Wool Combing Machine

A wool combing machine mechanically combs raw wool fiber, drawing the longer fibers straight and parallel to one another while removing the shorter fibers and any remaining vegetable matter, producing the smooth, aligned sliver that worsted spinning requires, as distinct from the shorter, more tangled fiber that carding alone produces for woolen yarn. The French engineer Josue Heilmann patented his wool combing machine in 1845, mechanizing a process that had previously been done entirely by hand with heated hand combs, a slow and physically demanding trade; his machine used a rotating circular comb to catch and hold the wool fibers while a second combing action drew the long fibers free. Heilmann's design was followed by a series of rival combing machines, including those of Isaac Holden and Samuel Cunliffe Lister in England, which competed on how short a fiber staple they could comb cleanly, and mechanized combing became one of the defining technologies that separated the worsted branch of the wool trade from the woolen branch.