Cash’s Carding Mill – Textile Production in Rural Cape Breton
Vicki Quimby
“People would bring their wool and they had a machine that would card it, and the wool comes out in rolls. Makes it easy for the women who were doing the spinning.”
(Hilda MacDonald, Cape Breton’s Magazine, No. 12, pg.15)
For most of the 19th century, the making of cloth and clothing was a necessary and time-consuming task for women of rural Cape Breton families. Most of the work was done in the home with hand tools such as carders, spinning wheels, spindles, and looms.
The process of carding was essential. Before wool can be spun into yarn for knitting or weaving cloth, it must be carded, that is made into rolls (rolagan) in preparation for spinning. Hand carders were wooden paddles with metal teeth embedded in leather. The wool was brushed out between the metal teeth, a small bit at a time, and as the combing progressed, was transferred from one carder to the other until the fibres were thoroughly aligned. The direction of the carders was then reversed and a roll was “doffed off,” that is, slipped off the carder. These were motions that were repeated over and over until there were finally enough rolls for spinning.
As the century progressed, so did the advent of machinery into rural industry. Gristmills, sawmills, and horse-drawn mowers saved hours of back-breaking labour needed for grinding, sawing, or cutting hay. Carding mills, too, could save a family much effort. A mill could produce as many rolls in one hour as a woman could in one day using hand carders. These rolls were more even in thickness than any made by hand, allowing them to be spun up much more quickly.
The census of 1851 shows that 6 weaving and carding mills were operating in various parts of the island. One of the more well-known of this period was Glendyer Mills near Mabou, where dyeing and fulling services were available as well as the carding. By 1891, there were 21 carding and fulling mills in operation in Cape Breton. One of these was Cash’s carding mill in Irish Cove. These mills were largely water-powered and were often combined with other types of mills, such as sawmills, gristmills, or shingle mills.
A carding machine, developed from a 1748 patent, and changing little since 1773, consists of several rotating drums of different sizes. These are covered with a leather backing fitted with wire teeth, reminiscent of the material used in hand carders. As the wool passes through the machine, these cylinders grab the wool in one direction and release it in the other, the tangled fibres of wool becoming brushed and aligned.
This mill is made up of three separate parts. In the front is the picker. Its cylinder conceals a spike-toothed drum which fluffs and loosens the clean wool. The breaker cards make up the middle section of the mill. In this machine, the wool is transferred to the feed rolls which feed the wool to the tumbler and onto the main cylinder. The main cylinder carries the wool along to the smaller cylinders called workers and strippers. The wool is removed by the first worker and deposited back onto the main cylinder by the first stripper. Then the main cylinder passes it to the next worker and stripper, etc. This series of rollers operates in the same direction, but at different speeds due to larger and smaller diameters. Next, a fancy uses long bristles to fluff the wool up on the main cylinder so that a doffer can remove it and, finally, the comber takes the wool off the doffer.
The last section of the mill, the finishing cards, consists of essentially the same machinery, but with finer teeth. Also, batts for stuffing quilts could be produced instead of rolls.
Cash’s carding mill was purchased second hand in 1883 by Frank Cash, an Irish immigrant who settled in the community of Irish Cove, Cape Breton in the early 1800’s. He bought the machinery, manufactured by E. C. Cleveland in Worcester, Massachusetts, from a Mr. Chisholm in Loch Lomond, Cape Breton. It was originally powered by water, using a 21-foot-high man-made dam. Later, a gas-powered engine, called a one-lunger was added, to be used when the water supply was inadequate. Over time, the operation was expanded to include a shingle mill, sawmill and a gristmill.
Residents of the surrounding areas would send their wool to the mill by road and by boat. It had to arrive at the mill clean and washed and some people even dyed their wool before they sent it. Late summer and fall were the busiest times at the mill, when over a thousand pounds of wool was carded in a month. Each customer’s wool was carded separately and weighed at the end for pricing. In 1880 the price was 3 cents per pound; by 1900 it was 5 cents; and by 1933, 8 cents per pound.
Frank’s son, Tom, took over the carding business in 1921 and ran it until 1946. By this time, fewer families were spinning wool and there was little demand for the rolls. Thereafter, it was operated only occasionally for custom work.
Charlie Cash, Tom’s son, who worked the mill with his father, wanted the carding mill to be preserved and experienced by future generations. He has graciously donated it to the Highland Village.
This article originally appeared in the Highland Village Museum/An Clachan Gàidhealach's newletter, An Rubha (The Point), Vol. 9, No.1, p. 9, An Geamhradh/Winter 2005/06.
© 2005 Nova Scotia Highland Village Society
Download a PDF version of this story. [file size = 396 KB]
© C@P Society of Cape Breton County, 2009
