Spinning wheel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A spinning wheel is a device for spinning thread or yarn from natural or man-made fibers.
Spinning is the process of taking threads and twisting them together to create flax. Spinning has been dated back to Neolithic times. Most of the spinning was done by a spindle. This was usually a smooth stick with a notch on one end for hanging on to the thread and whorl (a stone or a bowl). Two methods are used to make the wool ready for spinning. They are carding and combing.[1]
The first improvement in spinning technology was the spinning wheel, which was invented in India between 500 and 1000 A.D.[2] It reached Europe via the Middle East in the European Middle Ages. It replaced the earlier method of hand spinning, in which the individual fibres were drawn out of a mass of wool held on a stick, or distaff, twisted together to form a continuous strand, and wound on a second stick, or spindle. The first stage in mechanizing the process was to mount the spindle horizontally in bearings so that it could be rotated by a cord encircling a large, hand-driven wheel. The distaff, carrying the mass of fibre, was held in the left hand, and the wheel slowly turned with the right. Holding the fibre at an angle to the spindle produced the necessary twist.[3]
A series of improvements occured in the 1700s and culminated in the first rotor or open end spinning mill in the United States in 1970. Until the acceptance of rotor spinning wheel, all yarns were produced by aligning fibre s through drawing techniques and then twisting the fibre together. With rotor spinning, the fibres in the roving are seperated, thus open end, and then wrapped and twisted as the yarn is drawn out of the rotor cup. Newer technologies that may offer even faster yarn production include friction spinning, an open-end system, an air jet, spinning a drafting system.[2]
The changes in modern spinning have had for their object; the providing of mechanical means to rotate the spindle, an automatic method of drawing out the fibres, and devices for working a large group of spindles together, at speeds before unattainable.[4]
Contents |
[edit] Types of spinning wheels
Numerous types of spinning wheels exist, including the great wheel also known as walking wheel or wool wheel for rapid long-draw spinning of woolen-spun yarns; the flax wheel, which is a double-drive wheel used with a distaff for spinning linen; saxony and upright wheels, all-purpose treadle driven wheels used to spin worsted-spun yarns; and the charkha, a small, portable, hand-cranked wheel for spinning cotton and other fine, short-staple fibers.
[edit] Charkha
A charkha (etymologically related to Chakra) was both a tool and a symbol of the Indian independence movement. Mohandas Gandhi promoted making one's own clothes (like dhoti) instead of buying European-style garments manufactured in Britain from Indian raw materials; and to avoid becoming westernized. The charkha works similarly to the great wheel, with a drive wheel being turned by hand, while the yarn is spun off the tip of the spindle. Spinning must stop in order to wind on the yarn.
[edit] Great wheel
Library of Congress collection
The great wheel is about the height of a person, and is hand powered. Each revolution of the big wheel causes many revolutions of the smaller wheel. The rotation of the smaller wheel then causes the spindle (the object sticking out horizontaly, often made of metal) to turn.
To add twist to the yarn the spinner holds the fiber far enough away from the wheel so that the yarn made does not wind itself up onto the spindle. Once a sufficient amount of yarn has been made, the spinner allows the yarn to "take up" onto the spindle, and starts again.
One advantage of a great wheel is that the tension in the yarn is easy to adjust; all that is required is a step forward or backward. Some disadvantages are that one must always be standing (a fact which gave rise to the term walking wheel), and that it is less efficient than a flyer wheel because one has to stop spinning in order to wind up the yarn already made.
[edit] Double drive
The flax wheel is a good example of a double drive wheel. The double drive wheel is named after its drive band, which goes around the spinning wheel twice. The drive band turns the flyer, which is the horse-shoe shaped piece of wood surrounding the bobbin, as well as the bobbin. The bobbin has a smaller radius than the flyer, thus the drive band tries to turn it faster. When the yarn is being wound on the bobbin, the bobbin goes faster and winds yarn on.
The drive band on the double drive wheel is generally made from a no-stretch yarn; candlewick is also used.
[edit] Single drive
A single drive wheel has one drive band, in contrast to the double drive wheel, where the drive band goes around the wheel two times.
Most of the drive bands for single drive wheels are made from synthetic cord, which is elastic and does not slip easily on the wheel.
Where the double drive works by attempting to turn the bobbin faster than the flyer, the single drive works by slowing the bobbin down with a brake band. While the spinner is making new yarn, the bobbin and the flyer turn in unison, but when the spinner wants to wind the yarn onto the bobbin, the bobbin slows down and thus the yarn winds on. The bobbin slows down because of the brake band, which is generally a slick cotton cord that goes over one end of the bobbin. The tighter the brake band is, the more pull on the yarn, because the more friction the bobbin has to overcome in order to turn in sync with the flyer.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Procured from the ThinkQuest Library. Oracle Education Foundation
- ^ a b Cotton: Origin, History, Technology, and Production By C. Wayne Smith, Joe Tom Cothren. Page viii. Published 1999. John Wiley and Sons. Technology & Industrial Arts. 864 pages. ISBN 0471180459
- ^ Spinning wheel. (2007). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved April 7, 2007, from Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
- ^ Encyclopedia Britannica Eleventh Edition article on spinning.
[edit] References
- Cotton: Origin, History, Technology, and Production By C. Wayne Smith, Joe Tom Cothren. Published 1999. John Wiley and Sons. Technology & Industrial Arts. 864 pages. ISBN 0471180459
