Doffing cylinder

[1] The doffer is set with pins that hold the fiber, which is then removed by a comb or knife and fed into the next stage of production.

Confusingly, the word doffer (meaning something that takes off, as in "doff your hat") is also used for mill workers whose job it is to remove full bobbins or pirns holding spun fiber and replace them with empty bobbins or pirns.

In a wool mill a doffer would move relatively slowly compared to the surface of the carding cylinder, picking up the fiber.

The idea seems to have originated with Louis Martin in Europe in 1803, and may have been used by Arnold Pawtucket in 1812 in Rhode Island.

By setting the wheels at a slight angle, the whole surface of the main cylinder would be cleared by them.