jan 1, 1681 - card

Description:

An implement used for ‘teasing’ or working wool into a sliver. In this sense the word ‘card’ derives ultimately from the Latin word for thistle, and the cards used originally in the dressing proces are said to have been teasel heads set in a wooden frame. Later the hand-cards were used in pairs and were effectively wire brushes: they have been described as having sharpened and bent iron staples set in a piece of leather, mounted on a wooden back with a handle (Crump34-5). The term is on record from the fourteenth century: 1382 <i>cardes </i>and<i> kammes </i>[combs], Yeadon (SW74); 1410 <i>De xijd de iij paribus del cardes, </i>York (SS45/48); 1454 <i>a spynyngwhele, a peyre of cardes</i>, Nottingham (SS30/173); 1535 <i>Item ij payer wollcardes xxd; Item a payer woll combes ijs</i>, Stillingfleet (YRS45/130); 1579 <i>a pair of wolle cardes</i>, South Cave (Kaner107); 1622 <i>a paire of ould cardes</i>, Cottingley (LRS1/61). The change in the way that cards were made stimulated the wire-drawing industry: 1552 <i>To John Danyell</i> ... <i>one stone of carde wyer</i>, Garforth (Th19/300). In 1681 a Brighouse man was charged with buying foreign wire <i>for making of wooll cards</i> (Crump35).

Added to timeline:

Date: