Morris tribune., 1889-07-24
OLD SPINNING WHEELS.
OUR GRANDMoTHERs' METHOD OF
PREPARING WOOL FOR LOOMS.

Minute Description of the Little Old Ma
chine Which Has Been an Inspiration
to Poets and Composers-''Things Amt
jest as They Used to Be-"
Spinning-that is, home spinning-has
just as much gone out of fashion in the
New England and eastern states as sui
phur matches, and for just the same
reason-there is no need of either now
that something better has taken their
place. There are. however, plenty of
good wives who once ON time were
learned practitioners in the domestic
arts of spinning and dyeing, and it is
from the lips of one of these that gath
cred the following information, which /
should imagine would be of interest to
your western hearers:
1.-THE first thing, you see," said this
good lady, sis to pick the wool. No,
faint either" she said, interrupting her
self; 'the first thing is to wash and shear
the sheep, but as that's done now just as
it always was, / don't need tell you any
thing about it. When the wool was
sheared and washed we used to take it
and pull it all apart, getting out all the
tangles and burrs and dirt that was left.
When it was all picked it had to be
creased, and to do this we put plate
with lard on it in front of us and heap
ef the picked wool to the left side. We
then rubbed bit Of lard Oh both palms,
took up fieck of wool and worked it
between our hands until every bit was
creased. When there was enough wool
creased the old man or one of the farm
hands would take it right away to the
cardfn8 mills"
"Wbas. the wool came back from the
SarGszy n was in bundles about two feet
cx, and made up number of tight
MsaSeeN rolls the size of my little finger,
eask roll jest the length of the bundle.
when We want to use the wool we'd
iahs tho bundle, give it shake, pick out
! roll sad then begin spinning. don't
uacw % ever you've seen wheel, but eft
Ypu amt theirs mine in the setting room,
dad p'Eaps can best explain how we
Wekked tt eff you'll come in there"
Il stout wooden horse with a sloping
body formed the base of the machine.
At either end was inserted an upright,
the one at the higher end stationary and
supporting the wheel; that at the lower
end movable and holding the head"
the vacant space between the two being
used to hold the rolls just spoken of. The
wheel was fully four feet in diameter,
of oak, with rounded spokes springing
from solid hub. and joining a Tyre
two inches wide, in which was sunk
a groove to receive the driving band.
This-a stout cord - passed round a
sharply grooved barrel in the "head"
of two inches in diameter, and
gave to it, of course, an exceed
ingly rapid revolution, which was still
further added to by second grooved
wheel of four inches iR diameter set on
the same axis as the barrel driven by the
main wheel. The band over the second
wheel encircled still smaller one from
which the spindle sprang. The spindle
was of iron, three inches long and with
a half thread at the end; the bearings
were of plated corn husks, and the
whole was attached to a tapering wooden
peg fitting into socket drilled into the
second or movable upright By wooden
screen at its base the uprightwas worked
back to give the driving band its proper
tension. It will be easily understood, /
trust, that q single turn of the big wheel
would set the spindle revolving at such a
rate that it would actually hum, and it
was to the humming of such wheels that