The oldest piece of extant linen cloth dates to 5000 BCE in Egypt. As there is evidence of spinning technology in Egyptian culture from the Middle Bronze Age (circa 1700 BCE) onward, these threads were probably spun. There are also fragments of woven cloth from early Neolithic Israel that date to 3500 BCE, and late Neolithic linen from Switzerland that dates to 3000 BCE.
The technology of producing threads and using the thread to make fabric was widespread, as were myths and legends of how these different cultures received the knowledge of textile production. Uttu is the ancient Sumerian goddess of clothing who brought the art of spinning to humanity; the ancient Egyptian goddess Isis gave the Egyptians the gift of spinning and weaving; the Mayan Goddess Ixchel is patroness of spinning and weaving. In Greco-Roman mythology the three Fates drew the thread of life from a distaff, spun it on a spindle, and cut the thread when life was over; the mortal woman named Arachne challenged the goddess Athena to a spinning and weaving contest and was turned into a spider. In the New World, there are several versions of the story of Spider Woman, the goddess who gave the Indians of the American Southwest the knowledge of spinning and weaving before the arrival of the Europeans. Textiles are even mentioned in the Bible; Proverbs 31 mentions the “good wife” who seeks wool and flax, putting her hand to the distaff and her hands hold the spindle. Spinning mythology is present today in modern myths and fairy tales, such as Sleeping Beauty and Rumplestilskin.
Despite the myriad spinning myths and numerous archaeological finds involving spinning implements, scientists have not been able to determine the location and time period in which spinning was first done. Initially, no tools were used to twist fibers into thread: a portion of the fibers were pinched in one hand, the other hand twisted the fibers as they were being stretched out to create longer lengths of thread, then wrapped around a stick to secure the twist. Thread made in this manner is referred to as twisted yarn (rather than spun yarn) and is more time-consuming to make. Archaeologists theorize that eventually someone discovered that the stick that held the yarn could be used to spin the fibers by rolling the stick horizontally along the length of the thigh, thus putting twist in the yarn. Other people developed the idea of using a simple rock to put twist into the fibers by turning the rock and allowing it to rotate as it dropped to the floor. A leader thread was made by twisting the fibers to a desired length between the fingers; the resulting thread made by spinning the rock would be stored around the rock until ready for use. Spinning with rocks is still done in remote parts of Asia among the nomadic tribes, and spinning on hooked sticks still takes place in Scandinavia today.
Most authors agree that the practice of spinning fibers to form thread and yarn has been in existence for over 10,000 years. This drawing of a figurine carved from the tusk of a wooly mammoth wearing a loincloth made of twisted threads was carbon dated back to 25,000 BCE. It is impossible to tell if the artisan was carving fibers that were actually spun together on a spinning implement, or if the fibers were just twisted by hand. String skirts have been found on a variety of stone figures covering 17,000 years and several cultures from Russia and Macedonia to Yugoslavia. There are surviving examples of these types of skirts, most notably the one found on a body of a young woman almost 20 years of age at a burial site in Egtved,
Eventually, man hit upon a way to combine both the rock and the stick to create a tool that could provide greater twisting momentum for improved ease in spinning yarn. A whorl, often made of clay, bone or a soft rock, was attached to the stick, or spindle. The spindle could then be twisted by hand with the weighted end of the shaft suspended on the ground, or rolled along the thigh.
A handspindle is defined as any implement that can be spun or rotated by hand that will twist fibers together into thread or yarn. Handspindles can be divided into two general categories: supported spindles and drop spindles. A dropspindle rotates as it pulls the spun thread away from your hands, as in the Egyptian illustration above. These threads are created under gravitational pull, so the weight of your dropspindle and the thread stored on it can affect the thickness of yarn that you are able to spin on that particular spindle. A common form of dropspindle used today is a hooked high-whorl spindle, in which the whorl is located somewhere above the halfway point of the shaft, with a hook at the top. High-whorl spindles were in common use in Eastern Europe and the Mid-East; dropspindles where the whorl was placed at the bottom of the spindle (low-whorl spindles) predominated Western Europe and Asia. Low-whorl spindles were most commonly used to spin longer-staple fibers such as linen, silk and wool. These spindles are still in widespread use in India, Indonesia, and the Philippines, and are second in popularity today to high-whorl spindles for most modern day spinners.
As opposed to a dropspindle where the thread is created as the spindle moves away from the fiber under gravitational forces, supported spindles create thread by rotating the spindle like a toy top while the fiber is pulled away from the spindle itself so that no gravity or weight acts on the thread.
Dropspindles have been used since the twentieth century BCE in Egypt, where many wall paintings depict spinners spinning and plying their yarns on hooked high-whorl spindles. An Egyptian mummy dating back to 2500 BCE was wrapped in strips of handspun linen that were woven at 540 threads per inch – some of the finest sheets and bed linens today may have only 300 threads per inch.
Whorls made of clay and stone have been found dating as far back as 6500 BCE, but the spindle shaft itself has not – leading experts to believe that most shafts were made of wood that disintegrated over time. The earliest whorls were made of soft stones like sandstone or limestone that could be shaped without metal tools. Later whorls were ornately
These spindles can also be held in the hand and rotated (in-hand spinning), so that the spinner can stand or be mobile while actively spinning. A variation of this style, the bead-whorl spindle, is considered to be the most widely used style of spindle throughout history. It was prevalent throughout Asia, the Middle East and Africa where short-staple fibers such as cashmere, cotton and camel were used. These spindles have a sharp point to reduce friction while rotating, use a heavy bead made of stone or metal to perpetuate the rotation, and are specifically designed to spin fine yarns that require a lot of twist. Some styles of bead-whorl spindles place the bead in the center of the shaft, so that the yarn can be wound both above and below the bead.
