The Scholfield Wool-Carding MachinesCooper, Grace Rogers
History
The Scholfield Wool-Carding Machines
Cooper, Grace Rogers
Wool-carding
He has carding-machines for sale, built under his immediate
inspection, upon a new and improved plan, which he is determined to
sell on the most liberal terms, and will give drafts and other
instructions to those who wish to build for themselves; and
cautions all whom it may concern to beware how they are imposed
upon by uninformed speculating companies, who demand more than
twice as much for machines as they are really worth.
Scholfield must have felt that some of his competitors were charging
much more for their carding machines than they were worth. Also, others
were producing inferior machines that did not card the wool properly.
Both factors encouraged Arthur to continue the commercial production of
wool-carding machines. In April 1805 he again advertised:
Good news for farmers, only eight cents per pound for picking,
greasing, and carding white wool, and twelve and a half cents for
mixed. For sale, Double Carding-machines, upon a new and improved
plan, good and cheap.
And in 1806:
Double carding machines, made and sold by A. Scholfield for $253
each, without the cards, or $400 including the cards. Picking
machines at $30 each. Wool carded on the same terms as last year,
viz.: eight cents per pound for white, and twelve and a half cents
for mixed, no credit given.
With both carpenters and machinists working under his direction, he soon
abandoned completely the carding of wool and devoted his full time to
producing carding machines. An advertisement in the _Pittsfield Sun_
shows Alexander and Elisha Ely providing carding service there with a
Scholfield machine in 1806. Scholfield machines were also set up in
Massachusetts at Bethuel Baker, Jr., & Co. in Lanesborough in 1805, at
Walker & Worthington in Lenox, at Curtis's Mills in Stockbridge, at
Reuben Judd & Co. in Williamstown, in Lee at the falls near the forge,
at Bairds' Mills in Bethlehem in 1806, and by John Hart in Cheshire in
1807. Subsequently many more Scholfield machines were set up in many
other places as far away as Manchester, New Hampshire, in 1809 and Mason
Village, New Hampshire, in about 1810.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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