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A Carding machine
| This machine is similar to the ones I had to keep loaded with laps (rolls of uncombed cotton and wool), while working at Maw's in New Barnet in the early sixties. You can clearly see the two laps, one above the other, on the back of this machine. Carded (combed) material emerges from the front of the machine as an extremely thin sheet. Like the vast majority of carders, this one is fitted with a device on the front bar which funnels this sheet into a very thin roll (you can see it here, emerging upwards from the device). This roll is then fed into a spinning machine and turned into cotton or woollen thread. However, the machines I loaded were used to make cotton wool, so they lacked the funnelling device. The thin sheet was instead folded many times by another machine, rolled up, chopped into manageable lengths and stuffed straight into boxes, or wrapped in muslin to make sanitary towels. I had to keep a double row of machines like this loaded, and was probably the only lap-carrier in southern England. |