Spinning

“ The spinning wheel of the past, that filled all the country-side with its drowsy music, as the dusky spinner advanced and retreated, with not ungraceful courtesy and a swinging sidewise shuffle, will find its sweet voice lost in the hum of modern spindles. ”

“ How she is not afraid of the snow for herself or her household,
Knowing her household are clothed with the scarlet cloth of her weaving!
So as she sat at her wheel one afternoon in the Autumn,
Alden, who opposite sat, and was watching her dexterous fingers,
As if the thread she was spinning were that of his life and his fortune,
After a pause in their talk, thus spake to the sound of the spindle.
"Truly, Priscilla," he said, "when I see you spinning and spinning,
Never idle a moment, but thrifty and thoughtful of others,
Suddenly you are transformed, are visibly changed in a moment ”

“ The word spinning conveys a better idea than turning; for they seemed to move about without the slightest effort, and their flowing garments, flying out in extended circles below, gave the movement a most graceful appearance. ”

“ My object was, starting from the very different behaviour of a top when spinning and when not spinning, to show you that the observation of that very common phenomenon, and a determination to understand it, might lead us to understand very much more complex-looking things. There is no lesson which it is more important to learn than this—That it is in the study of every-day facts that all the great discoveries of the future lie. Three thousand years ago spinning tops were common, but people never studied them. ”

“ Now, I impressed my audience as strongly as I could with the above fact, that if one wants to throw a quoit with certainty as to how it will alight, one gives it a spin; if one wants to throw a hoop or a hat to somebody to catch upon a stick, one gives the hoop or hat a spin; the disinclination of a spinning body to let its axis get altered in direction can always be depended upon. ”

“ And now, if you doubt my statement, just ask a child whether its hoop is more likely to tumble down when it is rapidly rolling along, or when it is going very slowly; ask a man on a bicycle to go more and more slowly to see if he keeps his balance better; ask a ballet-dancer how long she could stand on one toe without balancing herself with her arms or a pole, if she were not spinning; ask astronomers how many months would elapse before the earth would point ever so far away from the pole star if it were not spinning ”

“ I shall not at all mind going out with the plough if it be necessary, and you—you can spin, you know; nothing I admire so much as a graceful figure at a spinning-wheel; you shall have one made of ebony, and—but can you spin? ”

“ Spinning, indeed! It isn't spinning as you'd be at, I'll be bound, and let you have your own way. I never knew your equals for gallowsness. To think of a gell o' your age wanting to go and sit with half-a-dozen men! ”

“ There in a little room sat an Old Woman with a spindle, busily spinning flax.
178 “Good day, old Dame,” said the King’s Daughter; “what are you doing there?”
“I am spinning,” said the Old Woman, and nodded her head.
“What sort of thing is that, which rattles round so merrily?” said the maiden, and she took the spindle and wanted to spin too. But scarcely had she touched the spindle when the magic decree was fulfilled, and she pricked her finger with it. ”

“ The best test for skill in ordinary spinning, is to take a long difficult shape, after being finished, and saw it in two lengthwise, and if the variation in thickness is less than 25 per cent of the original gage, it is good practice. ”

“ Spin′nery, a spinning-mill.—adj. Spin′ning, used in spinning.—ns. Spin′ning-house, a place of correction where lewd and incorrigible women were made to spin; Spin′ning-jenn′y, a machine by which a number of threads can be spun at the same time; Spin′ning-mill, a factory where thread is spun; Spin′ning-wheel, a machine for spinning yarn, consisting of a wheel driven by the hand or by a treadle, which drives one or two spindles.—Spin a yarn, to tell a long story; Spin out, to prolong tediously. ”

“ The precession of a top or gyrostat leads us at once to think of the precession of the great spinning body on which we live. You know that the earth {75}spins on its axis a little more than once every twenty-four hours, as this orange is revolving, and that it goes round the sun once in a year, as this orange is now going round a model sun, or as is shown in the diagram (Fig. 36) . Its spinning axis points in the direction shown, very nearly to the star which is called the pole star, almost infinitely far away. ”

“ V. A top supported above its centre of gravity, or a body which would be in stable equilibrium if not spinning, precesses in the opposite direction to that of its spinning.
VI. The last two statements come to this:—When the forces acting on a spinning body tend to make the angle of precession greater, the precession is in the same direction as the spinning, and vice versâ.
Having by observation obtained a rule, every natural philosopher tries to make his rule a rational one; tries to explain it. I hope you know what we mean when we say that we explain a phenomenon ”

“ We know the rate at which the earth is spinning, and we have observed the precessional motion. Now when we follow up the method which I have sketched already, we find that the precessional velocity of a spinning body ought to be equal to the torque divided by the spinning velocity and by the moment of inertia [7] of the body about the polar axis. Hence the greater the tilting forces, and the less the spin and the less the moment of inertia, the greater is the precessional speed. ”

“ Spinning (see Spinning) .—Improvements upon the Saxony wheel caused continuous spinning to become a mechanical art at an earlier date than intermittent spinning. Arkwright’s water-twist frame was gradually changed to the throstle, which was a duplex machine furnished with one set of drawing rollers, and one set of spindles and flyers at each side of the frame-work. All the bosses of one line of rollers were connected so that one driving gear would serve for the whole length, and all the spindles were driven by bands from a central cylinder. ”

“ By laying themselves out at full length and spinning round and round like a wagon wheel upon its nave. They revolve with great rapidity, using their humped shoulders as a pivot, and their legs as levers. ”

“ Many people still question the economic value of hand spinning. But I believe that the results of our experiments may perhaps lead them to reconsider their views. I will here put down the statistics of our own class. Among our students, there are five playful children, who spin only when the spirit possesses them. But all of them spin good yarn fit for warp. Hardly any spin yarn below 10 counts. Many spin yarn of about 15 counts. Now-a-days the boys are giving four hours to spinning. Formerly they used to work six hours daily, but then there was a tendency to occasional slackness. ”

