OK) 



SPINNING 



was removed. A graphic description ot thU method 

 f spinning is given by a Scotch rhymester of the 

 18th century- 



To aave their plaid Ing coata some had 

 Upo' the haunch a bonnet braid 

 Or in auld wecht or kainiing skio 

 To rah and gar the spindle rin 

 Down to the ground wi' twirling Rpeed 

 An* twine upo' the floor the thread. 



Simple as it is, the spindle has continued in use 

 from prehistoric times to the present day. In 

 some outlying regions of the Scottish Highlands 

 and l-lainU, according to Sir Arthur Mitchell (The 

 Past in the Present, Rhind Lectures, Edin. 1880), 

 yarn is still made with it, and in the East Indies 

 the exceedingly delicate 

 yarn for Dacca (q.v.) 

 muslins is made on the 

 spindle. The first im- 

 provement on this simple 

 apparatus consisted in 

 fixing the spindle in bear- 

 ings and causing it to 

 rotate by a belt passed 

 over a wheel. Next came 

 the fitting on the spindle 

 of a separate bobbin to 

 receive tne spun yarn, and 

 this in effect constitutes 

 the charka or spinning- 

 wheel of the East, which 

 has there been used from 

 time immemorial, and 

 also the ' muckle wheel, ' 

 the use of which con- 

 tinued in Scotland till 

 recent times. This simple 

 wheel was known in 

 Europe as early as the 

 14th century, but the 

 greatly improved small or 

 Saxon wheel (fig. 2), with 

 a treadle motion giving 

 continuous rotation to the 

 spindle and allowing the 

 spinner to sit with both 

 hands free, was not known till much later times. 

 In the ttpinning-wlieel in its improved form a bob- 

 bin or pirn with a separate motion was placed on 

 tin- spindle (fig. 3), which had two bent arms, the 

 fly IT or flight, lor winding the yarn on the 

 bobbin. The bobbin and flyer revolved at 

 different rates the revolutions of the 

 spindle giving the twists and the differ- 

 ence of rotation causing the winding on. 

 In >uoh wheels it was possible to have two 

 >piinlles niul pirns a little apart ( the two- 

 liiindcd wheel, tig. 2), with distall' or rock 

 l>ct\veen them, and on these the spinster 

 produced thread with each hand. The 

 iiiirodiirtioii of mechanical spinning to- 

 wards the end of the 18th century gave a 

 death-blow to this great domestic imliis. 

 try, but in tlie Northern and Western 

 IIL'lilands of Scotland a good deal of 

 worsted yarn still continues to be made 

 for local manufacturer on spinning-wheels. 

 The series of inventions whieh over- 

 threw hand -spinning may lie said to have 

 lieen l>egiin by Lewis I'anl in IT.'W, when 

 he patented the important principle of 

 drawing out and attenuating a sliver or 

 loose coil of fibre by passing it Iwtween successive 

 pairs of rollers revolving at increasing rates of 

 velocity. This principle of drawing out fibres by 

 accelerated motion was developed in the spinning- 

 frame or throstle invented by Arkwright in 176/, 

 and it forms a fundamental feature of all modern 



Fig. 2. Two-handed 

 Spinning-wheel. 



Fig. a Spindle, Bobbin, and Flyer 

 of fig. 2 on larger scale. 



spinning machinery. About 1764 James Har- 

 greaves at Standhill, near lilackhuin, invented 

 his spinning- jenny (fig. 4), an apparatus by which 

 eight threads could lie spun at mire, ami this was 

 soon improve.! upon until eighty could be produced 

 as easily. In this apparatus a number of large 

 reels filled with thickish roils of tilne called roving* 

 were set on upright fixed spindles, and the end of 

 these ravings was passed between two small mov- 

 able bars of wood placed horizontally and tinder 

 the control of the spinner, who could thus make 

 them press more i 



or less on the 

 roving, and con- 

 sequently in- 

 crease or de- 

 crease the draw 

 upon it from 

 the spinning- 

 spindles, which 

 were set in a row 

 at the other end 

 of the frame. 

 These spinning- 

 spindles gave the twist to the rovings when they 

 were fully drawn out, and thereafter wound on 

 themselves the twisted yarn by being moved in the 

 frame towards the boblbins o'f roving whilst they 

 continued to rotate. The principle of the jenny 

 was important and, developed in the spinning-mule 

 of Crompton in 1779, it is the basis of the second of 

 the two great methods of machine-spinning now in 

 use. 



Wliile. the operation of spinning is one of the 

 simplest of all arts, requiring as we have seen only 

 the aid of two short pieces of stick, its modern 

 developments have produced more delicate and 

 varied mechanical devices, and have called forth 

 more inventive ingenuity, than any other industrial 

 operation. To convey an adequate idea of the 

 variety of machines used in any single branch of 

 the spinning trade, and of their highly complicated 

 structure, would require much more space than 

 can be here afforded. Different kinds of fibre 

 require different treatment and special machines ; 

 and, moreover, yarns of the same fibrous material 

 may be prepared and spun in several different ways 

 according to the uses for which they are intended 

 and other circumstances. Spinning thus becomes 

 a complicated and delicate art, varying widely 



Fig. 4. Hargreaves' Jenny. 



according to the material treated and the purpose 

 to which the yam is to be devoted. Dealing with 

 wool, for example, the treatment of that fibre for 

 the production of worsted and of woollen yarns is 

 diametrically opposite. For worsted yarns long 

 staple wools are employed. These are combed so 