There is a great deal of debate as to the exact date and place of origin for the spinning wheel. Unfortunately, there are no surviving examples of early medieval spinning wheels, so one must look to artwork and historical records for evidence of their existence. Joseph Needham in his book Science & Civilization in China claims that the oldest representation of a spinning wheel is in a painting by Chien Hsuan circa 1270 that shows a mother sitting at a spindle wheel, spinning and saying goodbye to her son. The earliest written record mentioning spinning wheels in Europe comes from Speyer, Germany, in 1298 that forbids wheel-spun yarn from being used as warp threads in weaving. (It should be noted that it takes little twist on a spindle wheel to form a nice, soft thread, but it takes a lot of extra twist to make a stronger yarn). The fact that a law had to be passed forbidding this practice is evidence that proves spinning on a wheel was an established method at this time – but it does not shed any light onto the type of wheel used or the fiber it was designed to spin.
Medieval spinners often used a distaff, (a stick with a fork or ornate comb on the tip) to hold their fibers while they were spinning with a spindle. This stick was usually held under the left arm according to most pictures, like this one from the Luttrell Psalter. This means that the spinners would have had to set their spindles in motion with their right hand. While the right hand drafts the fibers into thread, the left hand
The first pictorial records of spinning wheels in Europe are from the early 14th century in an illustrated manuscript of the Decretals of Gregory IX that was written in Italy and illustrated in England. (Placing it within 50 years of Hsuan’s painting.) The pictures in the Decretals show multiple wheels and images of women both combing and carding. In each miniature the wheel is depicted the same – a hoop-
These two bits of pictorial evidence show that, at least in Britain, wheels with wooden rims were used in the standing position and turned by hand or with a stick to catch the spokes of the wheel instead of employing a hand crank. The spinners use a long draw to spin, and the appearance of both rolags and combs or cards indicates that these wheels were used to spin wool, not linen or cotton.
The development of the bobbin-flyer assembly was the next technological innovation in spinning technology. The flyer is a U-shaped piece of wood or metal attached to the spindle that winds the spun yarn around a bobbin. Once the bobbin is full, it can be removed and replaced with an empty bobbin, thus allowing the spinner to continue on without taking the time to unwind all the yarn from a full spindle in order to resume spinning.
The other important pictorial evidence comes from the Luttrell Psalter written and illustrated in East Anglia in 1310. Commissioned by Luttrell of Irnham in Lincolnshire, this miniature depicts a larger wheel than the one pictured in the Decretals with a hoop rim and
Unfortunately, the time and place where this technology developed is just as unknown as that of the spindle wheel. It is theorized that this developed from the need for machines that could spin the longer staple fibers like wool and flax into strong warp threads in a more efficient manner. This design may have been inspired by silk-throwing machinery of the 13th century that put twist into bundles of silk threads as they
A citizen of Brunswick in lower Saxony named Meister Jurgen is often credited as the inventor of the bobbin-flyer assembly wheel. He is connected to spinning wheel references in many ways from his place of origin by notes made in church registers after his death. Historians are still uncertain whether or not he actually invented the wheel, or if in their search to find an inventor they seized upon Jurgen because of his spinning connections. Regardless of the reason, the expression “Saxony” or “Saxon” is still used to describe any horizontal flyer wheel, no matter if it is treadle or hand-powered.
The earliest actual surviving spinning wheel with a treadle is illustrated in the booklet Woole Spinnen am Handspinrad by J. Colemnite dating to 1604. During this time there are several pictures showing spinners using two hands to spin. Since they were using both hands on the fiber instead of just one, it might be inferred that a treadle was in use, although it was not visible in the image. Then again, since artists who have an eye for composition might paint what looks good instead of what is accurate, it may have in fact been a hand-powered wheel – without seeing the treadle, we cannot be sure.
This picture from the Waldburg family’s Mittelalterliches Hausbuch of southern Germany, circa 1475-1480, shows a spinning wheel has a relatively small drive wheel with a handcrank that powers the bobbin and flyer. This wheel also includes a tensioning device and an ornate bench cavity that might have been used to store fiber or other equipment. Almost 50 years later, a similar spinning wheel appears in the 1524 Glockendon Bible that was illustrated in Nuremburg, Germany. Another similar wheel also appears in an early 16th century calendar from Strasbourg.
The next innovation in spinning wheel technology was the replacement of the hand crank or manually turning the drive
There are many reasons why there is a lack of good documentation for spinning wheels in earlier periods. When it first evolved as a useful spinning tool, it may have been kept as a sort of industrial secret from the competition, as were many of the tools and techniques of textile technology throughout the ages. It also may have been a bit intimidating to spinners: people may have been reluctant to give up a time-honored tradition and tool that they were familiar with in favor of some ‘new-fangled device.’ Further, when some people may have been persuaded to try the new wheel, it may have become such an established tool of the trade in everyday life that it was not an exciting enough subject for writers and artists to focus on. Indeed, sometimes the only evidence we have to go on are legal precedents passed to try to stop or promote an activity involving spinning wheels or spindles, such as the 1298 law from Speyer, Germany. As Diderot says in his Encyclopedie of 1756 (translation from the French) “The spinning wheel is a machine which appears to us simple and which, seen everywhere, does not for an instant hold our attention, but which is none the less ingenious for that.”
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