wool combing machine

{{short description|Machine to lay the wool fibers parallel by length}}

File:PSM V39 D313 A noble comb.jpg in1891. ]]

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.{{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}}{{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}}{{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}}{{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}}

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.{{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 }} 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. Cartwright's machine was described as doing the work of 20 hand-combers.{{Cite book |last=Yarwood |first=Doreen |title=Encyclopaedia of World Costume |publisher=Batsford |year=1978 |pages=407}}

The wool combing machine was improved refined by many later inventors, including Josué Heilmann, Samuel Cunliffe Lister, Isaac Holden, and James Noble.{{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}}{{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}}