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