carding

carding, process by which fibers are opened, cleaned, and straightened in preparation for spinning. The fingers were first used, then a tool of wood or bone shaped like a hand, then two flat pieces of wood (cards) covered with skin set with thorns or teeth. Primitive cards, rubber-covered and toothed with bent wires, are still employed by Navajo women. Modern carding dates from the use of revolving cylinders patented in 1748 by Lewis Paul. A mechanical apron feed was devised in 1772, and Richard Arkwright added a funnel that contracted the carded fiber into a continuous sliver. See combing.

---

carding

In yarn production, a process of separating individual fibres, causing many of them to lie parallel and removing most of the remaining impurities. Cotton, wool, waste silk, and man-made staple are subjected to carding. Carding produces a thin sheet of uniform thickness that is then condensed to form a thick, continuous, untwisted strand called sliver. When very fine yarns are desired, carding is followed by combing, a process that removes short fibres, leaving a sliver composed entirely of long fibres, all laid parallel and smoother and more lustrous than uncombed types. Carded and combed sliver is then spun.