“ In the first spinning device, a mass of fibre was arranged on a forked stick, and, as drawn therefrom by hand, it was twisted between the fingers and wound on a spindle. During the reign of Henry VIII. of England, however, the spinning-wheel replaced the distaff and spindle, and in every cottage and palace it became an indispensable article of household equipment. The young women in all walks of life were taught to spin. Spinning became the female occupation of the age, and it is interesting to note that the modern term spinster, meaning an unmarried woman of advanced age, here had its origin. ”

“ Intermittent Spinning.—The essential difference between continuous and intermittent spinning is that the former draws and twists consecutively, whilst the latter draws and twists simultaneously. In the mule, a creel (A, fig. 9) , fixed at the back of the machine, is designed to hold the rovings (B) in three or four tiers, from whence they pass between three lines of drawing rollers (C) and two faller wires (D) . They are next led to spindles (E) mounted in a carriage (F) whose wheels run upon rails (G) called slips. ”

“ Spinning. The process of spinning is the last in the formation of yarn or thread, the subsequent operations having for their object the strengthening of the yarn by combining two or more strands and afterward arranging them for weaving or for the purpose for which the yarn is required. It is also the last time that the fibers are mechanically drawn over each other or drafted, and this is invariably done from a single roving. The humidity and temperature of the spinning room must be adjusted to conditions. ”

“ The limits of accuracy are not as closely defined as in straight machine work, but there are times when good fits are absolutely necessary, as in cases where two shells must slip snugly together. In this chapter we have taken up only the plain every-day kind of spinning, and were we to follow its work in the gold and silversmith’s trade, we would see it evolve into a fine art. In order to insure really good work coming from the spinning lathe, there is a wide range of knowledge that the spinner must have. ”

“ A wheel for spinning flax. At this wheel the spinner, almost always a woman, sat to spin. The process was quite similar to that followed with a wool-wheel; but the wheel was made to revolve by a pedal like that on a sewing machine. ”

“ From this it is evident that the spinning-wheel as well as the sewing-machine has had its victims. It was well for these toiling women of the pioneer towns if they had husbands thoughtful enough to stop in time the self-sacrifice of daily labor at the wheel, 43 as well as in this spinning-match for glory only. ”

“ You will find that nearly any rounded stone when spun will get up in this way upon its longest axis, if the spin is only vigorous enough, and in the very same way this spinning top tends to get more and more upright. ”

“ Here is one now spinning very quickly, and if I put it horizontally with one end of the axis on a stand, it will not fall down, as it would if it were not spinning, but simply goes round and round. Its weight tries to make it fall, but can only make it turn round. And if we try to lift the end of the axis, we only make it turn round the other way. ”

“ The continuous system of spinning, which for a time had to take a second place, now appears to be again forging ahead, and looks as though it would supersede its more ponderous rival. Especially in countries outside England is this the case, for it is found that the method of ring spinning preponderates, and even in England the number of spindles devoted to continuous spinning is constantly increasing. ”

“ Too much twist in roving makes bad yarn, and spoils the top rolls on spinning frames. The square root of the number is about the twist for roving. It gives the Carder a chance to keep up with the spinning, and gives the Spinner a chance to make a better quality of yarn. If there is too much twist in the roving, you cannot draw it on spinning frames without spreading the rolls ”

“ In all continuous spinning the number of twists inserted into a given length of thread is governed by the surface speed of the front roller, relatively to the revolutions of the flyer, or to the speed of the winding surface. ”

“ If we have a spinning ball and we give to it a new kind of rotation, what will happen? Suppose, for example, that the earth were a homogeneous sphere, and that there were suddenly impressed upon it a new rotatory motion tending to send Africa southwards; the axis of this new spin would have its pole at Java, and this spin combined with the old one would cause the earth to have its true pole somewhere between the present pole and Java. ”

“ Still other illustrations of this principle are even more familiar than the spinning of a top. Any one who has seen the game of soldiers in a bowling alley knows that in order to make the ball turn to the left as it moves forward, it must spin the other way ”

“ It is now possible to define the various stages in the whole process of mule spinning. These are as follows:—
First. The period during which roving is being delivered and twisted. During it, the rollers are revolving at a defined speed; the carriage is being drawn outwards at a constant rate; the spindles are revolving rapidly at a velocity definitely relative to that of the front roller. During this period the faller and counter faller are held in the position shown in Fig. 148, being quite clear of the yarn.
Fig. 148.J.N.
Second. ”

“ The operation of spinning is very important, as the Weight of the yarn and the appearance of the finished product depend upon it. A description of spinning and laying as performed by the aid of the hand-wheel will perhaps be the best means of giving an idea of this useful branch of manufacture. ”

“ They are overcome in the new spinning frame by an ingenious device by which a revolving motion is given to the ring in the same direction as the motion of the traveler, thereby reducing its friction upon the ring, the speed of the ring being variable, and so controlled as to secure a uniform tension upon the yarn at all stages of the winding. ”

“ If a common humming-top, the spindle of which is its axis of rotation, is set spinning obliquely, it will be seen that the axis will continue to point along the line it took at the commencement of motion. By placing a heavy sphere in a lathe, resting its projecting axial points on some moveable bearings, and then getting the sphere into extremely rapid motion, one of the bearings may be removed without the mass falling to the ground. ”

“ It is very desirable that all the wheels in a spinning-class be kept in a perfect condition. When that is the case, the spinner does not tire and works cheerfully and speedily. Our class is attended by five ladies, who spin five or six hours every day, and by twenty-three students of the Ashram school, of whom eighteen are boys and five are girls. ”