h 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.]

First Mechanical Cards

The earliest mechanical device for carding fibers was invented by Lewis
Paul in England in 1738 but not patented until August 30, 1748. The
patent described two machines. The first, and less important, machine
consisted of 16 narrow cards mounted on a board; a single card held in
the hand performed the actual carding operation (see fig. 3). The second
machine utilized a horizontal cylinder covered with parallel rows of
card clothing. Under the cylinder was a concave frame lined with similar
card clothing. As the cylinder was turned, the cards on it worked
against those on the concave frame, separating and straightening the
fibers (see fig. 4). After the fibers were carded, the concave section
was lowered and the fibers were stripped off by hand with a needle
stick, an implement resembling a comb with very fine needlelike metal
teeth. Though his machine was far from perfect. Lewis Paul had invented
the carding cylinder working with stationary cards and the stripping
comb.

[Illustration: Figure 4.--THE PATENT DESCRIPTION OF PAUL'S SECOND
MACHINE suggested that the fibers be carded by a cylinder action, but be
removed in the same manner as directed in the first patent.]

[Illustration: Figure 5.--ILLUSTRATIONS FROM BRITISH PATENT 628, ISSUED
JANUARY 20, 1748, to Daniel Bourn for a roller card machine.]

[Illustration: Figure 6.--THE MOST IMPORTANT SINGLE FEATURE Illustrated
in Richard Arkwright's British patent 1111 of December 16, 1775,
provided "a crank and a frame of iron with teeth" to remove the carded
fibers from the cylinder.]

Another important British patent was granted in 1748 to Daniel Bourn,
who invented a machine with four carding rollers set close together, the
first of the roller-card type (see fig. 5). To produce a practical
carding machine, however, several additional mechanical improvements
were necessary. The first of these did not appear until more than two
decades later, in 1772, when John Lees of Manchester is reported to have
invented a machine featuring "a perpetual revolving cloth, called a
feeder," that fed the fibers into the machine.[2] Shortly afterward, the
stripper rollers[3] and the doffer comb[4] (a mechanical utilization of
Paul's hand device) were added.