Spinning Wheel. A spinning wheel is a device for spinning thread or yarn from fibres.
It was fundamental to the cotton textile industry prior to the Industrial Revolution. It laid the foundations for later machinery such as the spinning jenny and spinning frame, which displaced the spinning wheel during the Industrial Revolution.
Basic spinning of yarn involves taking a clump of fibres and teasing a bit of them out, then twisting it into a basic string shape. You continue pulling and twisting to make it longer and longer, and to control the thickness.
Thousands of years ago, people begin doing this onto a stick, called a spindle, which is a very lengthy process. The actual wheel part of a spinning wheel doesn't take place of the spindle, instead it automates the twisting process, allowing you to twist the thread without having to constantly do so manually, and also the size of the wheel lets you more finely control the amount of twist.
The thread still ends up on a spindle, just as it did pre-wheel. The wheel itself was originally free-moving, spun by a hand or foot reaching out and turning it directly. Eventually, simple mechanisms were created that let you simply push at a pedal and keep the wheel turning at an even more constant rate. This mechanism has been the main source of technological progress for the spinning wheel, before the 18th century. The spinning wheel was most likely invented
It was fundamental to the cotton textile industry prior to the Industrial Revolution. It laid the foundations for later machinery such as the spinning jenny and spinning frame, which displaced the spinning wheel during the Industrial Revolution.
Basic spinning of yarn involves taking a clump of fibres and teasing a bit of them out, then twisting it into a basic string shape. You continue pulling and twisting to make it longer and longer, and to control the thickness.
Thousands of years ago, people begin doing this onto a stick, called a spindle, which is a very lengthy process. The actual wheel part of a spinning wheel doesn't take place of the spindle, instead it automates the twisting process, allowing you to twist the thread without having to constantly do so manually, and also the size of the wheel lets you more finely control the amount of twist.
The thread still ends up on a spindle, just as it did pre-wheel. The wheel itself was originally free-moving, spun by a hand or foot reaching out and turning it directly. Eventually, simple mechanisms were created that let you simply push at a pedal and keep the wheel turning at an even more constant rate. This mechanism has been the main source of technological progress for the spinning wheel, before the 18th century. The spinning wheel was most likely invented
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