1851 Great Exhibition: Official Catalogue: Class VI.: Thomas Crabtree
3. CRABTREE, THOMAS, Godley, near Halifax — Manufacturer.
Card-setting machine; which accomplishes the entire manipulation for producing the complete card from the wire and leather or cloth in their primary state; it will make cards for wool, cotton, or silk; used in the manufactory of Messrs. J. Sykes and Brothers, card manufacturers, Acre Mills, Lindley, near Huddersfield.
[A card, for carding cotton, wool, and other analogous fibrous substances: it consists of a series of forked wires, both ends of which are inserted through holes made in a strap of leather, and then bent very regularly to the required inclination. Cards in the carding engine seem to lay all the fibres of cotton or wool in one direction, accumulating it into a loose mass called a fleece, preparatory to the process of spinning. The first card-making machine was patented by J. C. Dyer, of Manchester, in 1811, and is said to have been the invention of an American named Whittemore. It is a most beautiful and efficient piece of mechanism.— W. D. L. R.]