-THE "OLD WAY OF SPINNING. 



The spinning wheel here represented was the property of Richard Ark- 

 wright, and is now preserved in the South Kensington Museum, London. It is 

 of a type first introduced about 1530. The thread of cotton or wool passes through 

 an eye in the axis of the spindle and is subsequently wound on the bobbin which 

 rotates on the same axis but at a different rate of speed. The rotation of the spindle 

 twists and strengthens the thread, and the difference in speed of revolution be- 

 tween the spindle and the bobbin results in winding the thread about the bobbin. 

 The spinning wheel is still in use in many outlying districts of Europe, as suggested 

 by the photograph of the Belgian peasant above presented. The even more 

 primitive method of spinning with distaff and spindle, without the aid of a wheel 

 the spindle being rotated by the fingers, as shown in the lower figure is also 

 still extensively practiced by the peasantry of various European countries. 



