is quite arbitrary, having been used from three feet
long by two feet wide to two feet long & fourteen inches wide. The card
is not one continued surface, but consists of a number of paralell cards, with
spaces betwixt each card. The paralells n, n, n, n, &c. represents the cards,
& the intervening spaces the distances betwixt çach card. The breadth of
the card, as well as the intermediate spaces, depend intirely on the character
of the work that is to be done, sometinies requiring to be an inch, sometimes
only one eighth of that breadth; & the wires that compose the cards may
be finer or coarser, longer or shorter, in order to be capable of being apply'd
to variety of work, & according to the different circumstances of the business
to be done; to the under side of which is fastned an arbor, whose bottom is
seen at C, & whose point runs in a hole at D, in the cross barr E, E, &

page_text: the upper part of the arbor is confin'd in its place by a keeper on the back of
the upper part of the frame A: 1, yet so as to be capable of revolving in a hori-
zontal direction. On the card arbor, a little above C; is fix'd a warve or pulley
Fround which a string is put & fastned to the points of the treddles y.& z.
These treddles y & have their center of motion at 2 & 3 at the bottom board
of the frame A, A, A, A. By means of these treddles the card is to be turn'd
about from right to left, & from left to right; but as 'tis necessary. the rows of
the cards should lay in a direction paralell to the frame, the corners of the card
board B, B, are cut off in a proper inclination, as at b; b; the upper end of
which inclin'd part has a notch c, c, into which a snap or latch falls when the
card board comes paralell with the frame. This snap or latch is held in its
place by a spring, & the tail of the catch communicates with the treddle
by a string, with which it is capable of being drawn out of the notch C; and
then, by setting the foot on the treddle y, the card will turn half way about, &
the latch falls into the other notch C. The card being thus put. about, the
wool (or whatever matter is to be carded) is put on the rows of cards, & the
upper card drove over it lightly 'till the wool begins to look even on the card.
Then the card must be brought into the situation the Drawing represents by
pushing the treddle X with the foot, to discharge the catch, & then pressing
on the treddle z, the card will come about again. Then, by drawing the upper
card over the lower, the wool will come off the lower to the upper card, because
the wire that constitutes the rows now stand pointing toward the person at
work. Then y card must be turn'd about again, & the upper card apply'd
as before. These acts must be repeated untill the wool is equally dispós'd, as
is necessary. At the left-hand side of the card frame is an arbor, with a
warve or pulley not represented in y. Draught, but its use is to carry the
cylinder G about, one of the pivots of the cylinder G going into à hole at the
end of the arbor, & the other pivot sustain'd by the spring 'H. Below this
arbor is a wheel L, on the ambitus of whose periphery is cut a groove o for a
bandage to go round it & the pulley of the árbor that carrys' the cylinder G
about. In this wheel are holes cut, m, m, so that the person sitting at the
engine may turn it with his foot, and by this means the cylinder is carried
about. At the right-hand side of the card frame is another cylinder I,'capable
of revolving on its axis or pivot. Upon this cylinder is roll'd up a quantity of
ribband, the end of which is 'fastned to the cylinder G. Now, by turning
the wheel about, the ribbands will be wound from one cylinder to the other.
These cylinders are capable of being took out, & others substituted in't their
room, at pleasure. Under the ribband that passes from cylinder to cylinder
.

page_text: is a bench to sustain it, K, K. The cylinders being in their places as described
in the Figure, the wool (or whatever carded matter it is) is to be took off the
rows of the card, & laid down on the ribband, by means of a stick with
needles in it paralell to one another like. the teeth of a comb. The wool
being on the ribband, the wheel, & consequently the cylinder G, are turn'd
about by the foot, & the wool & ribband-wound upon the cylinder so farr
that you have enough of that roll out to connect the next row of the wool (or
any other carded matter) that is took off with it. The next row being took
off, the end of it must be laid on the end of the last, & so wound up again, &
so on till you have made. an entire roll or fillement of all the rolls you have
taken from the rows of carding, & then it will be. fit for use. The upper
card is about. th of the breadth of the lower, & exceeds it-somewhat in
length, & has one continued & regular surface. The breadth & length
must allways be proportionate to the lower card, & the wire it is made of in
general of the same length & fineness..
Figure 2 represents a card wrapp'd on a cylinder or roller, which is to
revolve on its axis vertically, & is capable of being moved from right to left
& from left to right horizontally. This card consists of paralell rows of cards
with intervening spaces, as before described, instead of the upper card used to
the engine, Fig. 1. There is a concave lying below the cylinder, in which a
card is fastned, which concave has an arbor that, going thro' the top of the
frame, & also thro' a cross barr, rests on a leaver. This concave is capable of
turning about horizontaly, & of rising or falling perpendicularly by raising
or depressing of this lever. By means of a windlass & arbor, which comu-
nicate with the end of the lever by a string, the concave is made to press
harder or easier against the cylinder, &, by the lever being lower'd suffi-
.ciently, the concave card will be let down so farr as to be turn'd about by
means of treddles, as in Fig. 1, & is properly stop'd by a catch when it comes
my paralell with the cylinder. The concave, turning, answers the same end as
the flat card in Fig. 1. By the vertical rotatory motion which is given by
the windlass the wool is carded, & equally distributed on the card by sliding
in its horizontall direction, the concave being properly aply'd to it. After the
wool is properly carded it must be took off the rows by the needlesticks, &
wound upon cylinders, as directed in the description of the management of the
engine, Figure 1.

page_text: A, A, A, A, the frame.
B, B, the cylinder.
C, C, the concave.
D, D, the arbor of the concave.
5 E, E, the cross barr.
F, the pulley.
G, the lever that the arbor rests on,
& by which it receives it's perpen-
dicular motion.
H, the windlass for moving ye lever.
I, the string that connects the pulley
& lever.
K, the standards that supports y
cylind³.
L, the axis of the cylinder.
M, the windlass by which y cylinder
is turn'd about.
n, n, n, n's, the rows of cards.
LEWIS PAUL