Wool combing machine

{{short description|Machine to lay the wool fibers parallel by length}} [[File:PSM V39 D313 A noble comb.jpg|thumb|An illustration of James Noble's wool combing machine, called the Noble Comb, from ''Popular Science'' in 1891.]] {{Infobox UK legislation | short_title = {{visible anchor|Cartwright's Woolcombing Machinery Act 1801}} | type = Act | parliament = Parliament of the United Kingdom | long_title = An act for vesting, for a limited time, in the reverend Edmund Cartwright clerk, master of arts, his executors, administrators, and assigns, the sole property in certain machinery by him invented for woolcombing. | year = 1801 | citation = 41 Geo. 3. (U.K.) c. cxxxiii | introduced_commons = | introduced_lords = | territorial_extent = | royal_assent = 2 July 1801 | commencement = | expiry_date = | repeal_date = | amends = | replaces = | amendments = | repealing_legislation = | related_legislation = | status = | legislation_history = | theyworkforyou = | millbankhansard = | original_text = https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/Geo3/41/133/pdfs/ukla_18010133_en.pdf | revised_text = | use_new_UK-LEG = | UK-LEG_title = | collapsed = yes }}

The '''wool combing machine''' was invented by Edmund Cartwright, the inventor of the power loom, in Doncaster. The machine was used to arrange and lay parallel by length the fibers of wool, prior to further treatment.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Lamb |first=James H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FdYctEzzEG4C |title=Textile Industry of the United States: Embracing Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and a Historical Resumé of the Progress of Textile Manufacture from the Earliest Records to the Present Time |publisher=J.H. Lamb Company |year=1911 |pages=78–79}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Barker |first=Derek |date=2013 |title=Research Note 'Lost in Oblivion': James Noble of the Noble Comb |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1179/0040496913Z.00000000029 |journal=Textile History |language=en |volume=44 |issue=2 |pages=214–234 |doi=10.1179/0040496913Z.00000000029 |s2cid=192151267 |issn=0040-4969|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=CHAPTER SEVEN. Processes and Inventions |date=1953-12-31 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.4159/harvard.9780674337121.c8/html |work=A Short History of Wool and Its Manufacture |pages=118–151 |publisher=Harvard University Press |doi=10.4159/harvard.9780674337121.c8 |isbn=978-0-674-33665-0 |access-date=2022-10-05|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Lemon |first=Hugo |date=1963 |title=The Hand Craftsman in the Wool Textile Trade |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1179/043087763798255060 |journal=Folk Life |language=en |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=66–76 |doi=10.1179/043087763798255060 |issn=0430-8778|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Cartwright's invention, nicknamed "Big Ben," was originally patented in April 1790, with subsequent patents following in December 1790 and May 1792 as the machine's design was refined by Cartwright.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Usher |first=Abbott Payson |date=1960 |title=The Industrialization of Modern Britain |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3101054 |journal=Technology and Culture |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=109–127 |doi=10.2307/3101054|jstor=3101054 |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=":2" /> This machine is the first example of mechanization of the wool combing stage of the textile manufacturing process, and a significant achievement for the textile industry.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" /> Cartwright's machine was described as doing the work of 20 hand-combers.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Yarwood |first=Doreen |title=Encyclopaedia of World Costume |publisher=Batsford |year=1978 |pages=407}}</ref>

The wool combing machine was improved refined by many later inventors, including Josué Heilmann, Samuel Cunliffe Lister, Isaac Holden, and James Noble.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Looms burned |url=http://www.newarkadvertiser.co.uk/leisure/tourism/history/TimWarner/warner80.asp |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160329213842/https://www.newarkadvertiser.co.uk/leisure/tourism/history/TimWarner/warner80.asp |archivedate=29 March 2016 |work=Newark Advertiser}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Peel |first=A. Geoffrey |date=1955 |title=James Noble—1853–1953 |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19447015508665130 |journal=Journal of the Textile Institute Proceedings |language=en |volume=46 |issue=10 |pages=P688–P691 |doi=10.1080/19447015508665130 |issn=1944-7019|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

Category:English inventions Category:History of Nottinghamshire Category:Textile machinery Category:Weaving equipment Category:Wool industry