With this progress in weaving, and with an expanding market, it was inevitable that efforts would be made to effect improvements in the methods of preparing the raw material, and in spinning. In 1736, before the Committee of the House of Commons which reported in favour of the petition to allow printed fustians to be freely manufactured, the statement was made that four spinners were required to supply one weaver with material, and all the authorities substantiate the statement and emphasise the difficulties which existed owing to the discrepancy.[242] [Footnote 242: _Ante_, p. 23. Ogden, _ibid._, p. 87. Guest, _ibid._, pp. 11-12.] At the beginning of the eighteenth century, in this country, the only thing that could be called a machine used in the operations necessary in transforming raw cotton into yarn was the spinning-wheel. One or other of two wheels was commonly used for cotton-spinning: the “Jersey” wheel or the “Brunswick” wheel, the latter differing from the former mainly in the fact that it had a treadle, so that it could be worked by the foot. On these wheels only one thread was spun, and the spinning was intermittent with the winding of the spun thread. The “Saxony” wheel was an improvement upon these, but was most commonly used for flax and wool spinning. With this wheel there was a contrivance known as a “Flier” which enabled the processes of spinning and winding to proceed simultaneously, and sometimes two spindles were attached to it, the spinner thus forming a thread with each hand. The “Saxony” wheel, however, was not so suitable for cotton-spinning as the others.[243] [Footnote 243: Kennedy, _Brief Memoir of Samuel Crompton_, Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, vol. v., Second Series (1831), p. 324. _Souvenir of Royal Visit to Bolton_, 10th July 1913, pp. 12, 13. The sections on cotton-spinning, and on early cotton machinery, were written by Mr. Thomas Midgley, Curator of Chadwick Museum, Bolton, and contain a clear exposition of the spinning processes. In the museum there is an excellent collection of the early machinery of Hargreaves, Arkwright, and Crompton, as well as of more ancient machinery.] The cotton, before spinning, was cleaned by hand or, at most, by lightly beating it with a cane, while the carding operation was performed by means of hand-cards.[244] These cards were little more than two brushes with wire bristles, the cotton being placed on one brush, and by the other being drawn over it, the fibres were straightened out ready for the next process. Some progress was made in carding by increasing the surface of the cards, making one a fixture, and hanging the other round a pulley with a weight to balance it. Thus the workman was left with the task of moving this card to and fro over the cotton on the fixed card as required. These cards were known as stock-cards as distinguished from the hand-cards.[245] [Footnote 244: Dobson, _Evolution of the Spinning Machine_ (1911), p. 28.]