Carding Engine

Made:
1896 in Oldham
Carding engine, made by Asa Lees & Co. Ltd, Oldham, 1896 Carding engine, made by Asa Lees & Co. Ltd, Oldham, 1896

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Carding engine, made by Asa Lees & Co. Ltd, Oldham, 1896
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Carding engine, made by Asa Lees & Co. Ltd, Oldham, 1896
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Carding engine, made by Asa Lees & Co. Ltd, Oldham, 1896 and used at Moorfield Mill in Shaw.

This machine has rollers covered in tiny wire pins. They removed the last pieces of dirt from the cotton and untangled the fibres. White cotton fluff covered the clothes of people who worked the carding engines.

In the carding room, machines cleaned and combed the cotton. Loose fibres escaped from the cotton, making it the dustiest and most unhealthy place to work in the mill. By the 1820s, doctors in Manchester started to realise that cotton mill workers often became ill with breathing problems and sore eyes.

Details

Category:
Textile Industry
Object Number:
Y1972.30
Materials:
metal (unknown)
type:
carding engine
credit:
Gift of Courtaulds Limited