facts which have become known to me during ten years' resi dence in Lowell, or through my friends, who are, or have been, manufacturers. Excuse me if I should omit in this short account any steps which are well known to others.

Professor WHITAKER then proceeded to read his paper, as follows:

MR. PRESIDENT,

The system of flat carding has been quite.

a favorite one with American carders.

I have been much interested in noting some progressive steps in the Invention and Improvement of the Flat Card. I shall not undertake a comprehensive, world-wide view of the subject, but shall merely state some facts that have become known to me during a ten years' residence in Lowell, or through my friends who are, or who have been, connected with manufactories. I beg that you will excuse me if I should omit to mention, in this short account, many steps in this progression, which are well known to others. I am indebted to Mr. Evan Leigh for information and an illustration from his "Science of Modern Cotton-Spinning." Also to Mr. William A. Burke, treasurer of the Lowell Machine Shop, for permission to use at this meeting drawings of cards built at different dates by that corporation. If most of my illustrations are of Lowell cards, I hope you will excuse it, as those illustrations were most easily accessible to me. The diagrams which I have had prepared are intended for use at this meeting only.

The earliest account that we have of the carding process, is of two flats, one nailed to a bench, and the other having a single handle by which it could be moved back and forth over the fixed card, upon which the cotton was placed. (See Fig. 1.)

The first improvement was made by James Hargreaves of Blackburn. He suspended the movable flat by two cords which passed over pulleys, and which had weights at the other ends. (See Fig. 1.) These "Stock Cards," as they were called, had considerably larger flats than those before mentioned, and much more and better work could be done by their aid, with less labor. The movable flat had two handles, and the sliver produced was longer than before.

The second improvement was made by Lewis Paul of Birmingham in 1748. He attached the lower flat to a rotary

bench, that could be turned by a treadle movement about a vertical shaft. While carding, the teeth of the lower flat pointed upward and from the operative. When the carding had been completed, the lower flat was turned half-way around, its

teeth pointed upward and towards the operative, and it was convenient to remove the carded cotton.

The third improvement was made by the same inventor, and covered in the same patent. He substituted for the movable upper card a horizontal cylinder, which could be either rotated, or moved lengthwise, by hand. It was covered with longitudinal

strips of clothing, with longitudinal spaces between. The lower card was concaved to fit against the lower part of the cylinder. It could be moved lengthwise of a vertical shaft, and, also, turned about it. When carding, the concave could be brought close to the cylinder. When the carding was finished, the concave could be lowered and turned half-way about, to facilitate the removal of the cotton. (See Fig. 2.)

FIG. 2.

Hand Cylinder Card, by Lewis Paul of Birmingham. Third Improvement, 1748.

The next improvement, made about 1773, changed the carding process from an intermittent hand to a continuous power process. This change made its inventor, Richard Arkwright, very rich. It, with other inventions and his personal qualities, made him Sir Richard Arkwright. He fed the cotton to the cylinder by fluted rolls. He doffed the cotton from the cylinder by another smaller cylinder. He removed the cotton continuously from the doffer by the doffing comb. His power-card was as perfect a machine as the steam-power producer of his great contemporary, Watt.

Arkwright completed the invention of the principal parts of the power-card. The improvements which have since been made in it have been improvements of particular details. The essential features of his power-card were the same as those shown in that diagram which represents a card with twelve top-flats, covering .23 of the circumference. This card was for some time, previous to 1845, built by the Proprietors of the Locks and Canals on the Merrimac River, at their "big shop," as it was called, in Lowell. (See Fig. 3.)

The remainder of my remarks will relate to progressive steps in the modification of the details of the flats. In order that I

may be the more clearly understood, allow me to call attention to a point of detail in the setting of the flats. They are sometimes, but not commonly, so set that the toothed surface

FIG. 3.

Built at Lowell until about 1845. 12 Top-flats occupy .23 of the circumference.

of the flat almost touches the corresponding surface of the cylin

der along the centre line of the flat surface, as shown in the