This invention was exhibited at the Centennial in 1876, although in a somewhat crude state. Since that time it has been materially improved, and mechanically is very nearly perfect now. Many attempts have been made to apply a stop motion, which should be quick in its movement and accurate in its result, to carding engines or the card, not one of which, until the application of electricity, was worth the time spent in putting it on. With the electric motion, however, all this is changed, and the electric attachments are not of necessity so fragile as to be un-mechanical or to be not practical. The advantage has also been taken, in a mechanical way, of using cotton as one element, and, being non-conducting, so that no trouble shall arise from contact with the working parts of the electrical apparatus with the cotton itself. To take into consideration all the possibilities that exist from the railway can to the front of the fine speeder is not needed by the practical reader, and would be useless to any other. The principle of this invention is the supplying of a magneto-electric current from a small magneto-electric machine attached to the card, speeder, or whatever machine it may be applied to which generates the current, and this machine is driven by a small belt from the main driving shaft. The machine in itself weighs but a few pounds, and can be driven by a half-inch or three quarter-inch belt, and requires a little more power than a light-running sewing machine. One pole of the magneto-electric machine is connected by means of a rod or wire to the machine frame upon which it is to be used, and the other pole to the electromagnet in the ordinary way of conductivity of current, which means stretching the wire from one to the other. An armature is arranged so that when a thread is broken or a sliver or a strand of roving, the armature drops into a ratchet wheel; this ratchet wheel is made to revolve by the belt, and whenever it is impeded or stopped in its course it acts upon mechanism which throws the driving belt of the machine upon the loose pulley. Electrical contact is made by a very simple contrivance, and these attachments are only to act in the case of a breakage of a thread or strand. As applied to a card, the calender rolls are both connected, one with the negative and one with the positive pole; when the sliver of cotton is between the calender rolls there is no connection, but if the sheet breaks down between the cone and the calender roll, the moment the calender rolls come in contact the electrical attachment operates and a stoppage ensues; and in the case, as with the American system, where a number of cards are used in a railway, this electric contact may be used for either one of two purposes-to stop the feeding of cotton into the card, or to ring a bell sharply and continue ringing it until the sliver is put between the calender rolls again and the card set to delivering cotton.