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An Introduction
Who Did What?
Clothier
Woolstapler
Dyer
Willower
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Blender
Carder
Slubbing
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Carder

Wool was carded to straighten the fibres ready for spinning. This job was always done by the spinner. In Saxon times, an iron comb was used but by the 13cen, hand cards had been developed. These consisted of two wooden boards covered with metal teeth which produced a loose roll of fibres (a rolag). Frome was the local centre of the hand card making industry. Cards were supplied to the spinners by the clothier.

After mechanisation, carding was carried out on a carding set, a series of rollers which produced a flat web of fibres. The piecener took pieces off the carding set, joined them by hand and fed them into the slubbing billy. One of the earliest processes to be mechanised was the conversion of carded fibres from a web into bundles of fibres. The slubbing billy came into use by the 1790s and looked very similar to an early spinning jenny.

Modern carding involves passing fibres through several carding sets. A multi-layered condenser has a doffer which splits the web of fibres into continuous slivers or slubbings. These look like thin ropes and have a very small amount of twist which holds the fibres together.