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Jan 1, 2010, 1:35pm

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The Sealed Knot Society | Earl Rivers Regiment of Foote forum :: Historical :: Regimental Research :: Spinning Wheels

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Topic: Spinning Wheels (Read 161 times)

L&ABlewbury
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A stitch in time........

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Spinning Wheels
« Thread Started on Sept 23, 2009, 9:30pm »

I started looking into the history of spinning wheels recently as I might have the chance to get one and didn't know much about them.
What type is most authentic? The ones we see most of nowadays have a treadle and flyer but how authentic is this? This is where things get confusing, an early woodcut shows a woman at a wheel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Woodcut_Woman_Spinning_Detail.jpg (copy and paste the whole link not just the blue bit on all these links or they won't display - how do I sort that out? Does anyone know?) but is that some sort of winding handle and what's going on at the business end? How is she spinning the fibres?

John says - this is a straight link to that image without oll the copyright details: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co....ning_Detail.jpg

I'd found out that the unspun fibres were held on a 'distaff' and this had been used when drop spindles were the latest thing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:William-adolphe_bouguereau_the_spinner.jpg (again you have to copy and paste the whole link, not just the blue bit) but what was happening inbetween?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co....the_spinner.jpg

Further research came up with a painting by Diago Velazquez(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Diego_Vel%C3%A1zquez_014.jpg), there was the distaff and the hand operated wheel but it still wasn't clear what was actually producing the twist in the yarn.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Diego_Vel%C3%A1zquez_014.jpg

By this time I had quite a discussion going on on Facebook, which encompassed the entire planet as my good friends from New Zealand joined in too.
So it looked as if a hand operated wheel and a distaff were the order of the day. Modern wheels have a 'flyer' which twists the fibres and uses centrifugal forces to wind the yarn onto the spindle at the same time, but this was absent on these early wheels apparently. Then, wonder of wonders I discovered that Leonardo Da Vinci had drawn designs for a flyer, but he had also designed helicopters so I still wasn't sure if the flyer was in use in the C17th or not.
The question still remained; how were the fibres spun into yarn? Then I came across this Youtube footage of what is now know in the States as the Great or Walking Wheel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrrJLAXwU....F2B48C5&index=8
So that's how it must have been done, although our lady in the woodcut remained seated and the wheel was somewhat smaller. We, on FB, also thought this must have been the type of spindle with which you could prick your finger and fall asleep for 100 years!
I'm still not clear as to whether treadles and flyers were in common use when Good King Charles was our leader but at least I have some idea about how it was done if they weren't