ion, 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