carding machine, part

Slater, Samuel · 1790

Samuel Slater’s cotton carding machine, built in 1790, was based on the English system of machine carding, which he introduced in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Samuel Slater, considered the father of the American cotton industry, came to America in 1789 from England. He acquired his knowledge of textile machinery in England as an apprentice in the Arkwright system of carding and spinning cotton. His cotton carding machine is only one of two pieces of original Slater machinery still in existence.