among artificers, an instrument for combing and disentangling the fibres of wool or flax, freeing them from the coarser parts and from extraneous matter, so as to render them fine and soft for spinning. A card consists of bent wire-teeth inserted in a thick piece of leather, which is nailed by the edges to a piece of board about a foot in length, and half a foot in breadth; and in the middle of one of the longer sides a handle is fixed. They are of various kinds, as hand-cards, stock-cards, &c. These are now in a measure superseded; wool, cotton, &c., being generally carded in mills by teeth fixed on wheels moved by water or steam-power. See Wool and its Manufactures.

CARDS, Playing Cards, oblong pieces of fine pasteboard, commonly three inches and a half long and two and a half broad, on which are painted various points and figures. The invention of playing cards has, by some, been referred to the Romans, but this opinion is undoubtedly erroneous. It is however certain that they were known in Europe at least as early as the year 1275. Though the blocks used for stamping the devices were similar to those that were afterwards employed for the earliest printed books, their application in this way appears to have been long overlooked. Without absolutely affirming that the art of making playing cards really suggested that of printing, it may be noticed as a very remarkable fact, that a period of more than 150 years should have been suffered to elapse before such blocks were applied to the nobler purpose of that art which has done more than any other to advance civilization and ameliorate the condition of mankind.

In the manufacture of playing cards blocks are still employed; but the pips or characters are more commonly produced by the process called stencilling; in which the device is formed by means of an oiled cloth or paper in which apertures are cut, representing spades, diamonds, &c. This is laid above the card, and then the surface of the stencil or pattern is painted over with a brush full of red or black water-colour of rather a thick consistence, or with oil-colour. On removing the stencil, those parts of the card that were exposed will exhibit the corresponding pattern. When perfectly dry, the surface of the card may be polished by simple friction with a soft brush. If it be desired to give to pasteboard the appearance of ivory, this may be effected by covering it with a mixture of size and French white, with a small proportion of clear drying oil. The colour, of course, must not be applied till the pasteboard so prepared be thoroughly dry. The gilding, silvering, or bronzing of any part of the card may be effected by covering the corresponding part of the block with gilder's size, instead of colour, and powdering the surface with gold-dust, &c., by means of a soft dapper. The duty of one shilling per pack on cards sold in 1841 produced the sum of L9223, 18s.

Among sharpers, divers sorts of false and fraudulent cards have been contrived; as, 1. Marked cards, where the aces, kings, queens, knaves, are marked on the corners of the backs with spots of different number and order, either with clear water or water tinged with pale Indian ink. 2. Breef cards, those which are longer or broader than the rest; chiefly used at whist and piquet, to enable a person to cut the cards disadvantageously to his adversary, and draw the person unacquainted with the fraud to cut them favourably for the sharper. As the pack is placed either endwise or sidewise to him that is to cut, the long or broad cards naturally lead him to cut them. 3. Corner bend denotes four cards turned down finely at one corner, to serve as a signal to cut by. 4. Middle bend, is where the tricks are bent two different ways, which causes an opening or arch in the middle, to direct the cutting.

In the learned work of J. G. Immanuel Breitkopf on Playing Cards, we find that they are mentioned in the Stadtbuch of Augsburg in 1275; where it is said that the emperor "Rudolph I. amused himself with playing-cards, and other games." They are also noticed in other works as used in Germany in 1286, and in various periods between that and 1384. Tiraboschi mentions their use in Italy as early as 1299, from a manuscript of Pippozzo di Sandro, tom. vi. 1163. The invention, therefore, cannot be ascribed to the French in 1390, as Mezéral asserts, although cards were used in France about that year to divert Charles VI., who had fallen into a state of melancholy. The figures of the four suits were regarded as symbolical representations of the four principal classes of men. By the coeurs (hearts) are meant the gens de cheval, choir-men, or ecclesiastics; and therefore the Spaniards have copos, or chalices, instead of hearts. The nobility, or prime military part of the kingdom, are represented by the ends or points of lances or pikes; which, from our misconception of the meaning or resemblance of the figure, were called spades in England. The Spaniards have espadas, swords, in lieu of pikes, which are of similar import. By diamonds (corneaux, square stones, tiles, or the like) are designed the order of citizens, merchants, or tradesman. Trifflle, the trefoil-leaf, or clover-grass, corruptly called clubs, alludes to the husbandmen and peasants. But how this suit came to be called clubs is not easily explained; unless, borrowing the game from the Spaniards, who have bastos (staves or clubs) instead of the trefoil, we gave the Spanish signification to the figure of the trefoil. The four kings were David, Alexander, Caesar, and Charles (names which long continued to be retained on the French cards), and represented the four celebrated monarchies of the Jews, Greeks, Romans, and Franks under Charlemagne. By the queens were intended Argine, Esther, Judith, and Pallas, typical of royal birth, piety, fortitude, and wisdom. Argine is an anagram for regina or queen. The knaves represented the attendants of knights, for knave originally merely meant servant. Some suppose that the knights themselves were designed by those cards, because Hogier and Labire, two names on the old French cards, were famous knights at the time when cards began to be used in France.