In 1748 Lewis Paul of Birmingham, England invented the hand driven carding machine.
Together they operated a hotel in Brookville, became heavily involved in land speculation, and opened a water powered weaving mill with a wool carding machine.
The preparing, carding, spinning, weaving and finishing process of alpaca is very similar to the process used for wool.
Its decoration varied from scenes of women working carding wool, to symposia or Amazons.
Numerous carding frames by Platt Brothers of Oldham were dated 1905, 1907 and 1920, but some of these had been converted to suit Courtauld's needs.
The story was also made into a soap starring Marianne Dela Riva as Luisa and Ronald Corveau as Carding in the decade where rising soaps began.
Hurricane Mills, located a few miles south of Waverly along TN-13, was the site of a substantial mill and carding factory in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.