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.
Function
The 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. The spinner continues pulling and twisting to make it longer and longer, and to control the thickness. Thousands of years ago, people began doing this onto a stick, called a spindle, which was a very lengthy process.
The actual wheel part of a spinning wheel does not take the place of the spindle; instead, it automates the twisting process, allowing one to "twist" the thread without having to constantly do so manually, and also the size of the wheel lets one more finely control the amount of twist. The thread still ends up on a spindle, just as it did before the invention of the 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 a person simply push at a pedal and keep the wheel turning at an even more constant rate. This mechanism was the main source of technological progress for the spinning wheel before the 18th century.
History
The history of the spinning wheel is disputed, with: J.M Kenoyer, involved in the study of the Indus Valley Civilization speculating that the uniformity of the thread and tight weave from a clay impression indicates the use of a spinning wheel rather than drop spindles, but according to Mukhtar Ahmed, the spinning whorls used since prehistoric times by the Indus Valley people produce a tight weave. Dieter Kuhn and Weiji Cheng propose the spinning wheel originated in Zhou dynasty China, in the first millennia BCE, are mentioned in Chinese dictionaries of the 2nd century CE, and in widespread use by c. 1090, with the earliest clear Chinese illustration of the machine dated to around 1270. C. Wayne Smith and J. Tom Cothren, propose the spinning wheel was invented in India as early as 500-1000 AD. Arnold Pacey and Irfan Habib propose the spinning wheel was most likely invented in the Islamic world by the early 11th century. There is evidence pointing to the spinning wheel being known in the Islamic world by 1030, and the earliest clear illustration of the spinning wheel is from Baghdad, drawn in 1237. Arnold Pacey and Irfan Habib suggest that early references to cotton spinning in India are vague and do not clearly identify a wheel, but more likely refer to hand spinning, offering as the earliest unambiguous reference to a spinning wheel in India, 1350, is a passage in Abdul Malik Isami’s work, Futuh-us-Salatin, which proposes a woman’s place is at her Charkha. K. A. Nilakanta Sastri and Vijaya Ramaswamy suggest there is clear reference to the use of a spinning wheel (with a description of its parts) by the 12th century in India, by Kannada poet, Remmavve.
The spinning wheel spread from the Islamic world to Europe by the 13th century, with the earliest European illustration dated to around 1280. In France, the spindle and distaff were not displaced until the mid 18th century.
The spinning wheel replaced the earlier method of hand spinning with a spindle. The first stage in mechanizing the process was mounting the spindle horizontally so it could be rotated by a cord encircling a large, hand-driven wheel. The great wheel is an example of this type, where the fibre is held in the left hand and the wheel slowly turned with the right. Holding the fibre at a slight angle to the spindle produced the necessary twist. The spun yarn was then wound onto the spindle by moving it so as to form a right angle with the spindle. This type of wheel, while known in Europe by the 14th century, was not in general use until later. The construction of the Great Wheel made it very good at creating long drawn soft fuzzy wools, but very difficult to create the strong smooth yarns needed to create warp for weaving. Spinning wheels ultimately did not develop the capability to spin a variety of yarns until the beginning of the 19th century and the mechanization of spinning.