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 eac