Spinning

the art of forming thread or yarn by drawing out and twisting fibers of wool, cotton, flax, silk, and other materials. We have no information as to the first spinning processes, but, without doubt, the crude twisting of certain fibers into thread or cord was among the first acts by which mankind attempted to meet the requirements of everyday life. The implements of early hand spinning were the distaff and spindle. The distaff was held under the left arm with a bunch of wool or flax attached to its end. The spindle was a stick ten or twelve inches in length and slit at the top. The spinner or spinster drew out the fibers from the bunch on the distaff, formed them into a thread with her fingers, fastened the end of the thread into the slit of the spindle, and rolled the spindle on her thigh to help twist the thread. When she had spun enough thread to warrant it, she detached the end of the thread and wound the length about the spindle; then replaced the thread in the slit and proceeded as before. After a time the spindle was placed in a whorl of stone or metal, which kept it steady and in which the spinner could readily whirl it. Later it was rotated by the belt of a spinning wheel. Spinning wheels were in common use in Europe by the end of the fifteenth century. With the wheel a spinner could produce seven times as much yarn in a given length of time as with distaff and spindle.

In 1767 the Hargreaves jenny was introduced, having been invented two or three years previously and used by Hargreaves in his own spinning. By the use of the spinning jenny one spinner could produce eight threads at the same time. Soon the jenny was improved until eighty threads could be spun at once. Up to this time six spindles had been required to produce sufficient yarn to keep one weaver in work. A few years later, Arkwright invented the roller spinning frame. In the Hargreaves jenny the thread is drawn out by the spindle. In the Arkwright machine it is drawn out between rollers, of which there are several pairs. The next step was the invention in 1779 of Crompton's spinning mule which combined the essential features of the Hargreaves and Arkwright machines. By the spinning mule the thread is drawn out between rollers, but, after leaving the last pair of rollers, it is drawn out still finer by a traveling frame carrying spindles, similar to that in use in the Hargreaves jenny. The spinning machines of the present time, while showing many improvements, are based upon the same principles as those involved in the Arkwright and Crompton inventions. The machines employed today work automatically and are of great size, carrying sometimes as many as 1,300 spindles. Such a machine, requiring as operatives only one skilled workman and two assistants, is able to produce 5,000,000 yards of thread in one day.

See Cotton; Wool; Carding And Combing; Weaving; Hargreaves; Arkwright; Crompton; Thread